Due to the mountainous nature of the Island of La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain) relatively little flat land is available. This has generated an impressive architecture of terraces with dry stone borders. However, the process of restructuring and readjusting rural areas, mainly due to the emergence of a new model of territorial development and the impossibility of mechanizing tillage, due to the very configuration and morphology of these terraces, have led to the abandonment of agricultural activity on the terraces, with the consequent decay and collapse of the dry-stone walls. This chapter sets out the strategy to develop tourism of the terraces in the north of the Island of La Gomera.
TopIntroduction
The traditional strategy of tourist destinations revolving around the “sun and beach” product is based on tourists spending almost the entirety of their stay in tourist accommodation establishments or in the tourist area where they are located. This has been derived from an erroneous simplification of the tourist area, based in the idea that the main attraction factor is the services and facilities that such areas offer. The consequence of reducing the conception of the tourist area almost exclusively to the urban-tourist space, where tourist accommodation and service facilities are mainly concentrated, is that the territorial setting in which they are located is seen as peripheral and complementary; implying a disconnection with their territorial context.
However, changes in tourist preferences, behaviours, needs, purchasing behaviour, expectations, attitudes, geographical mobility patterns and patterns of consumption of products and services have changed in recent years (Scott et al., 2011; Peñarrubia, 2018). A new tourist profile has emerged, characterized by the combination of services and activities that allow the enjoyment of resources and that shape the tourist experience. This has led to a substantial modification of the above-mentioned centripetal territorial model because tourists are increasingly leaving the coastal tourist areas where they spend the night to carry out various activities in places of tourist interest (Padrón & Hernández, 2017).
This is consolidating what is known as “experience-based or emotional tourism”, which promotes getting to know territories through activities and services aimed at generating feelings and sensations, creating experiences that are considered more authentic, genuine and meaningful. This means moving from a transactional model to a relational one, in which travellers are no longer passive elements in the chain, but “co-creators” of the social value generated by the tourist experience (Peñarrubia et al., 2019).
This implies an enhancement of the multiple and diverse tourism resources of the territorial context in which these coastal tourist areas are located. This territorial perspective makes the geographical scale of the destination much smaller. The result is a territorial-tourist system made up of the sum of tourist concentration or departure nodes - the tourist areas that concentrate overnight stays - and the “points of tourist interest”, understood as places tourists visit to carry out certain activities or enjoy certain resources. This entails the establishment and/or intensification of complementary, symbiotic or even synergetic relationships between coastal activities and services and those that take place in other areas (Simancas, 2020).
The 85% of the surface has slopes greater than 20%, due to the mountainous nature of the island of La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain). This explains the relatively little flat land available (see Figure 1).. To counteract this, over the centuries farmers have reshaped the steep slopes, building flat, dry-stone terraced agricultural areas, which were traditionally used for subsistence farming. This has generated an impressive architecture of terraces with dry stone borders. Thus, the terraces, walls, embankments and plains form one of the most unique elements of the landscape and territorial identity of La Gomera.
Figure 1. Source: IDECanarias. Grafcan However, the process of restructuring and readjusting rural areas, mainly due to the emergence of a new model of territorial development and the impossibility of mechanizing tillage, due to the very configuration and morphology of these terraces, have led to the abandonment of agricultural activity on the terraces, with the consequent decay and collapse of the dry-stone walls.
This paper sets out the strategy to develop tourism of the terraces in the north of the island of La Gomera. This is part of the Strategic Plan for the Development of the North of La Gomera, promoted by the Department of Tourism, Industry and Trade of the Canary Islands Government, in collaboration with the Cabildo of La Gomera, and developed by researchers from the ReinvenTUR research team of the University of La Laguna.