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Applying the Butler Model to Tourism in Sitges and Calafell

Sitges and Calafell are approximately equal-sized settlements lying to the south west of Barcelona (see Figure 1). Both rely on tourism as a major source of income and employment and the study aims to compare the relative success of tourism, in its various forms, by employing the Butler Model.

The Butler Model is a method used to study the evolution of tourism over time and at which stage of the development model a settlement happens to be at this point in time. Tourism is a major source of income for many settlements and those on the Spanish coastline are no exception. Tourism has grown in importance as a major generator of wealth because of three main factors:

Both Sitges and Calafell have developed for these reasons.

Sitges - a brief history

Sitges is a town of approximately 25,000 people and is located about 30 km south of Barcelona. Originally occupied by the Romans on a defensive headland looking out to sea, Sitges’ port was used to trade products from the Penedès region and other places from the Roman Mediterranean.

Despite its direct contact with the sea, the town had more peasant farmers than fishermen, with vineyards being the main economic activity.

In the 18th century Catalonia obtained permission to trade directly with the West Indian Spanish colonies and by 1833 more than 27% of the Catalans trading with Cuba were Sitgetans. The fortunes made were invested in the purchase or repair of the town's old houses.

Sitges, although located close to Barcelona, was still hard to access at the time, but began to develop as a summer resort for taking the waters. As early as 1879, there are records showing that baths were already being used as medicinal therapy and spa enthusiasts directly became beach enthusiasts. However, it was not until 1881, with the arrival of the railway line from Barcelona, that tourism in Sitges really began to develop.

With the arrival of Santiago Rusiñol in 1891 - one of the architects of Modernism - Sitges became the cultural centre of the modernists. In 1909, Sitges was visited by Charles Deering, a North American millionaire who converted a street in the historic core into a palace, the Palau Maricel. This palace and Rusiñol’s residence helped launch Sitges to tourist fame. In 1918, the Terramar garden city and the Passeig Maritim or Esplanade were constructed. Atracción de Forasteros (Tourist Attraction Company) was created in 1928 and the Tourist Information Office in 1934. From then on, Sitges would become a European tourism standard setter.

Calafell - a brief history

Calafell has a population of approximately 25,000 people and lies 50 km south of Barcelona. It owes its origins to a castle and occupied a defensive site on an inland hill. The name Calafell means 'small castle' and the earliest reference to it dates from 999AD. For years the economy of Calafell was devoted to agriculture and fishing.

Like Sitges, the arrival in the late 1880's of the railway from Barcelona led to a change in its economic fortunes. Calafell became more accessible and the development of second homes around the railway stations flourished with the 1947 Garden City project known as the Quadra de Segur. At first people lived there only during holiday periods, but now the majority of the population are permanent residents.

It was not until the 1960's that tourism began to develop strongly in Calafell, especially along the 5km of uninterrupted beach where numerous apartment buildings and hotels were constructed. With the blessing of successive city councils, a huge speculative boom in the 1970's led to an endless row of 6-storey apartments facing the sea. Later regulations prevented excessive vertical growth whilst inland the prohibition of building over two and a half floors led to more green space and a lower population density.

Today, the town of Calafell is delimited into three very distinct areas. To the north, narrow streets surround the castle and the old church. To the south, and disconnected from the historic core, the former seafront fishing village has been converted into tourist area. And to the east is Segur de Calafell, a former Garden City of second homes developed on farmland surrounding the railway station.

The Butler Model: what is it looking at?

In Geographical terms, a model is a simplification of reality. The purpose of the Butler Model is to look at the way that tourist resorts, grow and develop. The tourist industry, like all industry, is dynamic and constantly changing. Therefore, the Butler Model is a way of studying tourist resorts and seeing how they change over time and in relation to the changing demands of the tourist industry. These changes can then be compared to the predictions as shown on the model.

The Butler Model (see Figure 2) breaks down tourist development into five distinct stages.

1. Discovery Stage A settlement is 'explored' or 'discovered' by a small number of people who later tell others about their experience. In time other people visit and local people seize upon the new economic opportunities provided by these visitors and provide services to meet the needs of these visitors or tourists.

