Petróleo: peligro mortal. Unas islas alquitranadas

The goal of this report is to predict what might be the negative effects on the Balearic tourist economy caused by mining oil fields off its coasts. To that end, it evaluates the destructive potential of different types of pedictable spills using data from well-documented spills. The second part of the project considers the effects of different spills that have occurred in tourist areas, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, giving special relevance to phenomena such as a fall in demand caused by a spill that can seriously endanger tourist companies. Afterwards, the report describes the main characteristics of the Balearic tourist economy, highlighting their focus on the "beach and sun" model, and the adoption of an "industrial district" company structure. Finally, the paper synthesizes the description of the potential spills with a description of the structure of the Balearic economy to conclude that a simple mining of oil fields will impose important damages on Balearic tourism and that a large spill can destroy the current complex economic structure, turning it into one that is much simpler in a process that will make the Balearic Archipelago severely poorer.