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1
International Geographical Union Regional Conference.
18-22 August 2014, Krakow, Poland.
Trends and evolution of tourism in the Mediterranean Basin
Fernando Almeida Garcia,
Antonia Balbuena Vazquez
Rafael Cortés Macias,
University of Malaga, Spain
1.Abstract
This study analyzes the tourist developments that have taken the Mediterranean basin in
recent years. This paper studies the internal differences, the intervention of political and
social factors and key trends. Maintenance of tourism is checked despite the stagnation
in tourist arrivals.
The Mediterranean basin is the main tourist area of the world, despite strong
competition from other tourist areas.
The distribution of this tourism is very unbalanced, with most concentrated in the north
shore, and especially in the western side (75.4% tourists and 78.9% bed places, 2012).
The southern and eastern Mediterranean shore has been affected by conflict which has
caused a loss of tourist flows.
The Mediterranean basin is a mature tourist region that needs to reinvent itself to remain.
2. Introduction
Tourism mass that grew up on its shore very early has been seen by the Mediterranean
Sea, and goes on the main tourist destination on the World, although new tourist regions
challenger the first place.
A crowd of tourist flows converge toward the Mediterranean, especially European flows
and lesser extent American and Asian. The distribution of this tourism is very
unbalanced, with most concentrated in the north shore, and especially in the western
side. This is explained by the closeness of these areas to large outbound tourism flows
and the development of an important infrastructure accommodation and establishment
of large tourism enterprises.
The Mediterranean has the secondary destination countries of the southern shore, which
in recent years have been the focus of conflicts that have affected the intensity of flows
and generated a reallocation of travelers in the Mediterranean basin. On the other hand,
the Mediterranean basin is a mature tourist space that needs to reinvent itself tourism to
continue growing.
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In this paper are analyzed the statistics of international tourism in the different countries
of the Mediterranean basin to help identify its development as an international tourist
destination, as well as the development of the accommodation infrastructure and the
role that the tourism revenues on the economy of each country. Also, trends recorded in
recent years in the Mediterranean basin are assessed and during this period there have
been significant political and economic changes.And the answer of the Mediterranean
countries will be analyzed according to their level of tourism development and its
political and economic characteristics.
We present two study hypothesis: (i) Loss of market share of the Mediterranean world
and (ii) Impacts of socio-political conflict in the evolution of tourist flows in the
Mediterranean basin.
Study results indicate that the Mediterranean as tourist region has decline in the global
share of tourism but the number of tourists arriving in the Mediterranean basin is
increasing. This fact is related to the strong tourism growth in other global regions.
Diversification of the Mediterranean offer supply and conversion of mature destinations
is explaining the growth of tourism demand in the Mediterranean.
The second result of the analysis indicates that political conflicts have led to some
changes in the orientation of the demand. The loss of tourists from the countries of
North Africa has been taken up by the countries of the northern shore of the
Mediterranean. This situation is not the same for all the countries of northern Africa. In
the medium term, if there is excessive volatility, tourism demand to retrieve.
These results invite us to open debates on models of tourism development in the
Mediterranean basin.
Method
Statistics of international tourism in the Mediterranean countries are analyzed.
Two hypotheses of the study are presented:
(i) loss of market share of the Mediterranean world.
(ii) the effects of socio-political conflict in the evolution of tourist flows in the
Mediterranean basin.
3
Conclusions
The results indicate that the Mediterranean continues to grow in absolute numbers but is
losing market share worldwide.
The Mediterranean remains the world's leading tourist region, although with moderate
growth.
Second, political conflicts have caused the loss of tourism in the countries of the
southern shore.
Acknowledgments
This research was sponsored by the National Programme of Basic Research 2012,
Ministry of Economic and Competitiveness, Spain, grant number CS2010-30840,
‘Geographies of crises: analysis of urban and tourist territories of the Balearic Islands,
Costa del Sol and major tourist destinations in the Caribbean’.
Scale: 1:19.450.000
83
57.7 46.4
35.7
15.5
10.4
11.2
9.4
5.9
Distribution of international Tourists
in the Mediterranean Basin (2012)
millions of tourists
Source: UNWTO and authors
4
Comparative evolution of tourism regions
(millions of tourists)
168
280
436
684
940
1035
58
95
152
221
285
293
19 30 70 92 116 121
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2012
Note: Figures for all Mediterranean and Caribbean riparian countries
Source: UNWTO
World Tourists Mediterranean Tourists Caribbean Tourists
Annual growth rate of international tourists by
Mediterranean regions
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
1990-2000
2000-2005
2005-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
Source: UNWTO
%
South Mediterranean East Mediterranean
North Mediterranean
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Evolution of tourism in the Mediterranean
compared to world tourism
35,0
34,9
33,2
35,5
34,4
30,9
32,4
30,9
30,3
28,3
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2012
Source: UNWTO
%
% Med.Tourists/ World Tourists