2. Growth and Development Stage More tourists arrive having heard about the place by word of mouth, articles in Travel Supplements in papers such as The Sunday Times, brochures or tourist guides. The extra tourists attracted by the publicity and people willing to visit somewhere new will lead to the building of new hotels, restaurants, shops and services to cater for the influx of people.

3. Success Stage As more people visit the resort, the facilities are now fully utilised. At this stage mass tourism replaces what was once the original economic function of the settlement. This may cause some resentment with people in the town who have not benefited from the new industry or from the loss of distinct identity that the settlement held before. It may appear that the local culture is being diminished by a more international and non-unique culture compared to what may have existed before.

4. Problem – Stagnation Stage Popularity may be short lived. People may become bored with the resort once its initial appeal had waned. Little of the original natural environment will remain and negative comments about what it used to be like may lead people to find somewhere new to discover. The effect of falling tourism if a resort goes out of fashion leads to economic decline and the under-utilisation of tourist infrastructure. The eventual closure of some of the businesses will lead to a rise in unemployment.

5. Decline or Rejuvenation The tourist resort then has two options; either go into decline or rejuvenate and develop more sustainable strategies based upon lower visitor numbers.

The Butler Model applied to Sitges

1. Sitges Discovery Sitges was discovered early by people from the city of Barcelona. It later began to attract many artists and intellectuals such as Rusiñol. Many wealthy Catalans also built second homes in Sitges to escape a much polluted Barcelona. Much of the early wealth of Sitges was based on trade with the West Indies and Cuba in particular. The houses on the southern part of the Esplanade reflect this Cuban influence.

2. Sitges Growth and Development The local tourist industry remained in place until the developments of the 1960's when tourism from overseas first began to filter into the town. The development of the package holiday whereby passengers booked flights, transfers and accommodation all in one booking made places such as Sitges accessible to people from Northern Europe. Furthermore, the use of jet aircraft made such perceived epic journeys now possible in under half of a day. Sitges responded to these developments with the construction of large hotels such as the Terramar and Calipolis on the sea front. Other smaller hotels were also built, often in converted Cubanesque houses. Restaurants, shops and bars also opened to cater for the needs of the increased number of tourists who visited in the main season extending from mid-May until the end of September. 3. Sitges Success Sitges is now a major tourist resort, perceived as high status and catering for more affluent visitors. It has a wide range of 36 hotels and 12 pensions, totaling 2,540 rooms. It is popular with the gay community, many of whom holiday in Sitges during the summer season. This has added to the success of the town and is further reflected in the range of high status shops and restaurants found there. There are over 150 clothes shops and 175 bars and restaurants, four times more than expected in a town the size of Sitges. Sitges has also attracted many migrants not just to work in the tourist industry but also others to live in the town. These include wealthy people from elsewhere in Spain, as well as others from around the world. The migrants comprise of 63% from Europe and 30% from Latin America. Many of the Europeans are living permanently in Sitges while others own second homes in the town. Proximity to Barcelona airport and the advent of low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair have been an added boost to Sitges in attracting people on short breaks. Today large numbers of the tourists are independent travellers, making all of their own holiday arrangements via the internet rather than using a High Street travel agency. This has been especially important since the economic downturn as the majority of visitors are here for short breaks only. 4 Sitges Stagnation Tourism trends change. Many of the early tourists to Sitges now looked for cheaper alternatives to places they may have visited before or become tired of. New resorts opened as the Mediterranean countries of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and others developed their tourist potential and more established resorts such as Sitges saw a fall in their traditional client base. This phase saw holiday companies such as Thompson remove Sitges from their holiday brochures. 5 Sitges Decline or Rejuvenation The fall in the traditional tourist base has led Sitges to try to develop more sustainable strategies. Many environmental improvements are in progress and the resort has been rebranded as an all-year destination. To this end the calendar of events that Sitges offers extends well beyond the traditional holiday season. The calendar below illustrates some of the activities on offer in 2011.

Sitges Activities Calendar 2011

The extension of the season has been promoted with the production of a DVD with the theme 'Sitges the art of living'. This appeals to high income professional groups to make Sitges a permanent base for multiple short breaks in the Mediterranean sun.

