The role of crises in the production, destruction and restructuring of tourist spaces. The case of the Balearic Islands

Abstract

The outbreak of the Great Crisis in 2008 has awakened the interest in the role of crisis within social sciences. Nevertheless, broadly speaking, tourism studies have given very little attention to the moments of crisis. In the case of the Balearic Islands, while there are important works on the historical evolution of the tourist space, those tend to consider crises as blank moments. For this reason, this article focuses on the role played by crises in the production of the Balearics’ space, by analyzing both moments of destruction and restructuring of the political economy. From the understanding of the different crises, from the Civil War to the present, we can conclude that the booms of the Balearic Islands are the indisputable fruit of those crises.