Counting tourists

Mass tourism has produced a noteworthy occupation: tourist counting. The tourists who come to our lands are counted and recounted obsessively, compulsively, and in every imaginable way: by chosen destination, by country of origin, by gender, by social class, by type of tourism (cultural, climbing, gastronomic, rally, luxury, drunkenness), and all the drunkenness and all. Their habits are also quantified: spending, overnight stays, favorite leisure options, etc. Tourist counting is the occupation of a not inconsiderable number of citizens, and it has also become a nostrat journalistic genre.

The provisional tourist count for August 31st (the final count is done on October 31st, the end of the tourist season that begins at Easter) did not bring any major surprises. If we read the news published in the'NOWand in itNow the Balearic Islands, we note that (I quote) "the main destination autonomous communities with the greatest weight in tourist spending in July were the Balearic Islands (with 23.3%), Catalonia (20%), and the Valencian Community (13.5%)." The Catalan countries, therefore, and especially Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, compete among themselves, and also with the Canary Islands and Andalusia. Catalonia holds the record for tourists and spending, despite a slight drop of 1.2% compared to the previous year (11.6 million tourists up to July, out of the 55 million who visited Spain), with the peculiarity that they make shorter stays but also spend more. In the Balearic Islands, the figures are also impressive: 8,990,482 tourists up to July (nine million, in round numbers) and a 4.8% increase in spending. Given the obvious differences in their respective territories, this means that the Balearic Islands hold the records for population density, as well as for vehicle fleet density.

The figures, in any case, once again contradict some hotel and restaurant owners in the Balearic Islands, who have spent the summer warning of a decline in business, when all the data points upward (and, in the case of the Balearic Islands, in all areas of evaluation). Perhaps what's happening is that tourists are beginning to differentiate between acceptable quality tourism offerings and those that fall short of the minimum requirements. Or they're turning their backs on fraudulent options that skimp on service but inflate prices.

Anyway, the tourism sector remains in good health. Thank you. It's a shame that mass tourism is such a polluting activity, and therefore so blatantly incompatible with the need to address the demands of an increasingly obvious and visible climate change. There's also the question of the disconnect between the wealth generated by tourism (the main economic activity in the Balearic Islands and 12% of Catalonia's GDP) and the fact that the population at risk of poverty is 20% in the Balearic Islands and 24.4% in Catalonia—one in every five and one in every four citizens, respectively. However, counting the poor is less exciting than counting tourists.