Tourism and Cultural Heritage

Mass tourism developed rapidly after the Second World War, and the Mediterranean coast became its defining laboratory, particularly Spain's Costa del Sol and the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, where cheap package holidays from the 1960s onward transformed small fishing villages into dense, high-rise resort towns. Geographers frequently apply the British geographer Richard Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle model to trace how such destinations evolve, passing through stages of initial exploration by small numbers of visitors, growing involvement by the local economy, rapid development and consolidation, eventual stagnation once carrying capacity is reached, and finally either decline or a deliberate rejuvenation of the destination's offer.