Menorca: from the third tourist boom to the economic crisis and the role of the Insular Territorial Plan

Abstract

The territories and tourist destinations have experienced a process of evolution and transformation of large scale in recent decades. The morphological and structural changes experienced during this period are very important in this process, which also affected the Island of Menorca. Increasing number of tourists, with the support of the Insular Territorial Plan and the effects of the economic crisis, and the end of the real estate bubble, are the main elements that have conditioned the evolution of Menorca in last few decades. This paper analyses these three elements in order to study the changes that have occurred in Menorca, and how they have come to determine the territory that we have nowadays.

Key words: Menorca, tourism, Insular Territorial Plan, tourist boom, urbanization, crisis.