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Papers by Inmaculada Diaz-Soria
Tourism Geographies, 2017
Tourism research often tends to overlook both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the eve... more Tourism research often tends to overlook both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the everyday. However, when acknowledging that exoticism is not necessarily linked to geographical distance, it is similarly possible to attribute touristic otherness to and experience unfamiliarity in a geographically proximate environment. This entails a need to rethink the intertwining relationships of meanings of the exotic and the mundane, as well as the ways people make meaning of their everyday environment through processes of territorialization and identification in a tourism context. Following this idea, these articles focus on the intraregional scale level and on the concept of proximity as a way of studying meanings and practices of tourism near home. In an attempt to strengthen the momentum of proximity tourism research, a double session (sponsored by the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group) was organized during the Royal Geographical Society (RGS)-IBG (Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference which took place in September 2015 at the University of Exeter (UK). The sessions form the basis of this collection of articles, in which various aspects of proximity and intraregional tourism are discussed.
Tourism Geographies, 2017
Being a tourist is not a passive attitude. It is the result of a conscious decision essentially b... more Being a tourist is not a passive attitude. It is the result of a conscious decision essentially based on how individuals build what they perceive as unknown and how they decide to get to know it. In other words, tourists deliberately create a distance with the destination which allows them to enjoy the tourist experience as something exceptional. This paper is part of ongoing research and focuses on the subjective construction of the otherness, since this process determines what is left to be discovered. First, a theoretical overview will introduce the concepts of usual environment, proximity and tourist. Then, we will focus on guided tours as a mechanism of mediation between individuals and places. Finally, we will move on to the case of Barcelona's walking tours and the local participants’ experience as a way to adopt a tourist's approach. Preliminary results show, first, four categories of experience of proximate guided tours: educational, expert, recreational and tourist. Then, they focus on the proximity tourist experience using Urry and Larsen's notion of the ‘tourist gaze’ and Tuan's theory on the tourist and the resident's points of view. According to these theories, participants’ motivations and their individual frame of reference define a tourist's point of view. Based on that, results show that proximity tourists and traditional tourists share curiosity as motivation but do not have the same points of reference. In spite of that, the feeling of proximity with the destination does not constitute a barrier to become a tourist. It is the conscious adoption of the tourist's role which makes the individual gaze upon the visited areas like a tourist, regardless of the proximity with the environment. This approach of proximity tourism constitutes a way to enhance familiar places and develop tourism in an environmentally concerned context where proximate destinations are being promoted.
The number of mining heritage tourism experiences in Spain has grown significantly in recent year... more The number of mining heritage tourism experiences in Spain has grown significantly in recent years, thereby contributing to reappraising a resource that has managed to create a small niche in an increasingly competitive tourism context. Simultaneously, the so-called “proximity tourism” has also been gaining acceptance, as it promotes the appreciation of heritage among local people. Based on the idea that both forms of tourism are complementary, this article attempts to identify the synergies between them. The article analyzes the specific case of the Salt Mountain Cultural Park in the old mining town of Cardona, Catalonia. Although with some nuances, the data and analysis show that Cardona has gained prominence in recent years in the sphere of heritage tourism and proximity tourism
through the consolidation of its mining tourism offering.
Tourism is usually defined as an activity that allows individuals (tourists) to visit spaces outs... more Tourism is usually defined as an activity that allows individuals (tourists) to visit spaces outside their usual environment. In a globalized context, however, the meaning of close and far, of known and unknown, has been distorted. This phenomenon has been identified as an opportunity by a segment of the tourism sector, resulting in tourism proposals specifically aimed at the inhabitants of the visited destination. This paper focuses on Barcelona, an international tourist destination where residents have become potential tourists. By analysing the offering of guided cultural visits mainly for the local public and the geographical and perceived origin of these participants, this paper aims to enhance knowledge about the “unknown but close” attractions which are or can be developed through tourism.