Sitges has capitalised on its proximity to Barcelona to become one of the main destinations for Business and Conference tourism in Catalonia. Its specialised hotels in this sector include the Dolce Sitges, with over 30 meeting rooms and the Meliá Sitges, with a conference hall seating more than 1,300 delegates and 16 meeting rooms.

Furthermore, the Sitges Council is embarking on a project called 'QUALIA Sitges' to enhance tourism by exploiting what is called the 'creative economy'. This refers to the development of activities relating to creativity, art and culture which will compliment Sitges' tourist based economy. It aims to build upon the earlier role of Sitges as a centre of art and culture based upon the works of the artist Rusiñol in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It aims to encourage and promote cultural and artistic tradition with new technology.

The project is a long term plan covering the next ten years and will see the development of a state of the art campus with a school of music and dance, a University of the Performing Arts and a Design Centre. These facilities will bring in to Sitges up to 2,000 students a year as well as a further 2000 jobs including academic staff and other professionals working in the QUALIA facility. It has been estimated that each student will spend approximately 750€ per month in Sitges of which 150€ will be on tourist and leisure facilities. Added to this are the family and friends of the students coming to see them who are expected to add a further 25,000 guest nights in Sitges and the use of the town's tourist facilities.

Therefore, Sitges can be seen as moving forward in its plans to remain a major leisure destination by diversifying to ensure long term sustainability.

The Butler Model applied to Calafell

1. Discovery Calafell, like Sitges, benefited from the opening of the railway line but because of its greater distance from Barcelona, there was very slow development until a huge speculative boom in the 1970's. Developers constructed hotels and apartments to take advantage of the resort's greatest asset - its long and wide beach. 2. Growth and Development The construction of the promenade and the completion of the sea front apartments and hotels attracted families from Madrid and northern Spain, particularly in the summer months. New businesses opened to cater for the needs of these people. 3. Success The 5 km stretch of coastline comprising the beach resort of Calafell became fully occupied during the high seasons of the 1970's and 1980's. However, Calafell never attracted the package tour operators in the way that Sitges has done and the range of hotels is very limited. 4. Problem – Stagnation The speculative boom of the 1970's and 1980's resulted in the destruction of nearly all of Calafell's original seafront. The fishing cottages were replaced by an endless row of 6-storey apartments facing the sea. As a result, the seafront lacks character and charm and with the economic crisis and competition from other resorts in Spain and overseas, the number of hotel rooms has decreased by 17% in the last decade (from 1,690 in 1996 to 1402 in 2006).

The immigrant population now represents 20% of the total population of Calafell, having grown rapidly in recent years. However, Calafell has not attracted large numbers of wealthy people from elsewhere in Spain and Europe in the way Sitges has. Instead, approximately 50% of the immigrants are from North Africa, settling in the area of Segur de Calafell.

Calafell thus seems to be in stagnation or decline mode.

5. Decline or Rejuvenation Like Sitges, the fall in the traditional tourist base has led Calafell to try to develop more sustainable strategies. Many environmental improvements are in progress and the resort has been rebranded as an all-year destination. However, tourism in Calafell has taken a rather different path to Sitges.

The family-orientated nature of the resort has been promoted, with Calafell earning the 'Family Holiday Destination certificate' from the Catalan government in 2007. This recognised the family-oriented accommodation, restaurants and a range of leisure activities provided. Calafell has a Children's Club in the summer months and, like Sitges, has a tourist train running along the sea front and a second linking the beach area with the historic core inland.

Calafell has helped pioneer the trend for more active holiday pursuits and in 2008 became the first resort in Spain to offer Nordic walking. This, together with trekking and mountain biking are provided free of charge, with certified guides. However, despite adopting the slogan 'Calafell tot l'any' ('Calafell, all year'), the resort has struggled to extend the tourist season as effectively as Sitges.

