impacts of mass tourism in benidorm

Climate, water and tourism: causes and effects of droughts associated with urban development and tourism in Benidorm (Spain)

• Original Research Paper
• Published: 05 June 2014
• Volume 59 , pages 487–501, ( 2015 )

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• Emilio Martínez-Ibarra 1  

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In this paper, we analyse the relationship between climate, tourism and water in Benidorm (Spain), an international icon of Fordist tourism (mass tourism). In particular, we have studied the causes and effects of the water supply droughts Benidorm has suffered since becoming a major holiday destination. For this purpose, we consulted the local press in Benidorm over the period 1969–2003. Using qualitative and quantitative geographical techniques, we found that the water supply in the area has managed to keep up with rapidly increasing demand, with only occasional imbalances and periods of crisis. We focused in particular on the causes and effects of the water supply crisis of 1978, a moment of great uncertainty in the history of Benidorm as a holiday resort. We also examined the influence of atmospheric conditions on precipitation levels and how these precipitation levels affect the water supply. Our results highlight the importance of intense rainfall episodes associated with easterly winds, which provided large inputs for Benidorm’s water supply system (Marina Baja Water Consortium). We also found that the water supply crisis of 1978 resulted in serious economic losses for Benidorm and damaged its image as a holiday destination and that the city is now less vulnerable to variations in the climate, as a result of its search for new water resources (both surface and ground water resources and from other nonconventional sources).

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted within the framework of a Plan Nacional de I+D+I research project sponsored by Spain’s Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación , reference number CSO2011-23404

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Martínez-Ibarra, E. Climate, water and tourism: causes and effects of droughts associated with urban development and tourism in Benidorm (Spain). Int J Biometeorol 59 , 487–501 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0851-3

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Received : 02 December 2013

Revised : 12 May 2014

Accepted : 13 May 2014

Published : 05 June 2014

Issue Date : May 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0851-3

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Benidorm, topography of mass tourism Nicolas Duclos

Nicolas duclos's statement.

Planned under Franco, who sought to develop tourism on the coasts, the city of Benidorm, which was then only a fishing port, was entirely redesigned for leisure and vacations and became in just a few decades the first destination of mass tourism in Spain.

Located on the Costa Blanca, northeast of Alicante, Benidorm enjoys a sunny climate all year round; a major advantage that attracts a predominantly North European clientele.

Benidorm is a planned city conceived on a highly dense vertical model. Organized by activity zones – entertainment, shopping, food, beach – it favors proximity and the organization of services. Mostly composed of massive concrete towers – the tallest of which is 192 meters high – the city holds the world record for the number of skyscrapers per inhabitant. A verticality that is supposed to protect the ecosystem around the city.

Relying solely on recreation, Benidorm has bulldozed a unique landscape of concrete, bright signs and palm trees. Even its flora has been designed and organized to make it “saleable”: fake grass, palm trees ( surrounded by asphalt), rows of hedges; the illusion is perfect.

One does not come to Benidorm for its cultural heritage or to explore the treasures of the Costa Blanca. One comes to lie by the pool, in the shadow of concrete giants – which are themselves adjacent to a crowded beach.

In the kingdom of the “all inclusive”, everything is cheap and you can find anything, except what is local. “Pubs” and “English goods” signs follow one another in the wide avenues of the city, just like the theme restaurants. The entertainment is king, the disorientation is nonexistent.

These “saloons”, water parks, golf courses and casinos will surely remind to anyone who keeps an eye open some city in Nevada. Tourism is standardized, the same entertainment and fast-food chains can be found here as elsewhere. It’s Las Vegas by the sea and Manhattan for the skyline. Many actually call it “Beniyork”.

Unlike the journey that inspires openness, an awakening to oneself and to others, Benidorm offers you “tourism” in all its standardized excess: “Welcome to España ?”

