Social vulnerability in the fordist tourist city: Lloret de Mar

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on the global economy and especially on tourism. Though, the effects of the health crisis have been geographically uneven. This paper aims to understand the socioeconomic and labour consequences of this crisis in one of the main tourist municipalities on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, Lloret de Mar. It is a prototype of a Fordist city based on tourism. To achieve this, quantitative and qualitative techniques are combined. The extreme vulnerability of this productive model was shown with the interruption of the tourist activity. COVID-19 exacerbated the structural crisis of the destination. Various indicators demonstrate that its socioeconomic situation is worse than that of the majority of Catalan municipalities. Lloret is at the forefront among the municipalities with the lowest median income per consumption unit, and among those where the pandemic had a higher incidence in terms of income reduction and inequality. Broken the balance between work, unemployment insurance and informal activities, the crisis exacerbated the vulnerability of its workforce, especially those who could not take advantage of public protection mechanisms.