Calafell's 2009 Municipal Urban Plan (POUM) seeks to stop the uncontrolled urban growth of the town, protect the natural and historical heritage and maintain and enhance the tourism that forms its economic base. Calafell needs to widen its tourism offer and new economic activities need to be attracted to diversify its economy if it is to avoid becoming a dormitory town for Barcelona. It can therefore be seen that both Sitges and Calafell cater for tourists but are two very different towns. The proximity of Barcelona has enabled Sitges to grow much more rapidly and diversify its tourism more effectively than Calafell with the result that the two towns have developed and evolved in different ways.

The Field Study

The study involves visiting both towns and collecting data at five comparable locations in each town. These are the old historic core, the sea front, an area of historic buildings, a major shopping street and an entertainment street. Data will be collected at each site and later used to compare the two towns in relation to the Butler Model.

Students will be expected to prepare a presentation of their findings and recommendations as to what could or should be done to improve the tourist facility or experience, if deemed necessary.

Mature tourist destinations

Retail and Services Interactive Maps for Sitges and Calafell

MSU Extension Economic Development

Life-cycle models can help tourism destinations chart a path to sustainability.

C. Northrop, Michigan State University Extension - August 07, 2020

Can a life-cycle model help a destination understand tourism development and plan its future?  The answer is: yes.

Michigan State University Extension tourism educators began introducing the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model, also known as the Butler model, (see diagram) via the First Impressions Tourism assessment program as a way to understand tourism development more clearly. Employing the model as a conceptual way for Michigan communities and destinations to understand stages of tourism growth and the possibilities of decline has proven valuable for some of the state’s more premiere destinations like South Haven . To help chart their future tourism development goals, the Lake Michigan community explored the conceptual cycle via MSU Extension’s Planning for Tourism .  

The interactive program leads stakeholders of a community and/or destination through a facilitated process centered on understanding the various TALC stages.

• Discovery/Exploration
• Involvement
• Development
• Consolidation
• Rejuvenation

After exploring the intricacies of each stage, facilitation tools and techniques are then employed to capture myriad assets from stakeholders in a team-centered environment. Identified assets are categorized and recognized as having potential to grow a community into an emerging destination or, if necessary, leveraged further to prevent a premiere destination’s decline. Led by MSU Extension tourism educators, Planning for Tourism is ultimately geared toward preventing destination decline, but is only achievable by capturing collective input from an array of businesses, leaders, and residents.

To learn more about Planning for Tourism and other tourism programs, please visit MSU Extension .   Planning for Tourism is available to your community/destination either via web or in-person after pandemic restrictions have been lifted. Contact MSU Extension tourism educator Andy Northrop , for more information.

For an in-depth analysis of the TALC model and its applicability to more destinations, I suggest reading, Tourism Area Life Cycle Vol. 1 and 2 (Butler, 2006). 

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension . For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu . To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters . To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts , or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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Six trends shaping new business models in tourism and hospitality

As destinations and source markets have changed, tourism and hospitality companies have evolved too. Six key trends have shaped business models in this sector over the past decade.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Caroline Tufft , Margaux Constantin , Matteo Pacca , and Ryan Mann , with Ivan Gladstone and Jasperina de Vries, representing views from McKinsey’s Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure practice.

In accommodation, asset-light models like franchising and management have proliferated, though luxury and small-scale brands are opting out. Consolidation has driven economies of scale. Hotels are looking to reclaim their relationship with guests, and almost two decades in, home sharing is charting its own course.

In the experiences space, reinvention is the name of the game. Cruises and theme parks have both focused on attracting new demographics while fine-tuning their revenue management strategies. Experiences remains a highly fragmented, legacy sector, creating massive opportunity for those able to crack the code on aggregation.

By considering the six trends, tourism and hospitality companies can gain insights on business practices for today—and on areas of future opportunity.

Accommodation: New models and value propositions

Large hotel brands have increasingly turned away from hotel ownership, scaling their business through franchising and management instead. The move is paying off. We find there is a 0.84 correlation between a hotel company’s share of franchised properties and its net profit margin.

Not all of hospitality is embracing asset-light model, however. Luxury hotel chains have resisted the trend, largely retaining in-house ownership to control standards. And smaller brands may find that they cannot reach the economies of scale that make the math of a franchise business work—focusing instead on creating distinctive experiences on a smaller scale.

