From destination to town. The urban reformulation of mature coastal tourist destinations. The case of Costa Daurada central

Abstract

This article explores the urban evolution of coastal tourist destinations. It is based on the analysis of the urban planning of three municipal districts in central Costa Daurada, Catalonia. It is devised as a case study and evaluates how both the practice of urban planning and the actual plans that have regulated their development and, in particular, the partial planning of the municipalities of Salou, Vila-seca and Cambrils, have evolved from holiday resort approaches to urban consolidation strategies. Thus, the article allows evaluating how in the case of the destinations analysed evolutional dynamics take place on a local scale, in which the traditional concept of sea, sun and sand destination gives way, from the point of view of urban planning and in a stage of the destination’s maturity, to the shaping of urban spaces that are comparable with medium-sized towns of similar dimensions (between 20,000 and 35,000 inhabitants). The fundamental hypothesis of the approach pursued could be defined as follows: the result of the dynamics of tourist urban development in the medium term in developed Mediterranean countries with complex urban environments, as is the case of Catalonia, may be a fundamental factor for the creation of new urban structures both from the functional and the structural perspectives. A major role is played in this by the transformation of areas of residential second homes used for holidaying into spaces suitable for permanent residence. As shown empirically in this article, changes in the planning criteria for such spaces, especially in the last decade, have been crucial for the case of the three municipalities analysed in Catalonia’s central Costa Daurada and explain their transformation from mere holiday destinations to spaces that, in addition to visitor accommodation, incorporate the typical structural dynamics of conventional towns.