Inside the changes that in the latter years are taking place in the tourist sector, stand out the... more Inside the changes that in the latter years are taking place in the tourist sector, stand out the offers of cultural tourism, being the industrial tourism one of his manifestations. It is a type of tourism that it combines the formative aspects about the industrial products and processes, current and past, with the knowledge of the sociocultural aspects of a certain epoch, reaffirming the local identity. For it, the local administrations, seeing the cultural and political benefits that this activity represents for the community, favor his development, possessing, often, the ownership of the industrial museums. Nevertheless, generally, these do not present an economic sufficient sustainability, since it is a minority tourism that, with the current economic crisis, he suffers from private sponsors and has a few own very low income, for what forts need public subsidies to be able to balance his budgets.
In this work there is analyzed the case of fourteen of the principal industrial museums in Catalonia, from external sources of statistical information and surveys, being confirmed the reality of this cultural and economic dilemma, which forces to a future, but urgently, rethinking of the structural organization of this type of tourism.
Currently, with growing competitiveness among destinations, cultural tourism emerges as a relevan... more Currently, with growing competitiveness among destinations, cultural tourism emerges as
a relevant product. Industrial tourism is one of its manifestations, bringing a tourism value
into a territory’s industrial heritage. Nevertheless, this remains a minor part of tourism.
Therefore, based on results from a survey carried out by the authors of this paper, a structural
equations model is proposed. The analysis (applied to the case of industrial tourism
in the Catalan regions of Bages and Bergueda) confirms that visitor satisfaction, the place
of origin of tourists and reason for the visit are the three parameters determining (although
with different weights) the likelihood of tourists to return and to increase the destination’s
prescription and thus improve the development of industrial tourism.
Territorial features favour the organisation of festivals. Promoters wish to offer some added val... more Territorial features favour the organisation of festivals. Promoters wish to offer some added value using local products. Festivals broadcast local identity to the world. Festivals’ features as tourist products explain how they are perceived as innovative. These existing products are being further developed to meet cultural tourism requirements. This strategy is justified by the search for innovation in a fiercely global competitive context. Current paper focuses on a present product and analyses its transformation: how a territory uses an old strategy in a new way generating future opportunities for tourism sector and local economies.
Cuadernos de Turismo n°32, Jul 2013
El turismo es una actividad que permite vivir experiencias diferentes de las habituales en lugare... more El turismo es una actividad que permite vivir experiencias diferentes de las habituales en lugares diferentes a los habituales. Cuando la globalización de la información facilita un mejor conocimiento de territorios lejanos, la oferta turística de lugares cercanos y a la vez desconocidos, favorece la revalorización de los espacios cotidianos y con ello un proceso de desarrollo local. Este artículo presenta el turismo de proximidad desde un enfoque teórico, cuestionando conceptos clave y proponiendo herramientas para su estudio, a fin de relacionar turismo y desarrollo local.
Tourism has traditionally been considered as the activity that allows people to live non-usual ex... more Tourism has traditionally been considered as the activity that allows people to live non-usual experiences in non-usual places through mobility. Nowadays, when landscape is understood as every place perceived as it by a community, when the globalization of information makes easier the knowledge of further places than usual ones, and when sustainability is the new politics framework, also in tourism, a tourist offer to closer and, at the same time, unknown places seems relevant in order to beat tourism’ seasonal constraints and increase the value of usual environments. This last goal is an essential step forward to a development from local scale and, for this reason, this paper tries to study how endogen resources appreciation from a tourist activity can encourage an integrative and participative development process.
The term "landscape" has changed leaving behind its connection to "originality", "exceptional" or... more The term "landscape" has changed leaving behind its connection to "originality", "exceptional" or "unique"to adopt a much more integrative meaning as a frame to daily life. This new consideration entails the need to integrate it in territorial policies and that is why these last years we can find laws, conventions, programs and tools placing landscape in a central position in spatial planning.
This study intends to analyse landscape and boundary from the idea that landscape is a continuum and it is a crucial element in order to promote cooperation between countries and between bordering regions sharing a landscape but belonging to different countries. This study will analyse different tools in this field: the European Landscape Convention, the Landscape Europe net, the EUROPARC Federation's Transboundary Parks program and EGTCs.with the example of Duero-Douro.
