Annual Events

When Did Spain Become a Tourist Hub?

The first intention to make Spain attractive for foreign tourists was made explicit by the Spanish essayist XXX, who upon his return from a trip to Belgium expressed: XXX

In the mid 1870 it became fashionable for the Spanish bourgeoisie to have summer residences in cooler mountainous areas or along the country’s vast coastline. There were the first manifest intensions of attracting foreign visitors as well.

In the south Málaga attempted to attract British nationals from nearby Gibraltar just before the turn of the century.

The endeavour continued in the beginning of the 20^th century as tourists began to become more common in other European countries such as Italy or Switzerland. The sales pitch was to visit sunny Spain and its cultural heritage.

The cultural heritage was at the heart of Spain’s collective inferiority complex. On the one hand, the country wanted to exhibit its austere religious relics and constructions, as well as its artistic heritage. On the other hand, Spain wanted to be included in European high society by rubbing shoulders with foreign bourgeoisie on their home turf.

The initiative to improve the infrastructure to accommodate more tourists was evident during Primo de Rivera’s “Cement and Roads” campaign.

Beach life continued to become increasingly fashionable as the new European trend away from tanned skin as being associated with working class toil under the sun, and towards bourgeoisie lavishness gained a foothold in Spain.

The initiatives to boost tourism were interrupted by the Spanish Civil war and subsequently World War II. It was only around 1950 Spain’s tourism sector took off as the country’s status as international pariah subsided.

An attempt by Franco’s regime to control the tourism sector was largely unsuccessful. Especially the British avidly made illegal arrangements with hoteliers without Spanish tourist agents as intermediaries. The advances in commercial airlines soon led to the massive influx tourists from chartered flights.

Tourism became a massive sector in Spain in the 1960s. The number of annual visitors jumped from 2.8 million in 1959 to 19 million in 1969.

Albeit tourism has been very important for the Spanish economy, there is a flipside to relying so heavily on an industry that only offers occupation for many throughout the intensive summer months. Another problem is the impact tourism has had on the architecture of Spain’s beach resorts. Take the case of the coastal town Benidorm, a sleepy fishing town in 1950 where women were not allowed to wear bikinis. Today, you can find Europe’s highest hotel skyline near the beach. Hailed by some for its miniature Manhattan resemblance and disdained by others for changing Benidorm’s architectural character, it is clear that Benidorm no longer offers a true feel of what once was a quintessential Spanish coastal town.

Spain has so much more to offer you than an overcrowded beach if you venture off the downtrodden track. 

History

 This post should contain information about the recent history of Spain, i.e. history of tourism.