The south of the country prepares for an eclipse that promises emotions
Five months remain until the astronomical phenomenon revolutionizes Lleida, Tarragona, and Terres de l'Ebre
Tarragona"Excuse me for not looking at the camera, it's quite difficult to stop looking at this." This is how journalist Lídia Heredia, TV3 correspondent in Washington DC, excused herself to the audience during her live broadcast to transmit the Solar eclipse in April 2024 from Erie, Pennsylvania. With paper glasses on, her mouth open and a face of immense emotion, the journalist insisted: "Many people have the feeling that we are experiencing one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences." Many inhabitants of southern Catalonia, and thousands of tourists, will have a similar feeling this August 12, when the Moon positions itself directly in front of the Sun, and darkness falls. For a minute and a half, as if someone had flipped a switch, it will suddenly get dark and you'll even be able to see the stars. All this will happen between 7:30 PM and 9:00 PM, depending on the location from which the sky is viewed.
The reaction of the TV3 professional is studied and is what Americans call "wow emotion", a feeling of deep admiration that we experience at certain moments in life, such as when we contemplate extraordinary natural phenomena. "In the end, an eclipse is that it gets dark, like every day. But it normally happens in two hours and not all at once. We are not used to it," explains Urbano Lorenzo, professor in the field of behavioral science methodology at the Rovira i Virgili University. "These situations that escape the everyday provoke a cognitive pause to understand what is happening," explains Lorenzo. Checking that nature does things we cannot control "makes us feel small and awakens a social behavior in us to collaborate with each other," explains the researcher. Some have already tried it and, as Heredia predicted, they are marked for life. Eclipse tourism has existed for a long time and, in fact, there are even cruises that look for eclipses. It is estimated that, this August, in five months, in the areas where the eclipse can be seen, there will be ten million more tourists than there would be in a normal summer.
Booking boom
"The boom happened just under a year ago," explains Mireia Sans, owner of Camping Prades Park. Although this mountain village will not be one of the best places to see the eclipse, its sky, recognized as a Starlight Tourist Destination and as a dark sky protected by the Department of Territory of the Generalitat de Catalunya, has made it one of the preferred destinations for this type of tourist. "We had many requests and decided to create a waiting list and process them little by little," explains Sans. The goal was to ensure that regular customers would not be left without a plot. To help with this screening and also to reduce the number of journeys, as recommended by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the campsite requires a minimum stay of one week.
The spokesperson for the Business Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of the province of Tarragona, Xavier Guardià, explains that this practice is common and recalls that the astronomical event occurs in full high season, "just on the days when everyone is on the move because even those who do not take holidays in August, take a few days off because". This coincidence also makes it very difficult to quantify how many reservations have been made with the eclipse in mind because, moreover, summer holidays are usually booked furthest in advance.
"If it had fallen in November, it would have been noticed much more," points out Guardià. However, although the tourist offer of the demarcation of Tarragona is close to full capacity at this time of year, "any event, in a first-class tourist sector, with quality services, is always good." It gives rise to what is known as "the repeat non-customer," which is when a person who visits the territory for whatever reason and ends up happy, returns for vacation.
The best place
To try to bring some order to the crowding that the eclipse will cause, the Generalitat government has determined zones of "total visibility", from where this spectacle of only a minute and a half can be enjoyed. For the moment – the list may change – it is about 20 municipalities where there will be at least 27 observation points. Most of them are between Lleida and Terres de l'Ebre. To check if a location is good or not for contemplating the eclipse, the test can be done on May 1st. On Labor Day, at 8:24 PM, the Sun will be at exactly the same height as on the day of the eclipse, according to Lorenzo. If the site we had planned is not suitable, because the Sun is already too low or because there is a mountain blocking it, we will still have a whole week in which the great star will be more or less in the same place as on August 12th, to check if the new location is good.
The Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya has prepared a website with all the necessary information to understand the eclipse and to be able to enjoy it safely. The astronomical phenomenon has also boosted interest in science and the different observatories, astronomical groups, and universities, among many others, are organizing different workshops and talks during these months, which can also be consulted from the Generalitat's website.
