Learning from experience? Progress towards a sustainable future for tourism in the Central and Eastern Andalucían littoral

This paper examines the recent development of tourism on the coast of Andalucía to the east of Málaga city in the light of explicit assertions of the adoption of sustainability principles by the Spanish tourism authorities. Using a simple model of sustainable tourism and comparing the eastern coastal area with the earlier developed Costa del Sol, it is concluded that any progress towards more sustainable forms of tourism activity in the east are, at best, superficial. An examination of two major proposed developments, at Maro and Retamar, demonstrates the continuing growth-oriented strategy of tourism in the region and a clear failure to engage with the environmental, sociocultural and political contexts of sustainable tourism development.