Keeping mass tourism destinations sustainable via urban design: The case of Benidorm

Abstract

The city of Benidorm is the most renowned mass tourism destination on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It has been recently acknowledged as a sustainable urban development to support the mass-tourism industry; however, Benidorm had received strong criticism during many years, mainly because of its striking urban image. The aim of this paper is to showcase the relevant role of sustainable urban design for the development of an effective coastal tourism product. To this end, the specific conditions, facts, and regulations that have led to the current urban design of Benidorm city are presented; and, the key singular urban features of its urban plan contributing to the sustainability of this singular urban model are analyzed. The results suggest that the land occupation strategy, the design of outdoor spaces, and the diverse leisure and accommodation offer, have a favorable impact on the optimization of the city resources, creating a successful tourist destination.

Stakeholders’ Perception on the Impacts of Tourism on Mass Destinations: The Case of Seville

“…In line with tourism impact studies, it is possible to classify mass tourism impacts. In this case, the categories are employment, economic, environmental, cultural and urban planning, which cohere with the findings of other authors in the literature [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60], who established that tourism generates impacts in terms of economic, cultural, social, environmental and urban planning.…”

“…Although tourism has positive effects, it requires the environment not be degraded, since tourism cannot be separated from the environment, or from the residents or the rest of the agents involved. As reflected in the literature on this topic [58,, reductionism is not a single undertaking-it also involves complex adaptive systems that are sustainable; that is, an enlightened, viable, credible alternative mass tourism that integrates human and natural systems, in which carrying capacities gradually increase to accommodate higher levels of visits [60,72,[115][116][117][118].…”

“…Not surprisingly, the scientific publications addressing the phenomenon since the early 1970s have mentioned its negative consequences, relating it to health problems and pollution [45][46][47][48][49][50]. At an empirical level, various authors have shown that residents care about the numbers and types of tourists who visit them [51], and that tourists have economic [52,53], cultural [54], social [55], and sociocultural impacts [56] on the sustainability of the environment [3,57,58], politics [59], urban planning [60], and technology [61]. These consequences do, however, depend on an understanding of the perceived impacts on employment and income, the development of infrastructures, and care for the environment (degree of local development), as well as on the use of tourist resources by residents [62,63].…”

“…Under the assumption that it is possible to start, direct and change tourist flows, the commitment should be to the development of sustainable mass tourism, as the desired result for most of the destinations in which conventional tourism has reached the end of its life cycle [109][110][111][112][113][114][115]. In this sense, although its development represents an acknowledged difficulty, it is necessary to find an alternative mass tourism that is enlightened, viable and credible, and in which carrying capacities gradually increase to adapt to higher levels of visits [60,72,[115][116][117][118]. In any case, such tourism constitutes an option to tackle the future recovery of the sector after the global pandemic, conditioned by the success of vaccination against COVID-19 and the ability to alleviate social distancing restrictions.…”

To Be, to Do, to Share: The Triple-Loop of Water Governance to Improve Urban Water Resilience—Testing the Benidorm’ Experience, Spain

“…In recent decades, the population of this county has strongly increased, currently standing at around 190,000 inhabitants, to which the seasonal population that can double or triple the resident population must be added. Most of this socioeconomic growth has been generated around Benidorm, the most renowned mass tourism destination on the Spanish Mediterranean coast [45], attracting international and national visitors [46]. Benidorm is a typical example of a mass tourism resort that emerged along the Mediterranean coast in the 1960s and has become one of the most famous holiday destinations in Europe [47].…”