Tourism Geographies, 2017
Tourism research often tends to overlook both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the eve... more Tourism research often tends to overlook both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the everyday. However, when acknowledging that exoticism is not necessarily linked to geographical distance, it is similarly possible to attribute touristic otherness to and experience unfamiliarity in a geographically proximate environment. This entails a need to rethink the intertwining relationships of meanings of the exotic and the mundane, as well as the ways people make meaning of their everyday environment through processes of territorialization and identification in a tourism context. Following this idea, these articles focus on the intraregional scale level and on the concept of proximity as a way of studying meanings and practices of tourism near home. In an attempt to strengthen the momentum of proximity tourism research, a double session (sponsored by the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group) was organized during the Royal Geographical Society (RGS)-IBG (Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference which took place in September 2015 at the University of Exeter (UK). The sessions form the basis of this collection of articles, in which various aspects of proximity and intraregional tourism are discussed.
Tourism Geographies, 2017
Being a tourist is not a passive attitude. It is the result of a conscious decision essentially b... more Being a tourist is not a passive attitude. It is the result of a conscious decision essentially based on how individuals build what they perceive as unknown and how they decide to get to know it. In other words, tourists deliberately create a distance with the destination which allows them to enjoy the tourist experience as something exceptional. This paper is part of ongoing research and focuses on the subjective construction of the otherness, since this process determines what is left to be discovered. First, a theoretical overview will introduce the concepts of usual environment, proximity and tourist. Then, we will focus on guided tours as a mechanism of mediation between individuals and places. Finally, we will move on to the case of Barcelona's walking tours and the local participants’ experience as a way to adopt a tourist's approach. Preliminary results show, first, four categories of experience of proximate guided tours: educational, expert, recreational and tourist. Then, they focus on the proximity tourist experience using Urry and Larsen's notion of the ‘tourist gaze’ and Tuan's theory on the tourist and the resident's points of view. According to these theories, participants’ motivations and their individual frame of reference define a tourist's point of view. Based on that, results show that proximity tourists and traditional tourists share curiosity as motivation but do not have the same points of reference. In spite of that, the feeling of proximity with the destination does not constitute a barrier to become a tourist. It is the conscious adoption of the tourist's role which makes the individual gaze upon the visited areas like a tourist, regardless of the proximity with the environment. This approach of proximity tourism constitutes a way to enhance familiar places and develop tourism in an environmentally concerned context where proximate destinations are being promoted.
The number of mining heritage tourism experiences in Spain has grown significantly in recent year... more The number of mining heritage tourism experiences in Spain has grown significantly in recent years, thereby contributing to reappraising a resource that has managed to create a small niche in an increasingly competitive tourism context. Simultaneously, the so-called “proximity tourism” has also been gaining acceptance, as it promotes the appreciation of heritage among local people. Based on the idea that both forms of tourism are complementary, this article attempts to identify the synergies between them. The article analyzes the specific case of the Salt Mountain Cultural Park in the old mining town of Cardona, Catalonia. Although with some nuances, the data and analysis show that Cardona has gained prominence in recent years in the sphere of heritage tourism and proximity tourism
through the consolidation of its mining tourism offering.
Tourism is usually defined as an activity that allows individuals (tourists) to visit spaces outs... more Tourism is usually defined as an activity that allows individuals (tourists) to visit spaces outside their usual environment. In a globalized context, however, the meaning of close and far, of known and unknown, has been distorted. This phenomenon has been identified as an opportunity by a segment of the tourism sector, resulting in tourism proposals specifically aimed at the inhabitants of the visited destination. This paper focuses on Barcelona, an international tourist destination where residents have become potential tourists. By analysing the offering of guided cultural visits mainly for the local public and the geographical and perceived origin of these participants, this paper aims to enhance knowledge about the “unknown but close” attractions which are or can be developed through tourism.
