The Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are located in the western Mediterranean, about 2
00 kilometers from the Spanish mainland. They include four tourist destinations; Mallorca (better known in the UK and Mallorca), Minorca, Ibiza (Eivissa known as the Catalan regional language) and Formentera. Majorca and Ibiza are now associated with the excesses of mass tourism, with an image-based five Ss (sun, sand, sea, sex and sangria) economy. Indeed, Majorca, which is by far the largest of the islands, apparently has the physical capacity to absorb more than 11 million tourists per year receive the Balearic Islands. Mass tourism Mallorca legend popular in Northern Europe is largely confined to a few mega-resorts around the bay of Palma and the northeast of the island, while the other Mallorca continues to attract celebrities and rich higher class operators. Majorca tourism is not a new phenomenon in a tourist office was established in Palma in 1905, while Ibiza reached much later and grafted into a poorer, less sophisticated society. In the years leading up to the landscapes of the Spanish Civil War (193,639), the mild climate and beautiful islands attracted tourists and artists like Joan Mir rich, while poetnovelist Robert Graves has done much to publicize the island from home in the mountain village of Deia. In the early 1950s, Majorca has been promoted by the Spanish Ministry of new honeymoon tourist destination, the island of love, a love picture countries of northern Europe were still recovering from the Second World War . The large-scale tourism has continued and soon spread to the other islands. This was made possible by the evolution of air transport and travel arrangements, while the government controls on prices so that the Balearic remained at a low cost destination. The authoritarian regime of General Franco saw tourism as an engine of economic growth that would lift Spain and its people out of poverty, but the regional culture of the islands was largely removed. In a few decades the Balearic Islands was transformed from one of the poorest regions of Spain, with a high emigration rate and an economy based on agriculture and fishing economy, one of the rich, with one of the highest rates of car ownership in Europe.
Most of it was poorly planned tourism development, and largely unregulated by local authorities. Although the islands have gained a measure of self-determination in 1978 as an autonomous region within the framework of the post-Franco democratization of Spain, it was not until the 1990s that serious efforts were made to control the development of tourism.

At that time, there was an excess supply of housing, especially in the cheaper end of the market, and a downward spiral in the quality of tourism, in terms of per capita spending, which proves to be difficult to reverse. The islands' economy depends precariously on tourism, which accounts for 50 percent of the regional domestic product. In addition two countries dominate the market in Germany and the United Kingdom with domestic tourists represent less than 10 percent of arrivals. Much of the employment in tourism is seasonal and poorly paid compared to other sectors of the economy in Spain. The negative impacts of tourism are:
_ A damaged by poorly planned coastal development.
_ Pollution by emissions of carbon buses and rental cars dioxide systems and improper disposal of waste. In addition, an estimated 100 000 tonnes of waste left tourists every year. Even the beaches of Formentera are threatened by pollution.
_ A large pressure on the infrastructure that can be used for only part of the year due to the seasonality of tourism demand.
_ The problems of water supply. The islands are limestone formation depends largely on groundwater resources and. Excessive demands have caused a drop in the water table and the aquifer penetration of sea water. The tourists during the high season, which corresponds to the dry summer months consume the equivalent of 440 liters of water per day to 800 liters for those staying in luxury hotels. In Mallorca, the water should be brought to Palma oil daily.
_ The people outnumber the Balearic Islands by tourists from 800,000 in Magaluf, such as Benny Hills bars, fast-food restaurants and souvenir shops sticky attend a British customer at all, while bierkellers Arenal provide such home to the Germans. This, and the growth of second home ownership by wealthy tourists, led to a loss of cultural identity and a sense among many islanders were taken by foreigners.
_ Some elements of youth in mass tourism, known by the Spanish as hooligans are known to antisocial behavior.

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