El patrimonio cultural en los procesos de renovación de áreas turísticas litorales. Una aproximación al destino turístico de la Costa Blanca (Alicante, España)

Abstract

One of the most common actions contemplated by public and private agents in their strategies to renovate mature coastal tourism destinations is the diversification of the tourism product enhancing natural and cultural heritage. This research makes a brief review of the main scientific contribution from the field of the Geography of Tourism followed by an analysis of the wide thematic diversity of the Costa Blanca cultural heritage in Alicante (Spain), a tourism area characterized by the signs of consolidation described by the evolution models of the Tourism Product Life Cycle and the theories of productive restructuring. The analysis of tourism potential allows identifying the relevant heritage elements that could justify the creation of cultural tourism products as strategy of tourism diversification. This strategy could improve the competitiveness of the selected destination and at the same time the cultural heritage could act as an element of territorial structuring between coastal and inland areas which in general suffer a functional disconnection.