Heritage Tourism and Textile “Model Villages”: The Case of the River Park, Barcelona, Spain

The expansion of tourism in recent years has been such a widespread phenomenon that the number of potential tourist regions has increased, thus favouring the inclusion of resources and forms of tourism that had formerly been considered uninteresting or had even been rejected. One of the most outstanding examples is industrial heritage tourism or tourism based on traditional manufacturing and mining centres. Many of these have suffered industrial decline and the consequent closure of industrial plant, and have been obliged to search for alternatives for social and economic recovery. This article examines the possible interest of this place as a focus for industrial tourism activities, based on a case study of Central Catalonia (province of Barcelona, Spain), although the most important examples are probably to be found in the United Kingdom. In this framework, steps have been taken recently by the Spanish government to have the textile model industry "colonies" or villages along the Cardener and Llobregat rivers included in the list of proposals of World Heritage Sites to be submitted to UNESCO. The justification is very clear: industrial development along these two rivers - especially the latter - constituted a unique phenomenon in the world, on account of the degree of concentration. Indeed, in recent years, UNESCO has opened its doors to industrial archaeology as an important component of World Heritage worthy of the distinction of preservation, on the basis of its scenic, architectural and monumental value.