Enhancing “Places” Through Archaeological Heritage in Sun, Sand, and Sea Touristic Coastal Areas: A Case Study From Mallorca (Spain)

ABSTRACT

Many islands and coastal areas worldwide, particularly in warm climates, have experienced a large and sustained population and urban growth driven by mass tourism. This development has created new social spaces that have broken the social and economic dynamics which have traditionally defined these areas. This new reality has led to new socioeconomic praxes that have improved the life of the local communities, but also entailed new conflicts and problems. This article aims to analyze some of the socioeconomic and territorial disconnections and issues that currently characterize coastal areas and islands affected by mass tourism. At the same time, we introduce and develop some useful conceptual tools and practical strategies intended to enhance archaeological heritage and link it together with local communities and tourists to transcend some of these problems. Furthermore, to show the inherent value of our approach, we present a case study from Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), which focuses on the actions performed in order to enhance the island's heritage in touristic coastal areas and connect it through heritage corridors with the Serra de Tramuntana, recently classified as a UNESCO World Heritage area. As a result of our research, we suggest that from the proposed strategies and conceptual framework, cultural heritage—particularly archaeological heritage—can be used as a powerful tool of social and territorial activism. We argue that heritage makes possible the development of new dynamics to reduce territorial, social, and economic issues that may result from the uncontrolled and unplanned development of sun, sand, and sea mass tourism on islands and coastal regions in general.

Keywords:

• cultural heritage
• islands
• Mediterranean
• “non-places,” tourism

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Aixa Vidal for her assistance with the English edition of the text and her fruitful comments that undoubtedly have improved our manuscript.

FUNDING

This article was developed under the scientific objectives and financial collaboration of the research project Vivir entre islas: Paisajes insulares, conectividad y cultura material en las comunidades de las Islas Baleares durante la prehistoria reciente (2500-123 BC) (HAR 2012-32620), financed by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, España.

Notes

¹Social movement of protest whose members condemned the failure of the Spanish political system and stressed the need for a re-democratization of the country by giving power back to the people. During the demonstrations, Plaza del Sol (Madrid) was “occupied,” a decision which resulted in a conflict between the government and the protesters for the physical and symbolic control of this space. It gave rise to a metonymical process where the occupation of and permanence in the square was intimately related to the survival of this social movement. It is significant that a year later, on the first anniversary of the protest, the government tried to stop the main celebrations being held at the same location.

²This theoretical distinction was discussed in archaeology by F. Criado (1993a, 1996); however, he distinguished between record and heritage. In this case, we decided to use the term vestige according to Burke (2005). At the conceptual level, both terms are comparable, as they highlight the participation of the present in shaping the past.

³www.unesco.org/new/es/unesco/resources/publications; www.icomos.org/landscapes/index2esp.htm; www.unesco.org/whc.

⁴After this declaration, different policy tools and international conventions that incorporate this concept have been articulated, especially in the area of space planning. Among them, the European Landscape Convention held in Florence in 2000 is noteworthy because it integrates an assemblage of countries.