La cultura como elemento de promoción turística en las Islas Baleares. De la oferta preturística al turismo de masas

Abstract

The trivialisation of Balearic culture is often associated with the invasive deployment of tourist activity. The promotion of tourism has used some of the most representative cultural elements of the Balearic Islands as objects devoid of their cultural significance. Despite this, on occasions there has been a positive link between tourism and culture, from which enriching experiences have been derived. Identifying them is the first step in demonstrating that it is possible to offer a diversified tourism model that offers culture for the benefit of society as a whole. The main objective of this article is to provide an overview of the role that culture has played in the tourism sector in the Balearic Islands from the pre‐tourist period to the 2019 Integral Tourism Plan. It also aims to establish which cultural elements have been most closely linked to tourism supply and demand. To this end, a series of bibliographical and documentary sources have been analysed to prove that culture has been involved in tourist activity even before the promotion of this industry. Likewise, from the 20th century onwards, there are proposals which have used the diverse cultural manifestations of the Islands as an element of diversification with the main objective of avoiding summer seasonality, but also to improve the tourist offer and counteract the importance of mass tourism. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that they have had a real impact on the diversification and improvement of tourism.