Tour-scapes or how to convert mature tourism destinations to complex sustainable landscapes: the strategy of the "second coast"

Abstract

The paper discusses the innovation potential of landscape design to mature tourism destinations in the Mediterranean, especially in relation to its contribution to generate new imagery as well as to configure sustainability criteria in order to improve tourist consolidated environments. It is structured in two parts: The first deals with the intense relationship between Landscape and Tourism. The second focuses on a review of the research results developed within the frame of the Master’s in Landscape Architecture, UPC, in the territories of Costa Brava, Catalonia, Spain and Languedoc, France. The works presented explore protocols of developing a sustainable tourist imagery based on the identity and natural potential of these landscapes in relation to the development of a holistic tourist project that involves landscape not as a background but as a tourist product in itself. The experiences include approaches that relate the existing coastal developments to its agricultural "hinterland", specifically denominated as "second coast".