Inside the changes that in the latter years are taking place in the tourist sector, stand out the... more Inside the changes that in the latter years are taking place in the tourist sector, stand out the offers of cultural tourism, being the industrial tourism one of his manifestations. It is a type of tourism that it combines the formative aspects about the industrial products and processes, current and past, with the knowledge of the sociocultural aspects of a certain epoch, reaffirming the local identity. For it, the local administrations, seeing the cultural and political benefits that this activity represents for the community, favor his development, possessing, often, the ownership of the industrial museums. Nevertheless, generally, these do not present an economic sufficient sustainability, since it is a minority tourism that, with the current economic crisis, he suffers from private sponsors and has a few own very low income, for what forts need public subsidies to be able to balance his budgets.
In this work there is analyzed the case of fourteen of the principal industrial museums in Catalonia, from external sources of statistical information and surveys, being confirmed the reality of this cultural and economic dilemma, which forces to a future, but urgently, rethinking of the structural organization of this type of tourism.
Currently, with growing competitiveness among destinations, cultural tourism emerges as a relevan... more Currently, with growing competitiveness among destinations, cultural tourism emerges as
a relevant product. Industrial tourism is one of its manifestations, bringing a tourism value
into a territory’s industrial heritage. Nevertheless, this remains a minor part of tourism.
Therefore, based on results from a survey carried out by the authors of this paper, a structural
equations model is proposed. The analysis (applied to the case of industrial tourism
in the Catalan regions of Bages and Bergueda) confirms that visitor satisfaction, the place
of origin of tourists and reason for the visit are the three parameters determining (although
with different weights) the likelihood of tourists to return and to increase the destination’s
prescription and thus improve the development of industrial tourism.
Territorial features favour the organisation of festivals. Promoters wish to offer some added val... more Territorial features favour the organisation of festivals. Promoters wish to offer some added value using local products. Festivals broadcast local identity to the world. Festivals’ features as tourist products explain how they are perceived as innovative. These existing products are being further developed to meet cultural tourism requirements. This strategy is justified by the search for innovation in a fiercely global competitive context. Current paper focuses on a present product and analyses its transformation: how a territory uses an old strategy in a new way generating future opportunities for tourism sector and local economies.
Cuadernos de Turismo n°32, Jul 2013
El turismo es una actividad que permite vivir experiencias diferentes de las habituales en lugare... more El turismo es una actividad que permite vivir experiencias diferentes de las habituales en lugares diferentes a los habituales. Cuando la globalización de la información facilita un mejor conocimiento de territorios lejanos, la oferta turística de lugares cercanos y a la vez desconocidos, favorece la revalorización de los espacios cotidianos y con ello un proceso de desarrollo local. Este artículo presenta el turismo de proximidad desde un enfoque teórico, cuestionando conceptos clave y proponiendo herramientas para su estudio, a fin de relacionar turismo y desarrollo local.
Tourism has traditionally been considered as the activity that allows people to live non-usual ex... more Tourism has traditionally been considered as the activity that allows people to live non-usual experiences in non-usual places through mobility. Nowadays, when landscape is understood as every place perceived as it by a community, when the globalization of information makes easier the knowledge of further places than usual ones, and when sustainability is the new politics framework, also in tourism, a tourist offer to closer and, at the same time, unknown places seems relevant in order to beat tourism’ seasonal constraints and increase the value of usual environments. This last goal is an essential step forward to a development from local scale and, for this reason, this paper tries to study how endogen resources appreciation from a tourist activity can encourage an integrative and participative development process.
The term "landscape" has changed leaving behind its connection to "originality", "exceptional" or... more The term "landscape" has changed leaving behind its connection to "originality", "exceptional" or "unique"to adopt a much more integrative meaning as a frame to daily life. This new consideration entails the need to integrate it in territorial policies and that is why these last years we can find laws, conventions, programs and tools placing landscape in a central position in spatial planning.
This study intends to analyse landscape and boundary from the idea that landscape is a continuum and it is a crucial element in order to promote cooperation between countries and between bordering regions sharing a landscape but belonging to different countries. This study will analyse different tools in this field: the European Landscape Convention, the Landscape Europe net, the EUROPARC Federation's Transboundary Parks program and EGTCs.with the example of Duero-Douro.