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Sustainable Tourism - Impact of Mass Tourism in Benidorm Butler Tourist Destination Life Cycle Model

Subject: Geography

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Benidorm Spain is almost synonymous with mass tourism. It is a typical example of the resorts that emerged along the Mediterranean coast in the 1960s during the mass tourism boom that catered primarily to foreign tourists through large international tour operators that controlled the market. Using the tourism destination Life Cycle Model, this lesson examines Benidorm’s mass tourism par excellence and sees what makes this city such a great place for some but a nightmare for others. The lesson has these four topics:

• The background and tourism resources of Benidorm;
• History of tourism development in Benidorm;
• Tourist destination life cycle;
• Socio-cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of mass tourism in Benidorm. The lesson attempts to answer these questions:
• Where is Benidorm?
• How has tourism grown in Benidorm?
• Why did Benidorm become a “tourist hotspot”?
• Why did mass tourism take-off during the 1960s?
• What factors have influenced the development of mass tourism in Benidorm?
• What are the impacts of mass tourism in Benidorm?
• How has Benidorm’s mass tourism development fit into the Tourism Life Cycle Model?

There are more lessons in this series; learners could access these lessons individually depending on specific needs and progress or altogether to gain a fuller picture of the topics and issues relating to sustainable tourism development worldwide. All lessons will be based on the case-study approach, offer customized solutions and discussions to a tourist destination’s sustainable tourism development and highlight one issue related to management needs. This course is suitable for candidates in Grade 5, 6 (A level and further education), university-level students, or those who wish to pursue a career in the travel and tourism industry. Whether it is beginners or professional managers, this course is designed to build on your interest and passion for sustainability and provide essential information to explore the topic further. All lesson materials are developed using real case studies, various exercises, activities, and assessments, including supporting worksheets and reading materials for lessons. The PowerPoint presentations are fully animated with scripts and ready to deliver. They contain a mixture of topic information, examples, and activities/exercises for each topic in the specification for the learning outcomes. All lessons are suitable for about 40 minutes to 1 hour of teaching time in which class exercises and homework are integrated into lessons where appropriate. We wish you all the best for the study, and should you have any further questions, please get in touch via email.

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Sustainable Tourism Development - Theories, Best Practices, Case Studies and Lessons Learnt

Embark on a captivating journey into the realm of Sustainable Tourism Theories and Practices with our immersive course, enhanced by real-world Case Studies. Delve deep into the core principles, strategies, and impactful practices that underpin sustainable tourism, provoking thought and sparking discussions. Highlights: Explore numerous exemplary cases of tourism development worldwide, including Antarctica, Benidorm, Spain, and Cancun, Mexico, to gain a comprehensive understanding of key theories and concepts in tourism development. Examine the critical issues that need to be considered and addressed in the pursuit of sustainable tourism. Content: There are more lessons in this series; learners could access these lessons individually depending on specific needs and progress or to gain a fuller picture of the topics and issues relating to sustainable tourism development worldwide. All lessons will be based on the case-study approach, offer customized solutions and discussions to a tourist destination’s sustainable tourism development and highlight one issue related to management needs. This course is suitable for candidates in Grade 5, 6 (A level and further education), university-level students, or those who wish to pursue a career in the travel and tourism industry. Whether it is beginners or professional managers, this course is designed to build on your interest and passion for sustainability and provide essential information to explore the topic further. All lesson materials include reading materials, various exercises, activities, and assessments. The PowerPoint presentations are fully animated with scripts and ready to deliver. They contain a mixture of topic information, examples, and activities/exercises for each topic in the specification for the learning outcomes. All lessons are suitable for about 40 minutes to 1 hour of teaching time in which class exercises and homework are integrated into lessons where appropriate. We wish you all the best for the study, and should you have any further questions, please get in touch via email.

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The evolution of mass tourism destinations: New approaches beyond deterministic models in Benidorm (Spain)

2013, Tourism Management

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The Blog: Tourism model and the “Benidorm Effect”

The future laboratory pointed to the benefits of benidorm when it came to carbon.

