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Tourism in Spain: Critical issues
Pergamon
Tourism Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 59-60, 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain 0261-5177/97 $17.00 + 0.00
Book review Tourism in Spain: Critical Issues M Barke, J Towner and M T Newton (eds) CAB International, Wallingford (1996) xvii + 432 pp £49.95 (US$90) ISBN 0 85198 929 2 This is the first book to focus in detail on tourism in Spain, and it is a substantial and valuable new reference source for researchers and professionals interested in this leading world tourism destination. Its 425 pages provide a wealth of useful information and insights. The book examines Spain's rush for coastal mass tourism development in the 1960s and 1970s and its recent search for a more regulated and controlled approach to tourism and for alternative forms, notably rural, cultural, urban and event tourism. Issues involved in changing the tourism development process in Spain are potentially of considerable interest to tourism professionals and academics working in other countries and contexts. Unfortunately, relatively few general readers are likely to gain from the many valuable insights of wider relevance on tourism development and planning processes which the book contains. This collection of essays may have reached a much broader audience if there was a more substantial introduction or concluding chapter drawing together and evaluating the key problems and planning approaches in Spain which are widely scattered through the book. As it is, potential readers without a specific interest in Spain will also be discouraged from delving into the book by its considerable length. The book is an edited collection of 15 chapters, with most contributors being from the UK. There are five broad sections in the book covering historical perspectives, current issues in tourism development in Spain, tourism and the environment, regional dimensions to development, and new
alternatives for Spanish tourism in the future. Individual chapters develop their analyses at different geographical scales, varying from international and national perspectives down to the local level. For example, Chapter 6 by Newton considers public administration of tourism throughout Spain, and Eden (Chapter 14) focuses on rural tourism in the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas National Park. A long-term view is taken, with Barke and Towner (Chapter 1) considering the domestic leisure and tourism industry from the sixteenth century to the post-Second World War era, and Walton and Smith (Chapter 2) assessing the development of seabathing and beach holidays on the Spanish North coast. This helpfully counters the idea that tourism in Spain began with post-war mass tourism, although probably most readers will use the book for its analysis of the mass tourism era and the recent planning and management responses to it. As indicated by the title of the book, a number of 'critical ~ssues' run across several chapters. The rather sketchy editorial guidance for the reader means that identifying these issues and connecting their threads between the chapters is quite hard work, but the task is rewarding and clearly worth the effort. What were some of the issues seen by this reviewer as particularly interesting? One strength of this collection is the consideration of how Spain became so strongly tied into the supply of low value-added mass tourism products. For instance, Bote Gomez and Sinclair (Chapters 3 and 4) and Williams (Chapter 5) examine the "downward pressures exerted by international tour operators on the prices and returns for tourism businesses in Spain. Tour companies have used their strong bargaining position to force down the pre-
arranged prices for quotas of bed spaces to be paid to Spanish accommodation providers, which has limited their ability to upgrade existing accommodation or build new, higher quality provision. These tour companies have been strongly placed as there is now a large supply of accommodation in Spanish resorts and, with little product differentiation around the widely available sun and beach holiday, there is a high level of substitutability for the tour operator between resorts and even countries. The strength of these companies also encouraged standardization of the coastal resort product as this facilitated their marketing and could contribute to customer satisfaction and product loyalty. The importance of the Franco regime for the often indiscriminate tourism development in coastal Spain after the war emerges in accounts by Pi-Sunyer (Chapter 10) of tourism in Catalonia and by Morris (Chapter 9) on environmental management in coastal Spain. Franco's highly centralist government was apparently unconcerned about the consequences of this unregulated development, their main consideration being a political strategy and related development policy to attract foreign exchange, modernize selected sectors of the economy, and lend legitimacy to a regime that initially was viewed with deep suspicion by its European neighbours. It was hoped that tourists would bring back positive perceptions of Spain and thus indirectly influence the attitudes of their home governments. Failures in the scope and operation of land use planning in the Franco era are examined in the chapter by Morris, which describes both the lack of regional planning and how local plans were often of poor quality and were infringed or by-passed by developers in an atmosphere of laissez faire and corruption. 59
Book review Other critical issues surround Spain's recent tourism policies to establish the industry on a highquality foisting and to diversify into other forms of tourism based on rural; urban and cultural resources inland. Several chapters indicate that, while new forms of tourism are emerging, it does not follow that these will replace more traditional coastal mass tourism or that this is desirable. Williams makes a strong case that there is no alternative for the existing areas of mass tourism except to pursue this, due to the enormous fixed capital investments that have already been made there and because of the likely aversion to these areas by more individualistic tourists. Similar ideas are put forward by Robinson in Chapter 15, who also argues that it is
60
unrealistic to propose developing facilities in the rural interior in order to alleviate pressures from coastal resorts, because they meet totally different markets. While diversification into a wider range of tourism forms is seen as important, several authors see the greatest challenge as the need to secure a long-term sustainable future for mass tourism resorts, with their legacy of deteriorating construction, overcrowding, over-commercialization and poor image, at a time when tourism income has flattened out or declined. These resorts are likely to turn more to the new markets of Eastern and Central Europe and to domestic tourists as Spain's per capita income grows, but these may only be shorter-term solutions.
This book provides a major reference text for tourism academics and professionals with a specific interest in the development of Spanish tourism. It may also be used by students on tourism, geography and planning courses looking for detailed national and regional case studies. All users will appreciate the high quality and large number of relevant maps and other illustrations, and the good overall presentation standard. The extensive references supporting most chapters are also very valuable for other researchers.
