Inquiring into residential tourism: The Costa Blanca case

Abstract

The residential tourism development model that has been established in the Alicante province (Spain) has characteristics that are closer to those of the property development industry than to the tourism sector. Many towns have reached a situation of urban collapse as a result of such town planning policies. First, I examine the main characteristics of residential tourism, which includes the problem of transient populations coupled with high loyalty towards the destination. Then, I study four localities on Alicante's coast (Denia, Altea, Santa Pola and Torrevieja) whose development model has been based on residential tourism. The local economies of all four of them are centred round the construction industry, the real estate business and commerce; and all four contain a considerable number of second homes. The hotel sector, on the contrary, has hardly been developed, leading to a mismatch between those towns' potential for tourism and the realities of dealing with residential tourism.