All the talk of a change to the tourism model can be too simplistic in willing a higher “quality”. | Manuel Lorenzo - Manuel Lorenzo

In 2010, a report was published on behalf of Thomson Holidays. The report was entitled ‘ Sustainable Holiday Futures ’, and a conclusion it drew was that, in terms of environmental management and the use of resources, it is preferable to pack tourists into a relatively confined area. Clustering tourists into what the report termed “super-holiday hubs” meant less environmental damage, so long as a resort was geared up for monitoring and managing resources.

I don’t know that the report coined the term or whether it had already come to be referred to in discussions about sustainable tourism , but it most certainly added to the knowledge. Ten and more years ago, Thomson, the compilers of the report, The Future Laboratory, and others were talking about the “ Benidorm Effect”. As far as resorts being geared up for monitoring and managing resources, then Benidorm was a prime example.

In the resort, environmental measures had been adopted, such as lights switching off automatically in hotels, low-energy lighting on the promenade, foot pump-operated taps to save water. Everything was pretty much in walking distance and there was local sourcing of food.

The Future Laboratory pointed to the benefits of Benidorm when it came to carbon. A family of four travelling from the UK consumed 2.2 tonnes of carbon by going to Benidorm, as opposed to 15.8 tonnes on a seemingly more environmentally-friendly hiking tour of Chile.

The reference to this hiking tour was because there was also much discussion about so-called eco-tourism. The head of tourism research at Sheffield Hallam University, John Swarbrook, had come up with this play on eco-tourism . There was the trend towards tourism in parts of the globe where the eco-system is fragile - in Africa or South America, for instance, or the Antarctic, and why would anyone want to go there anyway?

Benidorm was the absolute antithesis of eco-tourism, and yet it had distinct environmental advantages. There may have been self-serving on behalf of Thomson (and therefore Tui), but the Benidorm Effect was being backed up by others who didn’t have these interests. Geographers, environmentalists, tourism researchers were paying great attention to a resort that often provoked negative connotations.

As this was all over ten years ago, some of what had been introduced in Benidorm is now old hat. Low-energy lighting, for instance; that is now commonplace. But while the environmental management mechanisms have been widely adopted, the principle of the Benidorm Effect remains highly pertinent - and that is because of the density of tourists in a specific area, to which one might (should) add the social base of Benidorm’s tourism.

Picking up on what I wrote about on Wednesday (’A tourism elite - is this what we really want?’) and on opinions offered by a geography professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, Macià Blázquez, I was strongly reminded of the Benidorm Effect when Blázquez spoke in a recent interview about a study of water consumption. A villa on a luxury estate consumed six times more water than a hotel room in Santa Ponsa, somewhere with high-density tourism.

This was the sort of thing that they had figured out in Benidorm. Obviously there are more tourists, but consumption per tourist was massively lower by comparison with isolated, or comparatively isolated estates with villas. There have been other studies along these lines that point to the challenges of resource management (water especially). It is far more efficient if users are in limited areas and not spread out all over the place.

In Mallorca there have been examples of town halls all but sending out an SOS because they’re struggling with resources as a result of the explosion in the number of holiday rental properties. This has happened in Selva and Fornalutx, for instance. While holiday rentals bring great benefits, undeniably so, to village economies, there are also drawbacks.

The Balearic government and the Council of Mallorca are party to this through the PIAT plan that predominantly denotes the resorts as saturated and therefore with holiday rental limitations (or prohibitions) while classifying villages as ripe for development. This is fine, but Blázquez and others are pointing to the inefficiencies. He has also suggested that there can be aquifer contamination caused by estates littered with luxury holiday villas.

Moreover, there is the style of tourism, which comes back to the argument in favour of a broad social base and not one narrowly defined in what Blázquez considers to be elitist terms , which itself can have negative consequences for the resident population owing to an ever advancing gentrification making the cost of living even more unsustainable than it already is.

