Fonte: Cuadernos de Turismo; No. 48 (2021): Julio - Diciembre; 401-427
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Resumo: La Gomera is one of the eight Canary Islands, an archipelago considered one of the most important tourist destinations in Europe and the world. Its economy was historically developed through farming activities, but from the eighties decade of the past century, it became dependent on the service sector, with tourism being a fundamental economic basis. La Gomera´s tourism model has revolved around the classic 'sun and beach' combination, favoring its concentration in a few coastal areas in the south, which has led to a profound territorial polarization -from an economic and demographic point of view- between these places and the rest of the island. As a consequence, there has been an almost total abandonment of the island territory, which is now instrumentalized as a tourism promotion product, supported by the idealization of the landscape as a natural and cultural heritage, being presented as a bucolic space that seduces and captivates visitors staying on the coast, who are the main consumers of these interior and northern areas of the island, but which contributes little to the poor economy of the inhabitants residing in these areas.
