The second houses. Leisure or business?

Abstract

The protection and conservation of the landscape is one of the most common challenges of the mountain areas, which have recently realized that the ski tourism and the installation of ski resorts is a reasonable way to improve their economy. This is because these areas are under the pressure of the real-estate industry which is usually linked to skiing. Tourism can be considered as a key factor for the development of these mountainous areas. However, it has also led to a great transformation of the natural places and the small villages involved in this process. In Spain, the learning of the negative consequences brought to the Mediterranean coast by the development of the tourist trade should be used as a stimulus to plan the utilization of the mountain as a tourist resource in a more respectful way.