Tourist development and planning on valencian mediterranean coast: the case of la Devesa del Saler

Abstract

[EN] It is known that the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and particularly the Valencian coast, has been the subject of an intense process of urban development since the 1960s. This process has been caused by both the increase in economic activities as a basis for the growth of cities and by the development of tourism along almost the entire coastline. Some cases have been studied in detail, such as the case of La Manga del Mar Menor, where massive tourist development took place. In the case of La Devesa de L¿Albufera de València, its beginnings are similar to those of La Manga. In both cases, there is a similar coastal environment with a narrow strip of land between a large lake on one side, the Mar Menor lake and the Albufera lake, and the Mediterranean Sea on the other. However, from a certain point in time, the two areas evolved differently. In the case of La Manga, urban tourist development continued until the collapse of the real estate market due to the reduced attractiveness of the landscape. In contrast, the area of La Devesa del Saler began as a tourist urban development in a similar way, but, in the 1970s, a social movement emerged against its urbanization. This social movement gained strength progressively, until tourism development initiatives were paralyzed and the area protected for its environmental value. The case is the object of a doctoral thesis entitled ¿The mountain of La Devesa del Saler: the paradigm shift in mass tourism¿, and this paper focuses on the results of a part of this research, specifically the identification of the main historical milestones that explain the evolution of the process in the case of La Devesa del Saler.