Social Considerations
Overtourism and Local Concerns in Barcelona
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Claudio Milano
Over the past four decades, a number of tourism studies, theories, and models have emerged concerning host and guest antagonism (Doxey, 1975), tourism area life cycle (Butler, 1980), and carrying capacity (O’Reilly, 1986). Over the last decade, while many scholars have maintained their interest in the classical debate concerning the impacts of tourism, some have converged with the increased number of social movements and the subsequent protest against overtourism. Prominent cases demonstrating overtourism include Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Malta, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, and Venice (Boissevain, 1996; Colomb and Novy, 2016). While the overtourism debate dates back over four decades with the study of the "pleasure periphery" and the so-called "golden hordes" (Turner and Ash, 1975), tourism "monoculture" and the impact of mass tourism has been the key point in Spanish tourism destinations including Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. Based on the qualitative field research in Barcelona from 2016, this paper contributes to the comprehension of this discussion and to the effects that this phenomenon may have on the tourism field of one of the most visited European tourist destination.
Healthcare and Wellness Tourism in Gran Canaria
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mónica Santana García, Goretti García
Healthcare and wellness tourism has existed in the Canary Islands for a long time. According to Nicolás González Lemus (2007), the latter part of the XX century saw an increase in the number of foreign patients who used to visit Tenerife and Gran Canaria to relief their rheumatic, skin-related and respiratory diseases. Those were the years when the healthy qualities of sea water and breeze were widely recommended as a therapy. Nowadays, health tourism also includes visitors who come to the Islands due to its weather and social security system. Apart from those, there are certain foreigners who need to make use of health services during their holidays or short stays of any kind (Carmen Toledano Buendía, 2006). The lack of an interpreting service to assist foreigners, who are in the country, makes it difficult for staff to communicate with patients and overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. In the light of previous studies, we have researched some of the possible solutions that the public hospitals on the island of Gran Canaria have come up with. We have noticed that at the public hospitals a volunteer interpreter is in charge of not only translating but also helping the patients’ family with their accommodation, plane tickets and some other tasks. We have also interviewed health and administrative professionals to know how they communicate with foreign patients. Our results and conclusions regarding the current situation of public health service will be presented in this conference.
Formula to Measure a Resource in Health Tourism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gomariz Rodrigo Ana María, Oscar Luis Amador García
Being sustainable is not an option but a moral obligation and a vital necessity because it is from nature that we take all the resources that support us every day, and our companies. There is a great increase in the health´s demand by the client and tourist, with the corresponding increase to the subsector of health tourism. It is suggested the concepts of health tourism and wellness are tools that favor the regeneration of resources through the performance of daily functions, sustainable health tourism is a way to approach the needs of the client and the planet simultaneously. The division of the concept of sustainability has been considered in four dimensions: environmental, social, economic and tourism, there are represented in a cycle. Are considered four basic elements for health and have been treated globally: water, food, energy and development. The combination of the dimensions of sustainability with the four basic elements considered provides a matrix where, if the maximum score of each box is sought, we approach the ideal of sustainability and at the same time maximize the total quality in our company and in the environment, helping us to foresee the environmental footprint of our resources before putting them into practice. The research that is being proposed will focus on working the formula mainly with the following sustainable development goals: good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, partnerships for the goals, we are building the measurement scale of tourism sustainability.
