Reinforce socio-ecologial resilience for tourist destinations: Bay of Roses case (Costa Brava)

Abstract

This article applies the concept of resilience, originally from ecology and engineering, to “sun and beach” tourist destinations to explore their ability to adapt to a crisis, from either economic or environmental origin. The case study is the Bay of Roses (Costa Brava), a territory characterized by a great natural diversity and tourist models, the result of an evolution of its 4 coastal municipalities. Facing the current concern about the crisis and climate change forecasts, strategies to meet these challenges with the lowest possible costs are discussed. The methods used include review of secondary sources and statistics to reconstruct the history of the area. Also, a series of interviews have been done in depth to key players to learn about their perception and proposals arising from the local reality. At a strategic level, it recognizes the need for searching capabilities to combine attractiveness and complicities between “Sun and beach” tourism model and green tourism, historically ignored among themselves. At the most local level the possibilities to promote diversification and deseasonalization must be singularized depending on context, from restoration and conservation of the environmental quality of coastal fronts until the one of the urban reform and the reinvention of the model in spaces where the artificialization and urban development specialization is unsustainable. It is suggested to increase the perception of change, strengthen local identity and promote network collaboration and citizen participation, as strategies to strengthen the resilience of these coastal destinations.