Alfaz Del Pi, Alicate, Spain

Presentation.

The Costa Blanca, in the last decades has undergone major changes in its demographic composition and territorial. The main cause of these changes has been the development of tourism. Among the towns that make up this area is Alfaz del Pi, a village economy based on agriculture. Today, the main source of income comes from tourism.

In our work we will observe and analyze the impact it has had on tourism development in Alfaz del Pi in particular, taking into account both positive and negative impacts.

The tourism that dominates this town is residential tourism, which found in Alfaz del Pi his second home. That appears Alfaz del Pi, around writing in Dutch in the electronic search Google "want to buy a house in Spain" demonstrates the high presence of foreigners.

The residential tourists as most of the population of Alfaz del Pi are European retirees or seniors who are autonomous and live much or all of the year as a second home. The possibility of buying a second home has allowed them to extend their stay, to the point where you spend more time here than in the country of origin, a situation very common, especially after retirement.

The main reasons for living residential tourists destination in much of the year consist, among others, favorable climate and comparative advantage between Spain and their own country in terms of purchasing power. Overall, this new type of tourist looks natural and, above all, appropriate social and discovering live in harmony, sometimes rediscover, reality or way of life that had been proposed.

Theoretical Framework

The present work is a phenomenon increasingly common resort on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the residential tourism. An analysis that focuses specifically on the developments that have appeared in the past two decades and social relations within the same geographical area and its surroundings.

Both the perception of residential tourism development by local society of immigrants themselves or, better said, the tourists residents who live in those locations that have been built especially for the development of this type of tourism.

In this paper we focus not only on the perception of tourists to the destination, but in reverse: How do you define and assess the phenomenon of tourism the tourist city residents?

The aim with these observations reflect a model that meets the above characteristics, as is the case in Alfaz del Pi, is why people reject and approved at the same time the effects generated by this process of urbanization and This growth, in some cases, excessive population. Thus, through the observation and analysis of the urban complex that was built on the outskirts of the old town of Alfaz del Pi, is intended to give an overall picture of the composition of this new kind of society "touristy" where different nationalities prevail to Spanish.

Before analyzing the phenomenon is essential to know what is understood under the term "residential tourists" because, without having the right perception is impossible to interpret their significance. It is difficult to understand the phenomenon of residential tourism and its potential consequences, and above all, think about it, when its very definition involves certain difficulties.

Well, first of all, we must define the concept of "journey" as it is a concept inherent to tourism. Now, the definition of travel according to World Tourism Organization is: the shift that occurs from the place of residence and / or work routine and immediate geographical context to another site.

Relating the above residential tourism, what would be the "usual environment" of the tourist, and when would it be? How long should someone stay in a place for it to become their "place of residence"? Also the definition of "tourism" will complicate the understanding of the group to which we are referring, a set of activities that are performed in an unusual space, different from the usual environment. But, what if someone stays so long in one place so that the latter becomes their usual environment would remain tourist or, to what we call immigration case, even when not working in the destination?

All this, and the fact that we are seeing a group located between tourism and migration makes it difficult the definition of residential tourism phenomenon, by complexity of lifestyles and mobility residencialidad ways that assimilate these new residents.

Moreover, the success, at first of urban development and its sale has led to excessive margin speculative practices undertaken by developers. Well, as a result, many confuse the concepts of tourism development to real estate development and tourism activities that have been manipulated by the construction companies.

Moreover, under the concept of residential tourism is often thought to reach more than just its definition, as we have seen before, really does not exist. It's a mix between economic activity has been based mainly in the real estate business and the specific aspects of traditional tourism, or rather, the "mass" because, after all, we are trying a tourist typologies important in terms of tourism flows in Spain.

The residential tourist is usually characterized by having a villa or bungalow in a neighborhood to live in it part of the year. These homes are usually grouped low buildings forming new towns are created away from the traditional core of the town or city. They take up huge amounts of soil and ultimately produces intensive development planning models aimed saturation; cause of problems, not only environmental but also social, an issue to which we return below.

The buyers of these second homes, mostly foreigners, living much of the year in the resort without losing, however, family and economic ties with their country of origin.

It is sometimes difficult to differentiate the residential tourist tourist "true" that meets all requirements to give it that name because, in reality, the residential tourist meets all the requirements contained in the definition of tourism. So we can see that both: move to a place other than their usual environment maintains a stay less than twelve consecutive months, the reason for each one of them is different remunerated activity; prevail on their visits the leisure, recreation and holidays in general, etc.. However, it is longer stay. The cost of a residential tourist is also different from traditional tourist spending is usually lower. Here we can question whether it is profitable tourism development led to residential tourism as its behavior in terms of spending more like local people,