Author(s):
Salvador Anton Clave, Professor* - Rovira i Virgili University
Julie Wilson, Doctor - Rovira i Virgili University
Abstract:
In recent years, evolutionary and relational approaches to economic development have gained ground in geography as a discipline, although in the subfield of tourism geography the potential for such approaches are only just starting to be recognised.
This paper explores the evolution of consolidated coastal resorts from a policy perspective (after Gill, 2012) taking the notion of path dependency into the domain of new path plasticity and path creation (Halkier and Terkelsen, 2012).
Taking an evolutionary approach, we focus on the case of a Mediterranean coastal resort, on Catalonia's Costa Daurada, by examining the evolution of policies related to the tourism restructuring process via a chronology of events and the impacts of the various strategies that have been implemented. We consider some fundamental questions from the perspective of the evolution of consolidated coastal tourist destinations in terms of transforming the current model of tourism, improving destination competitiveness and the performance of firms located there.
The research that this paper is based on was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO2011-23004/GEOG).