All the talk of a change to the tourism model can be too simplistic in willing a higher “quality”. It ignores the legitimate social make-up of tourists themselves, while - as Benidorm has shown - there can be benefits to mass being concentrated. That, in itself, doesn’t preclude this higher quality, but it does have implications for what we know is the challenge presented by climate change and water resources.

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History of Tourism in Benidorm

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100 years of Tourism

From the previous century there is still the memory of the Mayora Hostel (1865). The town´s tourist attractions are well documented prior to this date in the book written by Christian August Fischer ` Picture of Valencia ' published in German in 1803 and based on the visit of the author to the Valencian Region in 1.798 . It details the art of the “ Almadraba ” (specialist type of fishing) and recommended the area as a pleasant place to stay for those travelers interested in tuna or sardine fishing.

Later, in 1852, the New   Bather´s Guide in Spain written by Aureliano Maestre de San Juan , highlights Benidorm as one of the most attractive villages on the Alicante coast and in 1853, Benidorm appears referenced in a Treaty of Mineral Resources in Spain linked to the emerging health tourism at the Baths of Busot .

Improved communications allowed the timid start of a new economic facet: tourism . In the second half of the nineteenth century the Virgin of the Suffrage Spa opened in order to attend to the families from Alcoy , Madrid and other towns in the interior of Spain who came to Benidorm to take sea baths.

The construction of the road from Silla to Alicante and the arrival of the railway to Alicante from Madrid slowly helped the industry to thrive. First came the pioneer summer holiday-makers from Alcoy and Madrid , which from 1914 could make use of the of a narrow railway, the popular Marina Trenet , which initially joined Alicante to Altea and, therefore, to Benidorm .

During the decade of the 1950s steps were to produce a true transformation. On the one hand, in 1952, due to poor yield performance the A lmadraba of the Raco de l'Oix is closed down,  something traumatic for many families dependent on it, but on the other hand, in 1956 the town hall approved the new urban legislation in order to create a town designed for tourism based on well planned streets and wide avenues following the configuration of the beaches.

Benidorm; Vertical Town

That culminated in becoming the 1956 General Plan , which for the time first set the route for Benidorm as it is known today. But it was far from being a town conceived on the basis of skyscrapers. It was more about being horizontal rather than vertical, with classic low rise buildings, with the apartments, villas and hotels which started being built in the late fifties and early sixties.

The driving force behind this plan at the time was the mayor Pedro Zaragoza i Orts considered as a visionary by many historians and tourism economists for the project he designed for a town that just had its beaches as a tourism resource. He allowed for the first time the use of the bikini in Spain during his 17 years in office and was responsible for a new form of promotion via the emblematic Song Festival .

The tourist image of Benidorm was presented to the world. The Festival contributed to the promotion of the town and the tourism brand " Benidorm " in all corners.

History of Benidorm´s Song Festival

Julio Iglesias , the winner of 1968, was leading figure in 1969, 1973 and 1975. Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa, the Dynamic Duo , as well as closing the 1962 galas were also present in the 1981 editions and were nearly always present in various editions in  search of the precious “ Benidorm mermaid ”, receiving it in 1977 with the theme " Alejate ” (Go away).

The interest that arose from the beginning resulted in the film production in 1960 of the “ Benidorm Festival " with Conchita Velasco , Carmen de Lirio and Manolo Gomez Bur . Benidorm has since been the scene of more than 300 films, of all types of themes. The first movie filmed in the town is " Alba de America " in 1951, Special mention for one of the most famous movies of the spanish cinema: " Golden Eggs " directed by Bigas Luna in 1.993 and starred by Maribel Verdú and Javier Bardem .

