Tourism, Art and Masquerade in Spain: the Case of the Costa Brava

Abstract

Tourism, Art and Masquerade in Spain: The Case of the Costa Brava. During the last decades of the francoist dictatorship tourism became not only a main agent in Spanish economy, but also an important cultural feature. The Spanish people were taught to identify themselves as a visitors-welcoming land and to act as they were expected to – “Spanish.” This led to a process of overrepresentation of the cultural identity. It seems logic to think that tourism may have developedconnections to other cultural areas, such as art. We can no longer ignore the relationship that exists between art and tourism, and should try to look at tourism, often trivialized as a mass phenomenon, from this new point of view.