Consolidation set the stage for the past decade. Several hotel brands quickly grew their foothold in key geographies and customer segments through strategic acquisitions, achieving economies of scale along the way.

As major hotels take a breather from a series of substantial acquisitions, further mergers between large hotel brands seem unlikely. However, tuck in acquisitions to target key growth demographics, like the luxury and youth categories, are likely to continue.

Another trend on the horizon is direct booking. Long reliant on online travel agencies, hotels are looking to reclaim their relationships with customers—both to cut down on intermediary booking fees and to learn more about their guests. Hotels are encouraging direct bookings through a variety of levers, ranging from best-rate guarantees to higher reward-earnings rates and improved mobile applications. 1 For example, Hyatt offers a best-rate guarantee for booking on hyatt.com and Marriott International is growing direct bookings. For more, see “Marriott sees record direct bookings at its hotels,” Skift, May 4, 2022.

Home sharing is here to stay. The segment has grown from 10 to 14 percent of booking value between 2017 and 2023, experiencing ups and downs in profitability along the way.

Recently, home sharing has positioned itself as more than a stand-in for traditional hotels. Airbnb’s recent advertising campaign “Get an Airbnb” leaned into the differences of home sharing from other hospitality offerings, emphasizing the space and privacy that renting a house can offer. 1 Samantha Shankman, “‘Get an Airbnb’ campaign challenges hotels,” Skift, August 30, 2023.

Home-sharing companies have also become a key distribution channel for smaller hotels, as they can offer more control over inventory and lower fees than other channels. In 2019, Airbnb reported a 152 percent increase in the number of rooms available for booking through its platform in boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts, and resorts. 2 “More hotels are using Airbnb,” Airbnb news release, January 16, 2019.

Experience providers: New segments and revenue streams

Cruises may only account for 2 percent of the overall travel and tourism market, but they have achieved 6 percent yearly revenue growth in the past decade. 1 McKinsey analysis of publicly listed tourism and hospitality companies’ Form 10-Ks. Attracting new travelers and providing new experiences have been key growth strategies.

Luxury hotels are capturing the new-to-cruising segment with the launch of yacht brands, purposefully positioned as a distinct experience from traditional cruises. Meanwhile, millennials are challenging stereotypes about cruising: of all cruise passengers, they are the demographic most likely to say they plan to cruise again (88 percent). 2 State of the cruise industry 2023: September 2023 update, CLIA, September 2023.

In parallel, cruises have fine-tuned their profitability through economies of scale and new revenue streams. Megaships have become the new normal, as ships with over 3,000 berths have grown from 27 to 47 percent of the global cruise fleet since 2015. Ancillary purchases such as onshore excursions and onboard casinos have also become a major source of growth, now accounting for 30 percent of revenue on average. 3 Calculated using the weighted average based on 2023 Form 10-Ks statements of publicly listed cruise companies.

Theme park attendance has grown 3 percent a year over the past decade, as theme park providers capitalize on new demographics and refine their revenue management strategies. 1 Global attraction attendance report , joint report from AECOM and Themed Entertainment Association, 2019.

Two new groups of visitors in particular are powering growth. First, the Asia–Pacific region accounted for much of the growth in theme park attendance in the past decade: of the total number of new visitors between 2013 and 2018, 57 percent were from Asia. Second, millennials are heading to parks in greater numbers, and not just for their children. A similar proportion of millennial parents (78%) and millennial nonparents (75%) say they are interested in going to a theme park. 2 Morning Consult survey, 2,201 participants, June 14–19, 2018.

To increase value from growing attendance, theme parks have become increasingly sophisticated in the field of revenue management. Demand-based pricing, tiered annual passes, and skip-the-line fees are all poised to go from pioneering to widespread practices.

Experiences are increasingly important to travelers, but the segment remains a highly fragmented space. Operators of activities ranging from walking tours to snorkeling outings tend to be small businesses with a limited digital presence.

This has created an opportunity for tech-forward companies to help travelers discover and book experiences. Destination marketing organizations have long played a role in this. For instance, VisitScotland helps visitors discover interesting activities like attending Harry Potter filming locations and whiskey tastings.

