ABSTRACT
The Spanish tourism sector has attracted the attention of scholars and policymakers given the unfaltering expansion of tourism since the 1960s. Like France, Spain is one of the leading countries worldwide in inbound tourism and this notably determined the geographic location of leisure activities. Tourism mobility in Europe has traditionally responded to flows of tourists from the northern countries to the southern destinations in the search of sea, sun, and sand (3-S tourism). The development of beach tourism in southern Europe is therefore not surprising, with Spain as one of the main recipients of mass tourism, and the subsequent spread of tourist resorts all along the Spanish Mediterranean coast and the Balearic and Canary Islands.
