PROGRAMME
THURSDAY 15 OCTOBER 2009
arrival to Alicante



Cultural tourism in Spain

We will be visiting a young country with only 30 years of democracy. But despite the total isolation of the country
after the Second World War, Spain managed to become one of the most important tourist destinations in the world.
The Spanish coastline became very popular in the late sixties and seventies because of its relaxed atmosphere.
Discos, pubs, wild beaches, tasty food and free love were the slogans of that time,
and summer travellers came to Spain looking for all these things.

Then, naturally, the summer travellers became a bit older, got married and had kids, but they still came to Spain searching for a nice holiday. Also at that time to be included in the European Market, Spain had to change part of its traditional industry
of shipyards, blast furnace, cars, textiles and agriculture. Instead they got a new intangible, leisure time industry and today the Spanish coastline is one of the most important tourist industries in the world.

Spain receives more than 46 millions tourist per year. During the oasis, Antonio Mayor, President of Hosbec, which is a private, national tourist association, will talk to us about the tourist industry and its importance for the GDP of Spain. Hosbec
represents more than 200 companies and in total 67061 beds within the industry.

The tourism industry has also turned out to be a very important development instrument – it helps to consolidate a lot of democratic issues. Diversity, multicultural influences and behaviours spread fast in a touristic city so the inhabitants are not
surprised to see a short thong, a gay couple and/or a group of Japanese photographing everything and everywhere.

Perhaps now, then, some questions appear:

• What is the limit of the touristic development? Economic? Urban? Cultural?
• Why did the Guggenheim in Bilbao become so successful?
• Acting local, thinking global? Culture, is it important in this dilemma?
• Myths and emotions in our leisure time – how do these things affect our emotions
when we are looking for a vacation place?
• Is culture still an important factor when we chose our vacation?
• Which successful factors could we identify within tourist destinations?
• About figures, how cultural industry and cultural activities are operating surplus in
terms of employment and/or entrepreneur activities?
• Perhaps we should create a “fake” culture to attract tourists?
• …or just take care of our own culture to attract the new generations of “travellers” ?

To tackle these issues we have prepared two full days of lectures, workshops and discussion as food for thought and a first night where we begin by looking at the actual cultural tourism in the region to see what it is all about. We also hope that the programme will give space for networking with local artists and professionals.


17:00
Meeting point (for Nomads and Local Participants) at the entrance of the Villa Universitaria Residence
Calle Vicente Savall, 16 - 03690 - S. Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante) Villa Universitaria Residence





A GUIDED VISIT TO AN ATELIER OF HOGUERAS








MUSEO DE LAS HOGUERAS