Matthew Clapham
1 min readJun 2, 2024

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I think there should actually be a whole academic subject designated 'The Philosophy of Tourism'.

Covering everything from the extent to which holidays are a human right, and the utilitarian balance between the needs of holidaymakers, the local population and the wider economy.

Tourism in Spain was developed not so much by towns wishing to find an alternative to meagre returns from fishing, but for Franco's central government to get foreign hard currency into the country. Some of which was used for infrastructure projects that benefited the country as a whole, but with an outsized impact on certain areas, as with nuclear power station placement, for example.

There are some fascinating trade-offs at the micro and macro level that are worthy of deeper exploration, I think.

And as with everything in our hyperconnected world, any individual with a smartphone can potentially influence those policy decisions to an extent, by vocally expressing their opinions.

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Matthew Clapham
Matthew Clapham

Written by Matthew Clapham

Professional translator by day. Writer of silly and serious stuff by night. Also by day, when I get fed up of tedious translations. Founder of Iberospherical.

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