ABSTRACT
The diagnosis is that the process of deregulation threatens the balance between the State, the economy and society. The process of deregulation, in the framework of a new economy, has opened the way to a new stage on which the principles and tools of regional and sectoral policies have been modified, designed to intervene in the under privileged zones. The intervention of the bodies of public administration has been directed at the exploitation of the tourist potential of an area through the application of tourist policies and various regional planning and management tools. Tourism in Spain has an asymmetric spatial pattern, heavily concentrated along coastal areas – particularly along the Mediterranean and in the island provinces, as well in certain cities and emblematic places of the regions of the interior and the mountains. The clearest evidence of this is the passing in 1992 of the Framework Plan for the Competitiveness of Spanish Tourism or the Futures Plan.
