The walled town of Alcudia as a focus for an alternative tourism in Mallorca

Abstract

The town of Alcudia in Mallorca was selected as one of four walled towns for a European Commission funded study of sustainable tourism (European Commission, 1992). Each town (Chepstow in South Wales, Conwy in North Wales and Naarden in Holland) had a broadly similar population - between 8000 and 16,000 - and overlapping similarities in terms of tourism, geography or history. As walled towns, they were all examples of the preindustrial culture of Europe and contained important elements of that preindustrial heritage (Bruce, 1994). The walled towns of Alcudia and Conwy were both close to mass family seaside resort areas. All four towns have been more or less thoroughly by-passed by modern roads. Each has been studied in conjunction with the local municipal government by a neighbouring university: in the case of Alcudia, the University of the Balearics. Since a crisis point in the mid-1980s, the Balearics generally (Ruiz, 1990) and the Municipal Government of Alcudia have begun to seek a more varied and improved marketing image for the island. The idea of the walled town as a focus for an 'alternative' tourism was therefore attractive (Alcudia, 1992) if it could be done sustainably. It fitted well into one of the limited roles seen for alternative tourism: 'to complement mass tourism by increasing attractions and authenticity' (Butler, 1992). The definition for 'sustainability' was taken to be that of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) as meeting 'the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. In terms of tourism, it was more closely defined as 'green' within the potentially conflicting senses of conserving irreplaceable cultural and physical resources, not adding further to global warming and noxious side-effects, and being community based and supported (Jackson and Bruce, 1992). A fuller discussion of the working definition was reported to the Leisure Studies Association Annual International Conference in July 1993 (Bruce and Jackson, 1993). This understanding was directly compatible with the basic shared concern of the Walled Towns Friendship Circle to develop tourism sustainably without damaging the physical, historical or social fabric of their towns (Bacon, 1991). Associated success criteria evolved to ensure that no significant disadvantages were caused to the town, its residents, the ecology and the environment from seeking to increase income and employment from tourism. The Alctidia study was part of the testing process for the general approach, which generated a handbook of good practice for sustainable tourism in walled (and by extension other historic) towns for Directorate General 23 Qf the European Commission (Bruce et al., 1993).