Test The Mediterranean: The home of mass beach tourism a story of riches and disasters

Which countries have a coastline on the Mediterranean?

Geography of the Mediterranean

19 nations have a coastline along the Mediterranean: Spain, Italy, Albania, Cyprus, Israel, Tunisia, France, Malta, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Monaco, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Lebanon, Libya & Morocco Add another 8 countries to form the Mediterranean tourism region (based on climatic and cultural similarities: Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine (Crimean Republic), Jordan & Iraq, Serbia & Montenegro

Development of Mass Tourism on the Mediterranean coast

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& In the 1960s

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Tourism in the coastal regions of the Mediterranean today

Basic Facts
The Mediterranean tourism industry accounts for 33% of global international tourism arrivals and 25% of global spending by international tourists 60% of tourists visiting the Mediterranean go to coastal destinations 84% of Mediterranean tourists come from Europe, mostly from northern and western countries. Germany is the largest market followed by the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. (WTO, 2003). The coast of the Mediterranean has become such a popular tourist destination primarily as a result of the desire for relatively hot dry summer weather and safe beach and sea destinations amongst Northwest Europeans and the physical proximity of the Mediterranean to Northwest Europe

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Basic Facts
Mediterranean countries in the EU take between 75 and 90% of the annual total of tourists visiting the countries of the Mediterranean. Within these countries Mediterranean coastal tourism is highly concentrated in: 1. The Costas, Balearic Islands, and Canary Islands of Spain 2. The Languedoc-Roussillon and Cote dAzur region of France 3. The Ligurian Riviera, the Sorrentine peninsula and the islands in the Gulf of Naples, Italy 4. The Aegean & Ionian Islands of Greece. Almost 80% of the Mediterranean tourists choose Spain, France, Italy or Greece (WTO, 2003).

Basic Facts
In addition to being concentrated spatially the tourism industry in the Mediterranean region is also highly seasonal. The main season for tourism on the coast of the Mediterranean is between late June and early September (in line with the northern hemisphere summer and school summer holiday vacation period). It is estimated that 45% of the annual international tourists who visit Spain do so during this period There is a significantly smaller holiday season during the northern hemisphere winter that is mainly driven by long stay retiree tourism

Economic Impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean

In a few decades the Balearic Islands were transformed [as a result of the development of tourism] from being one of the poorest regions of Spain, with a high rate of emigration, to one of the wealthiest (Boniface & Cooper, 2005: 136) 1 in 7 workers in the Mediterranean region are employed in tourism. A significant proportion of the Mediterranean population are in jobs indirectly dependent on the tourism industry Tourism receipts from the Mediterranean in 1999 totalled US$131.8 billion. (Environment News Service, 2001) Mediterranean countries received one third of this income. Over the last three years, the other two thirds returned to the hands of less than 10 tour operators from northern Europe (Environment News Service, 2001)

Environmental Impacts of tourism in the Mediterranean

Most of the tourism development [in the western Mediterranean] was poorly planned, and largely unregulated by the local authorities. It was not until the 1990s that serious efforts were made to control tourism development. (Boniface & Cooper, 2005: 136-7)

LITTER: In the Balearics visitors leave behind an estimated 100,000 tonnes of litter each year URBANISATION: Today, more than half of the 46,000 km of the Mediterranean coastline is urbanised. In the case of the Costa Blanca, in Spain, for example, 95% of the coastline has been urbanised by tourism, penetrating inland by up to 20 km (Gomez & Rebollo, 1995: 119) One study cited by EEA (2001) suggested three quarters of the sand dunes between Spain and Sicily have disappeared as a result of tourism development. WILDLIFE: Marine turtles, for example, have been badly affected by the destruction of nesting sites and by disturbance. (WWF, 2005)

Water
For example, an average Spanish city dweller uses about 250 litres of water per day, while the average tourist uses 440 litres. This number increases to 880 litres if the tourist stays in accommodation with swimming pools and golf courses. Each tourist generates around 180 litres of waste water per day Annual water consumption of a golf course is around 1 million cubic metres, or the equivalent of the water consumption of a city of 12,000 inhabitants (WWF Spain, 2003).

In Tunisia water demand for tourism more than doubled between 1977 and 1996; the Balearic Islands (Spain) used 15 times more water between 1980 and 1995 (Plan Bleu, 2004). The demand for water is now so bad on the island of Mallorca that it has to be shipped from the Spanish mainland during the peak season to meet the demand from the tourism industry One result of the high demand for fresh water in the tourism destinations of the Mediterranean has been the intrusion of salt water into fresh groundwater sources

Social & Cultural Impact of Tourism in the Mediterranean

Socio-cultural Impacts
Destruction of traditional social and cultural norms and values Degradation of customs, traditions, festivals, and crafts Decline in religious values Preservation of traditional cultural artefacts Loss of ownership of land - A fifth of all property on the island of Mallorca is estimated to be in foreign hands

The future of tourism in the Mediterranean

The number of international tourists visiting Mediterranean countries is expected to increase to between 440 and 655 million by 2025 (with between 235 and 355 million visiting the coastal region) However, global market share is declining in the face of competition from areas such as the Caribbean and Southeast Asia The destination of Mediterranean tourists is altering within this region (trending eastwards where new destinations, such as Turkey, are emerging) The Western Mediterranean tourist resorts in particular currently suffer from an oversupply of increasingly dated accommodation, particularly at the cheaper end of the market whilst tourist expectations as rising.

Tourist per capita spending is declining in the region. Combined with all these issues, encouraging new investment in the region is getting more difficult The markets for Mediterranean destinations is still dominated by only two countries (Germany and the UK) Since the early 1990s the western Mediterranean countries, aided by the EU, have attempted to regenerate traditional centres of tourism in the region The era of unconstrained growth in western Mediterranean resorts is at an end The southern sector of the Mediterranean continues to remain largely dormant in terms of international tourism development due to political stability and social and cultural conflicts

Global warming
As a result of global warming there is now a growing concern about the future viability of tourism throughout the Mediterranean coastline Put simply the environment is likely to become too hot for tourists to visit, especially during the traditional peak season The likelihood is that Mediterranean summers may be too hot for tourists after 2020, as a result of too much heat and water shortages (Debono, 2006) In addition, it is anticipated that by the 2020s suitable habitats for malaria will have spread northward from North Africa into Spain. (Perry, 2006: 372) Consequently, tourism in the Mediterranean may become less sustainable, both economically and environmentally, as a result of climate change. (Perry, 2006: 374)

British Emigration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA2nGhflMjI&fea ture=related

Suggested readings
Boniface, B. & Cooper, C. 2005. Worldwide destinations Casebook: The geography of travel and tourism. Elsevier: Amsterdam. Case 20. Montanari, A. 1995. The Mediterranean Region: Europe's Summer Leisure Space. In A. Montanari. & Williams, A (eds) European Tourism: Regions, Spaces and Restructuring. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Ch. 3. Perry, A. 2006. Will Predicted Climate Change Compromise the Sustainability of Mediterranean Tourism? Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 14 (4): 367 - 375