The Linkages between Real Estate Tourism and Urban Sprawl in Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain)

Abstract

Financial capitalism has driven profound changes in urban land use patterns in Majorca, at the Balearic Islands (Spain). This archipelago is a major tourist destination located in the Mediterranean basin, with 4,492 km2 of surface area, 1,113,114 inhabitants and 12,316,399 tourists (2011), of whom 29.9% came from Germany, 24% from the UK and 19% from the rest of Spain. Neoliberal state regulation has favored the elite’s financial interests in the real estate sector through transport megaproject investment and lifting regional planning restrictions which prevented urban growth. Urban sprawl is becoming increasingly significant for inland Majorca, where intensive tourist resorts had not previously been developed. Urban growth distribution patterns are studied, firstly of suburban development both for tourists and for residential purposes, and secondly of exurban sprawl distribution for isolated dwellings. Recent regional planning relaxation guided by the free market economy and roll-with-it politics aims to promote this urban sprawl as a neoliberal answer to the current crisis of capitalism. In this way, a new model of capital investment in urban spatio-temporal fix, such as countryside villas with swimming pools, is shifting the urban model of this island. The paper identifies the site-specific spatial, temporal and planning pathways through which the actions and decisions of residential tourists and developers buying property in Majorca have driven urban sprawl and vice versa

Residential Tourism, Swimming Pools, and Water Demand in the Western Mediterranean

“…In Mediterranean Spain and in terms of land use patterns, residential tourism usually develops in three main typologies: single housing, condominiums, and apartment blocks . Of these, apartment blocks tend to be found mostly in the coastal zone, whereas condominiums and single houses can be found both near the coast and in the hilly hinterlands (Hof and Bl azquez 2013). In the United States, retirement migration to Florida, Texas, and Arizona would indicate similar processes, although in this case the word tourism is not used (McWatters 2009).…”

The Impact of Public Works in Spain: Natural, constructed and destroyed landscape

“…We understand that cities are a product of cultural adaptation (Steiner, 2014), but often the natural part is not taken into account in urban development. In coastal areas, especially those of Spain, due to the tourist pressure in recent years, a deeply profound land use mark has occurred, although this phenomenon has been relatively little studied with respect to the actual transformation of the urban landscape and built environment (Hof & Blázquez-Salom, 2013) and very significantly affects maritime space which is related to both land and sea (Freire, 2013).…”

Peri-Urban Dynamics in Murcia Region (SE Spain): The Successful Case of the Altorreal Complex

“…It has had serious consequences on the national economy due to the role played by the secondary sector [42]. The process of urban sprawl analyzed in Altorreal, initially induced by a tourism proposal (i.e., a golf course), has already been observed in many other touristic Mediterranean areas, even in inland Majorca, the Mediterranean island that annually receives more visitors [43]. Urban sprawl has even been observed in places with a declining human population [44].…”