There is no ‘tourismophobia’ but a reaction against disproportionate flows

In the middle of the August long weekend, the whole area was left without ice and there was no way to prepare the gin and tonics nor the rum and cokes; no one had calculated such a level of consumption. They had to wait until the following Tuesday for the material to reach the large stores. Those same days, the town had to be closed to the entry of cars because there was no more room for one more and the parking lots were full. Relatively close by, in another autonomous community, dozens of residents were seen occupying a zebra crossing with banners and not letting any cars pass on the road for a long time because it was impossible for their cars to park anywhere. A Gandhian protest. These are examples of daily life generated during the past month.

How is it possible that there is still no Ministry of Tourism in itself, without support from other matters (information, trade, industry…), in a country where almost 13 out of every 100 euros spent on tourism is spent on tourism. they manufacture And almost 13 out of every 100 workers employed (not counting the black economy) are involved in this activity, more than any other? Will a season that is set to welcome nearly 100 million foreign visitors, surpassing the United States and approaching the French figures, the largest in the world, end without a permanent table being set up with all the interlocutors to resolve the thousand and one problems (and initiatives) that are emerging and that upset the balance between the huge economic benefits and the growing social problems caused by the overcrowding that is taking place? The great engine has lost some parts and has seized up, generating a congestion on common resources.

The question now is to find the limits to the growth of the tourism industry, those boundaries imposed by physical scarcity, infrastructure of all kinds and such novel aspects as the climate emergency. Thus, the concept of “carrying capacity” arises, which would measure, in general, the number of people that a country like Spain can accommodate as a destination. The tourist carrying capacity measures the maximum number of visitors that a given space-resource-tourist destination can contain, the limit beyond which tourist exploitation is unsustainable because it is harmful, the maximum number of tourists that a space can accommodate without deteriorating. This “carrying capacity”, which is mobile and varies over time depending on the factors on which it depends (population, density, expansion capacity, habitat, water resources and other infrastructure, etc.), would be a visitor management tool that would serve to plan and organize sustainable tourism.

There is no tourismophobia. There is a reaction against revenge tourism that has emerged after the Great Lockdown and that is destroying everything. Against the cannibal tourism which takes advantage of other deep sociological waves that are among us at the same time, to expel the neighbours from their homes (tourist flats and gentrification), which is supported by workers who do not even have a place to sleep and who are more precarious than in the industries in which they previously worked, which squanders natural, technological and physical resources (a community not exactly at the top in terms of number of visitors has calculated that the use of drinking water during August has increased by 55% and has attended – with scarce personnel – 20% more emergencies in its public hospitals than on other days of the year. Beer consumption has reportedly grown by 40% until September), which increases prices, which increases, despite the controls, the underground economy. There is no tourismophobia, but in some places tourism is beginning to be considered a hostile industry despite the enormous benefits it generates.

Finally, there is the reality reflected in the National Institute of Statistics’ Survey of Living Conditions: 31.3% of the population cannot go on holiday away from home for at least one week a year. This has been the invisible Spain of these weeks.

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