Regional development policies: an assessment of their evolution and effects on the Spanish tourist model

This paper assesses the incidence of regional development policy on the evolution of the Spanish tourist model. Spain's tourist boom took place within the framework of an authoritarian, centralist regime in which no true regional policy existed. Macroeconomic interests prevailed and planning was relaxed in front of the limited economic resources available and the urgent need to earn foreign currency and give coastal areas economic dynamism, all within a favourable context of international demand growth. The country's democratisation process entailed a politico-administrative decentralisation that was more suitable for the development of an effective regional policy. Spain's entry into the European Community increased the economic resources available and largely improved regional policy principles and instruments. While the centralist policy is associated with the sun-and-beach tourist model concentrated on the coast, the new regional policy represents an essential, though sometimes unnoticed, element in the current process of diversification and spatial spread of the Spanish tourist supply. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.