La actividad turística en el litoral de la Región de Murcia (Sureste de España): breves consideraciones sobre su evolución reciente y estado actual

The Mediterranean coastal front has traditionally been a focus of tourism on a national and international scale. With regards to the administrative delimitations of the coastline, the situation in the Region of Murcia has been long stagnant, resulting in slower and more unequal processes of modernisation than in other similar regions of Spain. This study is directed at analysing the processes, evolution and causes for this relative divorce between Murcia and the rest of the Mediterranean coastal communities and provinces. A comparison and contrast is made of the various different regional tourist areas in an attempt to ascertain areas of greater strength and the reasons that have led to these being so. The methodology used is quantitative, using the official statistics provided by the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia and the National Institute of Statistics. The main results of this research underline how the Region of Murcia lags behind the rest in terms of tourism, as well as the broad-ranging inequalities existing between the Murcian coastal municipalities.