The motor revolution of the   SEAT 600 (and its successors) in the late fifties was followed in the sixties by a change in behaviours and habits, introduced by French girls, who did not abide by the  strict dress code of the time, and who wore the new the two-piece “ bikini ” as baptised by the French in honour of the Atomic Bombs tests that were being carried out  in the Pacific Ocean atoll of the same name

Although at first there were many moral qualms to the display of so much anatomy, finally the bathing garment became a fashion and was worn in  1962 and 63 by tourists. By then the hotels had served a dual purpose: to contribute to a revolution of habits and to retain loyal customers to Benidorm , so much so that the early visitors came from being residents in hotels to becoming owners of apartments or villas in the unstoppable process that led to development and urbanisation of that Arcadia.

During the second half of the 60s, Benidorm underwent a major transformation with the onset of the British tour operators who began to bring groups to Manises airport ( Valencia )  a few years before the opening of Altet Alicante airport. It was the beginning of an attempt to break the  seasonality of  stays, taking advantage of prices and good weather, so that, thanks to hotels, created holiday environment all year round as opposed to the classical idea of a summer town, closed out of season, as in most beach holidays areas at the time.

The arrival of mass tourism had an immediate impact on the growth of Benidorm in the short term. When tour operators already working from Manises airport, started operating with charter aircraft, from March 1970,  from the newly opened airport of El Altet, the high demand for hotel rooms led to the construction of hotels in quick succession (between 1971 and 1973). The source of tourism changed dramatically, and its social affiliation. The building boom in Benidorm peaked in those years. Part of the skyscrapers were just gigantic hotels (baptized as hotel factories) built in record time to meet demand.

The Hotels of Paradise

In the nineties the hotels in Benidorm managed to reach a milestone breaking the seasonality influx of visitors. Today the town maintains excellent levels of hotel occupancy in both summer and winter, helped most recently with older generation in winter.

Further to this brief tour of its more than two hundred years of history in Tourism , it can be seen that the sun and beach are still the key attractions for the Benidorm tourism sector although now in the 21st century we see a diversification of new product offering such as theme parks, golf, health & beauty, sports, business and a constant adaptation to new demands in order to remain competitive and leader in Spain .

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The Impact of Tourism on Benidorm.

BENIDORM CASE STUDY

Benidorm is situated on the south east coast of Spain near the Mediterranean.

Map of Benidorm

Before the tourist hype Benidorm was a small fishing village, with a relatively small population - whose main income was obtained through fishing the local coast, the Costa del Sol - but quickly became Spain's biggest holiday resort for people from foreign countries, and at its peak, it was attracting four million tourists each year.Benidorm in the 1960’s

 Between 1930 and 1970 it became one of the most visited tourist destinations. The fact that it’s in one of the most southern regions of Spain and is faces the sun is one of the many reasons so many people were drawn to Benidorm. Another reason it became so popular is the fact that it is only a 2-3 hour flight from most places in Europe and it’s cheap and affordable for most families.For the majority of the local people tourism is their income in one way or another, with 85% of income being from tourism. Benidorm is the most affluent area of Spain due to tourism. There is loads of work for the local people and most are flexible due to their nature. There is also a sense of globalisation as people get to get a taste of a different culture for example eating in foreign food restaurants.

Overcrowding in Benidorm

This is a preview of the whole essay

There is however some major negative impacts of tourism in Benidorm, for example it is overcrowded, the population has increased from 700,000 to 110,000,00. A lot of the negative impacts effect the local environment such as hardly any of the beach is natural and is constantly having to be replenished due to erosion mainly due to humans. There is also too much rubbish to deal with and roads are congestion due to too many cars and too little busses. Local people who aren’t that wealthy may also struggle to fins houses as house prices have increased due to the high demand for second homes, people are also reliant on tourism and there is a loss of independence. Over the last few years Benidorm has been trying to shake of the “lager lout” reputation it became to develop mainly due to amount of British tourist go there just to party and become disorderly. Tourism officials decided they did not want that label and wanted to make it more family friendly and are determined to shake the bad reputation they have developed due to the amount of drunken people. There are plans to build more 4-5 star hotels to regain the tourist they had started to lose due to their bad reputation

Document Details

• Author Type Student
• Word Count 435
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• Subject Geography
• Type of work Homework assignment

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Is the real Airbnb hell about to begin?

