International Seminar Touristic Territories: Touristic imagery and the construction of contemporary landscape, Girona, 2014

Abstract

The first International Seminar Touristic Territories hosted by the University of Girona and with the theme 'Touristic imagery and the construction of contemporary landscape', took place on 23-25 January in Girona, Spain.The substantial growth encountered in tourism clearly marks it as one of the most remarkable economic and social phenomena of not only the 20th century but also the 21st century. While these dynamics have converted tourism into one of the principal driving forces behind economic and urban development, such mass tourism also poses a threat to the natural and cultural resources of regions. Architects and urban planners have not been paying attention to the effects of mass tourism on architecture and urban planning. However, despite tourism being a resilient sector in large national and post-industrial economies in this critical period of recession, the general demise of cultural and natural resources must be taken into account and the multiple effects should be studied.The conference sought to explore the impact of tourism on the transformation of cities and territory. Hosted by the University of Girona, the three-day seminar had a strong emphasis on evaluating the impact that tourism imagery, infrastructure and architecture conceived for tourism has had on the formation of modern territory and the subsequent consequences on the theoretical discourse on planning and architecture.The organisers, Nadia Fava and Marisa Garcia Vergara, who are town planning and architecture historians at the University of Girona, envisaged that the theme of 'Tourism and its impact on cities and landscapes in the face of changing contexts', would provide a broad thematic overview for discussion concerning the various current issues in urban planning today.Girona, as the capital of the northeast province of Catalonia and as the geographic centre of the Costa Brava touristic region, is a fitting location to explore the varied regional impacts that have resulted from the arduous development of tourism. In the 1950s the Spanish government and local entrepreneurs identified the Costa Brava as being highly suitable for substantial development as a holiday destination; one that would be aimed mainly at the package holiday tourist from Northern Europe. The region's potential was exploited with the construction of large numbers of hotels and apartments to create these so-called seaside resorts. As a result, tourism rapidly took over from fishing and agriculture as the principal income of the area, radically changing the territory and its landscape. This was not to be the only major change, as cultural and social customs and behaviours were also altered as a result of the influx of visitors and the human exchanges that came with them.Conference organisations and contributionsThe conference sought to encourage cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary debate and problem-oriented studies related to the broad advancement of research in the field of tourism connected to urban planning and architecture practice and theory. Over the three days nearly 100 participants gave presentations on and discussed the theme of 'Tourism and territory'. As the congress provided a forum on the operational dimensions and meanings of tourism, this meant that there were not only academic participants, but also policy practitioners from across Europe and America participating as well.The conference had five major themes along with eight discussion sessions. Complementing the track sessions, the programme also included plenary sessions and round-table discussions together with social events and guided tours around the city. Details of the conference programme, papers and abstracts are available on the conference website Touristic Territories: http://territoriosdelturismo.blogspot.com.es/ (accessed on 1 April 2014).The Preliminary Proceedings can be downloaded from DUGI Open Access Repository: http://dugi-doc.udg.edu//handle/10256/8798. …