Bill Bramwell Centre for Tourism Sheffield Hallam University Totley Hall Lane Sheffield S17 4AB, UK
Tourism Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 59-60, 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain 0261-5177/97 $17.00 + 0.00
Book review Tourism in Spain: Critical Issues M Barke, J Towner and M T Newton (eds) CAB International, Wallingford (1996) xvii + 432 pp £49.95 (US$90) ISBN 0 85198 929 2 This is the first book to focus in detail on tourism in Spain, and it is a substantial and valuable new reference source for researchers and professionals interested in this leading world tourism destination. Its 425 pages provide a wealth of useful information and insights. The book examines Spain's rush for coastal mass tourism development in the 1960s and 1970s and its recent search for a more regulated and controlled approach to tourism and for alternative forms, notably rural, cultural, urban and event tourism. Issues involved in changing the tourism development process in Spain are potentially of considerable interest to tourism professionals and academics working in other countries and contexts. Unfortunately, relatively few general readers are likely to gain from the many valuable insights of wider relevance on tourism development and planning processes which the book contains. This collection of essays may have reached a much broader audience if there was a more substantial introduction or concluding chapter drawing together and evaluating the key problems and planning approaches in Spain which are widely scattered through the book. As it is, potential readers without a specific interest in Spain will also be discouraged from delving into the book by its considerable length. The book is an edited collection of 15 chapters, with most contributors being from the UK. There are five broad sections in the book covering historical perspectives, current issues in tourism development in Spain, tourism and the environment, regional dimensions to development, and new
alternatives for Spanish tourism in the future. Individual chapters develop their analyses at different geographical scales, varying from international and national perspectives down to the local level. For example, Chapter 6 by Newton considers public administration of tourism throughout Spain, and Eden (Chapter 14) focuses on rural tourism in the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas National Park. A long-term view is taken, with Barke and Towner (Chapter 1) considering the domestic leisure and tourism industry from the sixteenth century to the post-Second World War era, and Walton and Smith (Chapter 2) assessing the development of seabathing and beach holidays on the Spanish North coast. This helpfully counters the idea that tourism in Spain began with post-war mass tourism, although probably most readers will use the book for its analysis of the mass tourism era and the recent planning and management responses to it. As indicated by the title of the book, a number of 'critical ~ssues' run across several chapters. The rather sketchy editorial guidance for the reader means that identifying these issues and connecting their threads between the chapters is quite hard work, but the task is rewarding and clearly worth the effort. What were some of the issues seen by this reviewer as particularly interesting? One strength of this collection is the consideration of how Spain became so strongly tied into the supply of low value-added mass tourism products. For instance, Bote Gomez and Sinclair (Chapters 3 and 4) and Williams (Chapter 5) examine the "downward pressures exerted by international tour operators on the prices and returns for tourism businesses in Spain. Tour companies have used their strong bargaining position to force down the pre-
arranged prices for quotas of bed spaces to be paid to Spanish accommodation providers, which has limited their ability to upgrade existing accommodation or build new, higher quality provision. These tour companies have been strongly placed as there is now a large supply of accommodation in Spanish resorts and, with little product differentiation around the widely available sun and beach holiday, there is a high level of substitutability for the tour operator between resorts and even countries. The strength of these companies also encouraged standardization of the coastal resort product as this facilitated their marketing and could contribute to customer satisfaction and product loyalty. The importance of the Franco regime for the often indiscriminate tourism development in coastal Spain after the war emerges in accounts by Pi-Sunyer (Chapter 10) of tourism in Catalonia and by Morris (Chapter 9) on environmental management in coastal Spain. Franco's highly centralist government was apparently unconcerned about the consequences of this unregulated development, their main consideration being a political strategy and related development policy to attract foreign exchange, modernize selected sectors of the economy, and lend legitimacy to a regime that initially was viewed with deep suspicion by its European neighbours. It was hoped that tourists would bring back positive perceptions of Spain and thus indirectly influence the attitudes of their home governments. Failures in the scope and operation of land use planning in the Franco era are examined in the chapter by Morris, which describes both the lack of regional planning and how local plans were often of poor quality and were infringed or by-passed by developers in an atmosphere of laissez faire and corruption. 59
Book review Other critical issues surround Spain's recent tourism policies to establish the industry on a highquality foisting and to diversify into other forms of tourism based on rural; urban and cultural resources inland. Several chapters indicate that, while new forms of tourism are emerging, it does not follow that these will replace more traditional coastal mass tourism or that this is desirable. Williams makes a strong case that there is no alternative for the existing areas of mass tourism except to pursue this, due to the enormous fixed capital investments that have already been made there and because of the likely aversion to these areas by more individualistic tourists. Similar ideas are put forward by Robinson in Chapter 15, who also argues that it is
60
unrealistic to propose developing facilities in the rural interior in order to alleviate pressures from coastal resorts, because they meet totally different markets. While diversification into a wider range of tourism forms is seen as important, several authors see the greatest challenge as the need to secure a long-term sustainable future for mass tourism resorts, with their legacy of deteriorating construction, overcrowding, over-commercialization and poor image, at a time when tourism income has flattened out or declined. These resorts are likely to turn more to the new markets of Eastern and Central Europe and to domestic tourists as Spain's per capita income grows, but these may only be shorter-term solutions.
This book provides a major reference text for tourism academics and professionals with a specific interest in the development of Spanish tourism. It may also be used by students on tourism, geography and planning courses looking for detailed national and regional case studies. All users will appreciate the high quality and large number of relevant maps and other illustrations, and the good overall presentation standard. The extensive references supporting most chapters are also very valuable for other researchers.
Bill Bramwell Centre for Tourism Sheffield Hallam University Totley Hall Lane Sheffield S17 4AB, UK