ABSTRACT
Spain is an outstanding example of the impact of post-1945 growth in affordable international tourism and, with an estimated 34 million tourists annually, illustrates a mature destination that may have already reached the final phases of Butler’s model (see Figure 2:4). Spain also exemplifies many of the problems that resort areas encounter as they reach their capacities, and the resulting tendency for tourism places to drift down-market, setting in motion a process of spatial displacement of some groups of tourists to new destinations.
