Tourism, Real Estate Production and Spatial Processes: The Dissemination of the Spanish Tourism Model to Brazil

Abstract

In recent decades, a tourist model based on the construction of residential complexes close to the coast has been implemented on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with homes generally acquired by citizens of other European countries. This process has generated a vigorous real estate market (1995-2007) and various socio-spatial phenomena, such as gentrification, segregation, homogenization or fragmentation of the urbanized space, in a model that has been exported to various places, such as the American continent. The objective of the present investigation is to analyze the diffusion of the Spanish tourist model towards Brazil, specifically its presence in Polo Costa das Dunas, in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. This transmission is mainly due to the European capital construction companies that invest in the aforementioned territory. The most relevant conclusion is the dissemination and transfer of the urban socio-spatial processes that characterize the Spanish residential tourism model.