Responsible tourism in Spain
Spain is the original package tourism destination. Rolled out in the 1960s, and credited with rebuilding Spain’s economy during the ravages of the Franco dictatorship, package vacations on Spain’s coastlines promised affordable sunshine, hotels and Mediterranean beaches – just a couple of hours from home. 50 years on, and with the benefit of hindsight, the high rise hotels can be seen a blight on once-beautiful landscapes, wiping out fishing communities, destroying biodiversity, polluting both the land and sea and exhausting water supplies. Crucial infrastructure was, sadly, not developed at the same astronomical rate as the hotels went up.
But perhaps Spain can take advantage of the fact that its tourism has been so concentrated for so long. At twice the size of the UK, yet with less than three-quarters of the population, there are vast, uninhabited expanses, and some of the country’s most stunning sites have barely been explored by locals, let alone tourists. As the economic crisis shreds livelihoods across the nation and unemployment soars, tourism could once again be the answer to Spain’s financial woes. The key is that this time, rather than revelling in the fry-ups, pubs and roast dinners, tourists are appreciating that maybe the best thing about the country is not that you can get an English breakfast in the sunshine, but that it is, most wonderfully of all, Spain.
* Source: BBC
But perhaps Spain can take advantage of the fact that its tourism has been so concentrated for so long. At twice the size of the UK, yet with less than three-quarters of the population, there are vast, uninhabited expanses, and some of the country’s most stunning sites have barely been explored by locals, let alone tourists. As the economic crisis shreds livelihoods across the nation and unemployment soars, tourism could once again be the answer to Spain’s financial woes. The key is that this time, rather than revelling in the fry-ups, pubs and roast dinners, tourists are appreciating that maybe the best thing about the country is not that you can get an English breakfast in the sunshine, but that it is, most wonderfully of all, Spain.
* Source: BBC
People & culture
Corruption & the brain drain
The Spanish stereotype is its laid-back culture and siesta-fiesta lifestyle. But anyone who has travelled there since financial crisis will have noticed a more serious tone in conversations. With a quarter of the adult population unemployed – many of them long-term – and more than half of all young people out of work, talk of a “lost generation” is very real, especially in rural areas.Corruption at all levels has allowed uncontrolled building projects to spring up across the country – hundreds of unnecessary houses being built in underpopulated regions, the construction of entire airports where planes will never land – obscenely huge projects with built in obsolescence, designed to fail once their contractors had taken their cash and run. The environmental impacts are clear, but as Spain sinks deeper into recession it is the social impact of these doomed projects that is having the most catastrophic effect.
What you can do
Creating employment in rural areas is, fortunately, responsible tourism’s forte!
Tom Powers explains more:
“The vast oversupply of housing will leave Spain in a hole for generations. In the UK, the recovery is fuelled in part by house price rises, due to the lack of housing. That cannot happen in Spain – there are too many houses. So there’s a massively educated population and they’re all leaving; they’re all going to South America, or northern Europe. Spanish dentists are queuing up for minimum wage kitchen porter jobs in London. That’s the real tragedy.“
Andrew Appleyard, from our partner Exodus:
“It is incredibly important to keep supporting lesser-known areas like the Picos, Catalonia, Burgos and the Sierra Nevada where there are not many forms of employment. For a walking vacation, so many people flock to the Camino de Santiago – but employment in that area is already good. The lesser known areas are losing all their young people to the cities; tourism is an important part of keeping those communities together. But you need to provide employment for more than four or five months of the year to stop people leaving – it’s very important to those rural economies.”
“The vast oversupply of housing will leave Spain in a hole for generations. In the UK, the recovery is fuelled in part by house price rises, due to the lack of housing. That cannot happen in Spain – there are too many houses. So there’s a massively educated population and they’re all leaving; they’re all going to South America, or northern Europe. Spanish dentists are queuing up for minimum wage kitchen porter jobs in London. That’s the real tragedy.“
Andrew Appleyard, from our partner Exodus:
“It is incredibly important to keep supporting lesser-known areas like the Picos, Catalonia, Burgos and the Sierra Nevada where there are not many forms of employment. For a walking vacation, so many people flock to the Camino de Santiago – but employment in that area is already good. The lesser known areas are losing all their young people to the cities; tourism is an important part of keeping those communities together. But you need to provide employment for more than four or five months of the year to stop people leaving – it’s very important to those rural economies.”
Altiplano de Granada activity vacation, Spain
Multi-activity family vacation in the Spanish Lake District
From
€495 to €793
8 days
ex flights
Luxury fitness vacations in Spain
Luxury holistic health fitness & wellness retreat Spain
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£1395 to £1895
7 days
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Cooking and walking vacation, Spanish Pyrenees
Gastronomy and beautiful walks in the Spanish Pyrenees.
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€1695
8 days
ex flights
Pyrenees family vacation, Andorra
An action-packed center-based summer activity-week
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US $1066 to US $1246
8 days
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Catalonia family mountain biking & activity vacation, Spain
Family MTB & activities in the Catalan countryside
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€670 to €820
8 days
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Las Alpujarras hiking vacation, Spain
Guided walking vacation, Andalucia, with writer Chris Stewart
From
€1395
7 days
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Wildlife & environment
Save the seas
Throughout the whole of the Mediterranean, an incredible 60 percent of sewage goes into the sea untreated – and tourism plays a large part in this, as large numbers of people flock to small areas for just a few weeks each year. Spain is – literally – trying to clean up its act, and now has 419 blue flag beaches which promise clean waters, for swimmers – and for marine life.
What you can do
If you are staying in or visiting a coastal area, be sure to check that the beach has a blue flag. This not only ensures clean water for swimming, but also demonstrates your support for local efforts to treat sewage.
What you can do
If you are staying in or visiting a coastal area, be sure to check that the beach has a blue flag. This not only ensures clean water for swimming, but also demonstrates your support for local efforts to treat sewage.
Responsible tourism tips
Be aware that water is precious. The British notion of a drought is somewhat different to Andalusia – don't expect to see water in the rivers! - Richard Needham, from our reviews
Take your own shopping bag(s) as the market people kindly give you a plastic bag for every item. We ended up with several and that was with trying to refuse! - Jude and Ken Mckenzie, from our reviews
Take your own shopping bag(s) as the market people kindly give you a plastic bag for every item. We ended up with several and that was with trying to refuse! - Jude and Ken Mckenzie, from our reviews