The University of Navarra (UPNA) is taking part in a series of conferences and seminars organised by the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). This initiative brings together academics, writers, and artists to reflect on tourism as a global phenomenon and to analyse its intersection with the right to leisure, as well as its significant urban and environmental impacts.
Among the participants are notable figures such as Mimi Sheller, Marco d’Eramo, Geoff Dyer, Raquel Huete, Anna Pacheco, Carolina del Olmo, Katixa Agirre, and Francesc Muñoz. Recently, UPNA's Professor Ion Martínez Lorea, from the Department of Sociology and Social Work and a researcher at I-COMMUNITAS, presented on the democratization of tourism.
The CCCB, established in 1994 in the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona, is a multidisciplinary centre dedicated to exploring major contemporary societal issues through various formats and languages. Its Cities and Tourism project addresses one of the most characteristic mass phenomena of modern times.
“Travel has literally expanded the boundaries of leisure culture and has democratized a privilege that was previously accessible only to a small elite,” the centre states.
“Analysing today's tourism imaginaries is also a way to rethink the concepts of leisure, rest, and free time in the contemporary world. However, the popularisation of this phenomenon is not without significant risks related to its impact on climate and urban life, often generating controversy over issues such as commerce, housing, heritage preservation, and coexistence with local residents,” the CCCB adds.
As part of this project, Professor Martínez Lorea's presentation, titled “Tourism, a social right?”, examined experiences aimed at democratizing access to tourism as a tool for social well-being and explored new tourism policies for the future. The seminar, moderated by journalist Eva Arderius, aimed to rethink public policies on leisure and reflect on the current challenges to effectively guarantee the right to tourism and holidays.
Martínez Lorea discussed the city of Benidorm as a significant laboratory for mass tourism in the second half of the 20th century and as a paradigm for working-class access to holidays. He argued that Benidorm represents a case of sustained tourism success built on multiple tensions and contradictions, particularly between the leisure of tourists and the exhaustion of those employed in the industry.
Inspired by the works of Navarrese sociologist Mario Gaviria and French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, he proposed analysing Benidorm through the concept of “concrete utopia” as a space for the rest and enjoyment of the working classes, free from the elitist prejudices that often sanction non-normative practices and bodies in contemporary leisure and tourism contexts.
About Ion Martínez Lorea
Ion Martínez Lorea holds a PhD in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid and is a professor at UPNA. He specializes in urban, rural, and tourism sociology and is part of the executive team of the Research Committee on “Tourism and Leisure” of the Spanish Sociology Federation (FES). He is also a member of the research group on rural sociology, mobility, and social research, and currently participates in the research project “Work and power dynamics: explanatory keys for the legitimisation and social contestation of tourism in sun and beach destinations,” directed by Alejandro Mantecón (University of Alicante) and Claudio Milano (University of Barcelona), and funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.
