Relevant to Rural-Urban Partnership Development

2.3. Selection of issues relevant to a partnership
in relation to rural and urban development

SELECTION OF INNOVATIVE CASES

RELEVANT TO RURAL-URBAN PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Spanish contribution (01-09-99)

CALVIÁ MUNICIPALITY

Texts by :Department of Geography, University of

Introduction

Calviá, municipality situated in south-west of Majorca, is an example of a paradigmatic tourist destination in the north-western Mediterranean, plenty of sun and beaches. Its 145 km2, 56 km of seaside, its natural area of great quality, diversity of ecosystems, 30.000 inhabitants, 120.000 tourism vacancies and around 1.200.000 visitors per year, reveal the importance of tourism to the Municipality, being 95 % of our economic activity.

The tourism development of Calviá, has its roots in the first great growth of the international tourism in Spain in the sixties. During the following two decades the tourism activity grew and it is introduced a new model of development, based on a short term vision, on a property development badly adapted to the local conditions, and in a unsustainable exploitation of the natural resources.

At the end of the eighties the cost of the externalities, produced by an uncoordinated development, started to revealed itself. The progressive ageing and the lack of tourism installations, as well as the exhaustion of the tourism model, produce a decline on the demand. The maturity of the municipality was reached with the risk of initiating a declining phase.

The municipality of Calviá faces the necessity of tackling policies, which try to avoid this threat and correct some mistakes generated by the model of development adopted in the past. The municipality promoted the production of “Programme of Excellence of Calviá”. Through this programme it was pretended to reconvert the tourism areas with an important level of saturation, specified in three great lines of action:

• Environmental recovery of coastal areas.
• Improvement of the quality, promotion and professionally.
• Co-operation, social cohesion and civic participation.

In 1995 the Municipality decide to produce a long term strategic plan called “Calviá; Agenda Local 21”, which pretends to give a new direction to the tourism development through the rules of compatibility and sustainability with the environment.

Identification

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General data about the region

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Specific objectives

Problems, strangles and threats

Calviá has been since the middle of the century to 1996, and still is, a tourism mature municipality with a bid exclusively based on sun and beaches.

The early beginnings of the Municipality in this mono-specialisation, generated a string of problems such as the degradation of the installations and public and private equipment, jointly with an important environmental damage produced by the intensive used of the municipal space. As a consequence of that grave impacts, especially in the coastal zone, were detected.

The new perspectives and changes of the tendency in the tourism situation made Calviá sink into a big uncertainty due to the loss of competitiveness and the lack of attractive that was starting to suffer in the nineties.

Among the bottlenecks occasioned by that tourism mono-specialisation, we can highlight, from a socio-economic point of view, the following: seasonal concentration, causing social unbalances through seasonal changes in the labour market, with full employment (high season) and high unemployment rates (low season). And from the life quality perspective: some difficulties arouse, given the demographic overloading, to have available the resources and services required by tourists and residents. As a result, local society and economy were conditioned to tourism cycles.

These strong pressures of the tourism industry affected also to the natural environment, given that they installed themselves in the most natural areas and coastal zones, harming them gradually.

The threats of this intensive and abusive way of the tourism sector in Calviá (1.600.000 tourists per year, 800.000 in summer, 125.000 hotel vacancies) were grave for the next future of the town and its surroundings. Actually the international tourists place more importance to the quality than to the quantity. This meant an acquisitive power decrease of those tourists who chose Calviá as a destination. This made difficult the maintenance of the prices of tourism arrangement, and generates a drop of the business investments and a deterioration of urban heritage due to a lack of care.

Potentialities and opportunities

Calviá is very well situated, in a Mediterranean island with an exceptional climate in temperatures and rain. There are 2.800 hours of sun light and 311 soft temperature days per year. The island has a good net of communications, it is two and a half hours time by plane from the almost every main cities of Europe.

The Municipality has a historical and cultural heritage and as long as it is conserved its environmental surroundings will be very attractive. Those elements, among other different ones, are clear encouragement to diversify, at least, the tourism offer, currently based just on sunny weather and beaches.