A site called airbnbhell.com, a rabbit hole of “uncensored” stories of host and guest experiences, reveals detailed anecdotes ranging from pet problems and parties, to discrimination and fraud.

But the holiday home rental app had a hell of its own on Wednesday when shares plunged 16 per cent after its second quarter earnings and third quarter forecasts fell south of expectations.

Although quarterly revenue of $2.75bn (£2.16bn) actually topped Wall Street’s consensus forecast of $2.74bn (£2.15bn), earnings per share disappointed at 86 cents versus an estimate of 92 cents. Profit also missed the mark at $555m (£436m), against an anticipated $650m (£511m).

Airbnb also downgraded its revenue guidance for the next quarter to between $3.67bn (£2.88bn) and $3.73bn (£2.93bn), missing analysts’ mid-point consensus estimate of $3.84bn (£3.02bn).

The company has seen booking windows become shorter – meaning more last-minute bookings – leading to greater uncertainty and reduced financial visibility.

It said the downturn was due to “pressured” domestic travel in the US, which accounts for nearly half of the company’s revenues, as Americans are growing more cautious with travel spending. Analysts have said this deceleration could pose a short-term concern for shareholders.

Election 2024: Thousands of homes ‘lost’ to Airbnb, Labour’s City candidate warns

But long-term, Airbnb – and its rivals like Booking.com and VRBO – may have a bigger problem than stiffening demand. Governments worldwide are tightening controls on tourist rentals to address local housing shortages and rising property prices.

At the start of August, Spain’s Valencia region, where notorious tourist hotspot Benidorm is situated, announced stringent regulations on short-term rentals to mitigate the impacts of mass tourism, including social issues, housing shortages, and rising property prices. 

The new law will fine homeowners up to €600,000 (£515,000) for illegal rentals, require short-term apartments to provide 24-hour reception and mandate a five-year operating licence.

This crackdown follows similar measures in Barcelona, which plans to close 10,000 tourist flats by 2028. It is part of a broader national effort to lighten the load of overtourism, an issue that has sparked a number of protests across the country in recent months.

In the US, New York City introduced its Local Law 18 in September last year to restrict short-term rentals by requiring hosts to register with the city, stay on the property during rentals and limit guests to two at a time. 

Similar restrictions exist globally, including in cities like San Francisco, Amsterdam and Berlin, which have implemented various limits on short-term rentals to protect local housing markets.

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould warned that “the more cities that follow the example of Barcelona, Valencia, Berlin, New York and others to either ban or tightly regulate short-term lets, the less scope there may be for Airbnb to grow, especially as such action may prompt other cities to follow suit.”

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Mould went on: “How many will impose bans or tighter rules is impossible to tell – and they may be more inclined to welcome tourists if their economies slow down or into recession, given the influx of cash that travellers bring”

The Conservative government proposed similar actions in the UK. In February, it announced plans to introduce new regulations this summer requiring planning permission for properties rented out more than 90 nights annually, aiming to give local authorities greater control over rental housing stock.

Airbnb welcomed the former UK government’s announcement and is understood to be keen to work with the new government to make these rules a success. 

 An Airbnb spokesperson said: “The root causes of housing and tourism challenges in Europe are a lack of new homes being built and decades of hotel-driven mass tourism. 

“In contrast, Airbnb accounts for a small proportion of visitors to Europe and creates an economic lifeline for families that helps them afford their homes. 

“We welcome regulation and have led our industry in working with governments on rules that balance tourism benefits with protecting housing, and we are eager to advance this work.”

The success of these regulatory clampdowns and how they will affect rental apps like Airbnb remains uncertain. But scrutiny continues to heat up and according to Mould, there is “no shortage” of competition as travellers have plenty of alternatives for accommodation.

“Online reviews will provide a good guide as to whether Airbnb’s service and the lets it provides are keeping customers happy or not,” he said.

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