Regional tourist organizations in Spain: emergence,policies and consequences

Abstract

As the result of the creation of autonomous communities in post-Franco Spain, a new regional level of public sector decision making and intervention in tourism was introduced. This paper examines the regional tourist organizations that emerged and shows how the major tourist regions developed separate, more flexible marketing bodies. Consideration is then given to recent policies and plans which have been developed largely in response to the crisis conditions of the late 1980s. These emphasize a need to improve competitiveness and set forth various related strategies to achieve this end. Consequences of this new level of intervention include increased attention to domestic tourism; creation of community tourism images, greater regional coverage and product diversification; and attempts to direct and control the growth of tourism through preparation and implementation of regional tourism plans.