Several private companies that offer online discovery and booking platforms for travel activities, like Viator, GetYourGuide, and Klook, have achieved considerable growth in the US, European, and Asian markets. 1 Yeoh Siew Hoon, “GetYourGuide gets into pole position to win in $250b experiences market,” WIT, September 20, 2023. GetYourGuide grew its revenue fourfold between 2022 and 2023, Viator revenue was up 49 percent for the same time period, and Klook reported twice as many new customers in 2023 as in 2019. 2 “Klook completes US$210 million funding, embarks on a new era of profitable growth,” Klook news release, December 6, 2023; Mitra Sorrells, “With speculation of a sale in the air, Tripadvisor reports record revenue driven—again—by Viator,“ Phocus Wire, February 14, 2024.

Looking forward: Strategies to stay ahead of the curve

Where does this leave tourism and hospitality companies? Companies in any given sector tend to follow a power law curve : a small share of companies account for an outsize portion of both profits and losses. The tourism and hospitality sector is no different.

Over the past decade, publicly listed accommodation and experience providers grew revenue at 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively, roughly in line with global GDP growth. Accommodation providers increased their profits by five percentage points, while experience providers remained at an 18 percent average profit margin.

As stakeholders gear up for the next decade, there are things that businesses across the sector can do to sustain their hard-won growth—and profits. Moving forward, three strategies in particular can help tourism and hospitality companies stay on the leading edge of innovation.

Unbundle offerings

Hotel and experience providers can take a page from the airline playbook by unbundling rates and letting consumers pay for the exact experience they want. For example, at the time of booking, hotels can present guests with an individually priced bundle for a room on a higher floor, including breakfast and free parking—features that the guest’s past behavior suggests they would particularly value. Ensuring that guests can find their ideal room can lead both to increased revenue and increased satisfaction. A major hotel brand reported that guests chose to spend an additional $22 per night, on average, to customize their hotel room to their liking. 1 “IHG Hotels & Resorts revolutionizes booking experience through next-gen cloud solutions,” InterContinental Hotels news release, September 12, 2023.

Cross-sell exclusive experiences

For accommodation and transportation companies, partnering with experience providers to cross-sell a full journey provides an opportunity to tap into a growing area of traveler spending—and a chance to deepen the relationship with customers as a vacation creator. For example, airlines can partner with museums to offer discounted rates if booked at the time of the flight, or hotels can partner with a historical site nearby to offer early-hours admission. For uptake rates to become significant, the partnership needs to add value beyond mere cross-selling. Offering features like insurance or an option to buy now and pay later is one way to add value; creating a distinctive experience like a combined train and historic hotel journey is another.

Embrace a data-powered strategy

Tourism and hospitality entities individually hold a treasure trove of untapped data. Take Paris: hotels may see a surge in bookings for the “shoulder season.” Experience aggregator platforms might see that street food tours have attracted rising interest. Social media might reveal that a particular neighborhood is exploding in popularity. What special guest experiences could be created by combining these insights? Stakeholders can unlock new revenue streams by thinking through what data they hold that can be of value to others. More broadly speaking, combining multiple sources of data can help guide a strategy of unbundling and cross-selling to create more gratifying and pertinent experiences for travelers around the world. Embracing data isn’t just smart—it’s the future of travel.

Caroline Tufft is a senior partner in McKinsey’s London office, Margaux Constantin is a partner in the Dubai office, Matteo Pacca is a senior partner in the Paris office, Ryan Mann is a partner in the Chicago office, Ivan Gladstone is an associate partner in the Riyadh office, and Jasperina de Vries is an associate partner in the Amsterdam office.

The authors wish to thank Abdulhadi Alghamdi, Alessandra Powell, Alex Dichter, Cedric Tsai, Diane Vu, Elisa Wallwitz, Lily Miller, Maggie Coffey, Nadya Snezhkova, Nick Meronyk, Paulina Baum, Peimin Suo, Rebecca Stone, Sarah Fellay, Sarah Sahel, Sophia Wang, Steffen Fuchs, Steffen Köpke, Steve Saxon, and Urs Binggeli for their contributions to this article. The authors also wish to thank Mabrian for providing data.

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