The annual invasion

  Mass tourism as we know it today is a relatively recent happening in the history of mankind. In order to find any precedent for the current phenomenon we have to go back to England in the 16th century. At that time, an era dominated by the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, there arose the custom of making the Grand Tour widely adopted by young English aristocrats. The tour could last for months and served to complete the education of the heirs of the British nobility. This custom became widespread in the 18th century when it was taken up by the offspring of the upper middle class. From then on the English word tourist spread over Europe (touriste, torista, turista, etc.) to denote this type of travel. A century later, Thomas Cook set an important landmark as the person to organize the first group train trip (from Leicester to Loughborough). The initial success of this trip encouraged him (and again he was a pioneer) to create an organized system of tourist services very much like present-day travel agencies. In 1890 there were already nearly 1,200 hotels around the world that would accept vouchers issued by Thomas Cook offices.

  The big development in tourism, however, took place at the end of the Fifties in the last century. What was the reason for the tourist boom at that specific time? Probably it was a combination of a series of factors involving a new international order aimed at maintaining peace, the economic prosperity of the post-war period, the spread of paid holidays in the modern industrial societies and the revolution in transport and communications. Adding to this was the boom in the private car and the growth of commercial aviation. In the Sixties, foreign tourists (along with emigrant remittances) came like manna from heaven for the incipient development of Spain’s economy. At the end of the Sixties tourist inflows covered nearly 80% of Spain’s trade deficit.

  Of course, times have changed but tourist activity continues to be a strategic support of Spain’s economy to which it contributes 11% of the gross domestic product while generating a major «drag» effect on other related activities. Spain today is the second leading destination of international tourism in order of importance, coming behind France and ahead of the United States. As happens each year, we are now faced with another tourist «invasion» given that the seasonal nature of the Spanish tourist model means that nearly half of the more than 55 million foreign visitors arriving in Spain this year will time their stay for the summer months.

  The sector, however, is undergoing change. On the one hand, Spanish tourists are becoming more and more important while the foreign tourist is being tempted by other tourist destinations that are both attractive and cheap. It also seems that the tourist coming to Spain is changing from the traditional pattern (a family that spends its holidays on Spain’s sunny beaches) to the tourist who arranges the whole trip on Internet, with low-cost airline companies, visits that do not necessarily take place in the holiday period and in lodgings that are different from the usual. On top of these trends comes the group of Europeans who chose Spain as a place to live on retirement, which is generating heavy demand for holiday homes and profoundly changing certain coastal areas. The relative weight of tourism in Spain’s economy demands the carrying out of a careful overall analysis and the adoption of suitable measures to consolidate its present leadership and respond to the challenges being faced.

  May 27, 2006

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