Contribution of different actors

The proposals of the group of experts, who analyse the situation and its evolution in the different thematic blocks, are also showed to the society through the Citizen Advisory Forum.

The Agreement for the development of the Agenda 21 Local of Calviá was signed by the State, Commerce, Tourism and SMEs Secretary, Department of Tourism of the Baleares regional council, the Town Council and the hotel entrepreneurs. It is foreseen the follow up of those proposals in order to identify future necessities.

Role of sectorial and territorial policies

Following the sustainability criteria, there is a new direction of the economic, social, cultural and environmental development thanks to an integration of the sectoral and territorial policies. A few years ago, this Municipality based its strategic actions in a “Programme of Excellence”. Anyway, since1995 the Municipality decided to globalise the new line of work, halt the approval of new urban developments and start to elaborate a long term strategic plan. The objective of the Plan is to define a new strategy in order to give a new direction to the tourism development, where the environmental factor is a key element: “Calviá, Agenda Local 21”.

The strategy of the document above mentioned (approved by the Municipality members the 1st of February of 1996) proposed:

• An action plan to reach the economic, environmental, social, and heritable balance of Calviá. This balance can be the model of action for tourism destinations.

The objective is the implementation, without contradictions, of sectorial and global or territorial policies, in order to get the right articulation between the vertical and horizontal measures.

Among the action lines agreed, which develop in forty initiatives, highlight:

• To maintain the human pressure, to limit the growing and contribute to the rehabilitation of the territory and its littoral.

• To preserve the land and maritime natural heritage.
• To recuperate the historical and cultural heritage.
• The total rehabilitation of the urban territories.
• Improvement of Calviá as a tourism destination: to change growing for sustainable quality and to search higher tourism expenditure.
• To improve the public transport and to favour the transport in bicycle of the pedestrian.
• A sustainable management in basic environmental sector such as water, energy, and waste.
• To invest in knowledge resources, to diversify the economic system.

• Innovation of the municipal government and enlargement of the agreed capacity of public-private investment.

Models for the future

The model of development for the future has to obtain successful results in the following planned actions :

• Revision of the General Plan of Urban Order, through its re-orientation to the rational use of the available resources.
• Keeping on with the "Lightening Plan", through the demolition of buildings in the coastal area.
• Subvention policy for the rehabilitation, construction and purchase of housings for residents and workers of the municipality.
• Project to "modify the demands/offers in terms of season and tourism", in order to promote tourism in winter.

• Improvement of the specialised service for training and employment.
• Keeping on with the institutionalisation of the participation, co-operation and decision-making together between institutions and private agents.

To conclude, the whole strategy and municipal policy have to go towards the Local Agenda 21 Programme for Calvía.

new options

The new options for development to be implemented should meet the following objectives :

• To avoid the use of new areas, through the search and identification of alternatives in the frame of the durable development.
• To bet for an urban planning that would increment environmental and ecological values
• To reinforce the activities in terms of waste recycling
• Agreement between institutions and social agencies to work in the same direction.
• To search for new durable and qualified employment opportunities in activities compatible with the environmental conservation and life quality (recuperation of urban areas, natural reserves, culture, social assistance, etc.).

Literature, documents and other information

Ayuntamiento de Calviá (1996): Calviá, Agenda Local 21: Turismo y Desarrollo Sostenible para destinos turísticos maduros del Mediterráneo.

Ayuntamiento de Calviá: Revista Entorn. (varios años)

Ayuntamiento de Calviá (1997): La Sostenibilidad de un municipio turístico. Plan de Acción. Editado por el Gobierno Balear y el Ministerio de Economía.

Ministerio de Fomento (1998): Segundo catálogo español de buenas prácticas. Ciudades para vivir. Habitat II.

Direcciones de Internet

Sitio oficial del Ayuntamiento de Calviá

Sitio de la Comunidad Autónoma de las Islas Baleares

Matrix 1 of case study

REGIONS

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