The Atlas of Tourism in Catalonia. The National Map of Tourism and Tourist Products is the categorical response to one of the Actions set forth in the Strategic Tourism Plan for Catalonia (2005-2010). Specifically, Action 2.1. Preparation of the National Map of Tourism and Tourist Products, corresponding to “Programme of Action 2: The promotion and integration of tourist products.”   The mechanism for rolling out this action has been the collaboration agreement between the Department of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). The responsibility for drawing up the Map was entrusted firstly to the Consolidated Research Group on Territorial Analysis and Regional Development (ANTERRIT) of the Department of Physical Geography and Regional Geographical Analysis, which organised and coordinated the process of writing the project, which should be seen as a collective work involving 44 authors from 13 different institutions, among them seven Catalan universities.   In drawing up the National Map of Tourism and Tourist Products in Catalonia , the aim was to: obtain integrated and regionally-specific information on tourism and tourist products in Catalonia as a whole give an overall vision of the current and future capacities and shortfalls in terms of the tourist appeal of a specific region provide a management tool for identifying priority actions and facilitating inter-administrative and inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration

Content and structure:

The identification of the different components that make up the tourism market and its products led to their individualisation as a study subject and as an element for cartographic representation. This consideration led to their formalisation as a specific topic; in other words, as a “folio” or specific chapter. The result of this process is a work that comprises a total of 54 specific chapters or folios. The resulting Index is a concise summary of this catalogue of tourist products and the features of the tourism system. The results have been structured in two Parts, each preceded by an Introduction.

The National Map of Tourism and Tourist Products in Catalonia comprises a series of maps of the current situation of tourism in Catalonia; themed maps featuring a selected and detailed representation of particular homogenous and geographic facts, selected previously, of the different components of the tourism market and its tourist products, and the different variables that identify or characterise them. The process of identification, analysis and characterisation was defined by geographically referenced location (UTM coordinates) of the sites and municipalities in the study, and the use of Geographical Information Systems. In more colloquial terms we might say that these contents represent a genuine Atlas of Tourism in Catalonia.

The contents of the National Map of Tourism and Tourist Products in Catalonia are expressed in three basic languages: images, texts and statistics. The collection of images includes cartography (main and secondary maps), graphs, figures and photographs. In all there are 113 maps, 124 graphs, 26 figures and 113 statistical tables. Different geographical scales were used for this work, predominantly small-scale, while large scale was used for portraying the results on paper support. The basic references were used for municipal and county divisions.

Part One is devoted to Natural and Cultural Heritage: Tourist Use and Products. This part is broken down in to five main headings or themed sections to group the different tourist resources, uses and products according to their similarities: 1. The natural environment and cultural landscape; 2. History and Culture; 3. Natural resources, tourist activities and sports; 4. Recreational, leisure and health facilities, and 5. Event organisation and attraction of visitors.

Part Two is devoted to the Tourist Market and Demand: a sectoral and regional analysis. The results are detailed under six headings or themed sections covering the various components that make up the tourism system and also explaining the regional, social and economic perspectives: 1. Analysis and evaluation of the range of accommodation and main services; 2. Tourists: analysis of types and profiles; 3. The tourist market and products from the viewpoint of foreign tour operators; 4. Tourism and the geographical environment; 5. Tourism and the socioeconomic structure, and 6. Tourism and the regional structure.

The formats of the Atlas:

The result of the process of the study and cartographic representation of tourism and tourist products in Catalonia was finally collated in two formats:

1. Information in a conventional support, as a physical Atlas.
2. Information in digital support on the website.

The website provides internet access to the contents of the Atlas in a more interrelated way and also includes a viewer. The viewer gives access to all the texts, graphs, statistics and maps in the Atlas and at the same time facilitates an interactive approach, with the possibility of collating information relating to different variables on a common cartographic background.

Website content

The first level of the website contains a menu that reflects the basic structure of the conventional format of the Atlas of Tourism in Catalonia: the Introduction, Part One, Part Two and the final section containing the indexes. This menu also displays the themed sections in the first and second parts.

On a second level there is a more specific menu in each case. For example, by clicking on any of the themed sections, the relevant chapters will appear. If you open a chapter the text will be displayed with miniatures of the maps, graphs and tables in an adjacent column; if you click on an icon, that image is enlarged.

It is rounded off with a list of keywords. If you choose a keyword, the texts, maps and/or graphs containing the selected word will be displayed.

Functionality of the web viewer:

The viewer allows you to load maps, create maps and even has a drawing tool. The map loading function allows you to visualise every map in the Atlas. On the loaded map you can also view additional alphanumerical information.

The Create Maps function allows visitors to create a new, bespoke map. You can merge layers of information from the Atlas and from Google maps.