Tourism in the geopolitics of the Mediterranean
Responsible Tourism
30-07-2019
Ernest Cañada (ed.)
Reports
Published
Summary
The international financial crisis and the restructuring processes of the global economic system have turned the tourism industry into one of the mainstays of capitalism in its neoliberal stage. The commitment to the intensification of the tourism economy has rekindled social unrest due to massification and tourism pressure, as well as the socio-economic and ecological transformation of coastal territories, with progressive advances over the rest of the rural environment. In addition, in the Mediterranean other axes of tension are resolved that inevitably condition the terms under which tourism can develop: the global war for the control of key energy resources, such as oil or gas, and the dispute over the military and geopolitical control of some of its territories. Given this picture, the current political instability and situation of insecurity in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean, the emergence of new security logic, and the humanitarian and migratory emergency have updated the debate on the role of tourism in the reconfiguration of the Mediterranean in a global context. All this is also produced against the backdrop of the increasingly noticeable effects of the climate crisis that directly impacts the organisation of tourism, whilst being one of the activities that contributes to the situation. The Mediterranean has become a space in which North-South tensions intersect dramatically in a global world. Tourism appears as a key factor in this scenario, either as an expression of saturation and exclusion, or as an opportunity for development.Therefore, in this report, rather than fixing attention on specific territories, we address some of these debates from an expressly regional perspective. Co-authors: Antonio Aledo, Fernando Almeida, Assumpció Blanco-Romero, Sarah Becklake, Macià Blàzquez-Salom, Ernest Cañada, Samia Chahine, Claudio Milano, Jordi Gascón, Reme Gómez, José Mansilla, Claudio Milano, Enrique Navarro, Daniel Pardo, Llorenç Planagumà, David Ramos, Marta Salvador, Daniela Thiel, Cecilia Vergnano. Prologue by Robert Fletcher.
References
Cañada, E. (ed.) (2019). Tourism in the geopolitics of the Mediterranean. Barcelona: Alba Sud. Contrast Reports Serie, no. 9.
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