Renovation of mature destinations: The case of the playa de san Juan

Abstract

This paper is a partial result of the Research Project 'Strategies for sustainable regeneration in tourism settlements on the Mediterranean Coast, ERAM' (ref. BIA2011-28297-C02-01) Spain National Plan of Research, 2011. In this project, the authors are studying the problem of the obsolete tourist destinations. Tourist cities emerged in Spain as a result of the tourist boom of the 60s, the phenomenon was called mass tourism. This means that our tourist spaces have a seniority of 50 years and hardly count with the functionality and services required in this time. In this study, we are working on the renovation of mature destinations. It is based on the analysis of the urban planning of one of the municipal districts in Costa Blanca, Playa de San Juan in Alicante, and the capacity of this localization as a tourist destination nowadays. To develop this task, we are studying the building typologies, the tourist facilities and the urban planning conditions. Then, we put all the information in a geographic information system (GIS), and we make thematic maps to analyse the information. Given the implication that the tourism industry has in the Spanish economy and assuming the antiquity of our tourist destinations, it is necessary to make a reflection on the future of tourist cities. It is time to approach the sustainable urban regeneration of our tourist destinations, assuming the nature of its origin and recognizing its built heritage as a differentiator. This study takes as a work element the Playa de San Juan de Alicante, taking as a base on the analysis of the urban area, the authors propose strategies for sustainable urban regeneration of obsolete tourist destinations.