I've got nine kilometers from my house to my office. But at that short distance, since winter I have met five public works. Reform the beach road, expand the access sidewalk to the camping area, open the pedestrian circuit, transform the town square, expand the parking in the atrium of the shopping area…

Now the construction panels and the mechanical blades have been assembled. The ditches have been very nice, flowers have been planted, the walls have been dyed again. All prepared for the summers who approach the coast of Lapurdi when making the pirouettes. For two months, two million tourists have accumulated in a closed section of land about 30 km in length. Car accumulations on roads, saturated pedestrian streets, inflations in accommodation prices, folklorization in live shows… Every year 5.3 million tourists arrive to a territory of 300,000 inhabitants. 2,300 companies and 9,100 workers sell us from institutions that “live from tourism”.

Today we are suffering cruelly from the results of the tourism policy designed since Paris 50 years ago. However, at a time when the inequalities of mass tourism in different parts of the world are being denounced, we have to go back to the 80s to hear such strong criticism. More recently, among the arguments against the G7 to be held at the end of summer, some Basque elects have been concerned about the influence they will have on the tourist season.

Are they not the two sides of the same coin? Do those who pledge “Euskal Herria’s world fame” not have the ambition to validate a school’s brand on the market around the world? Before being a territory of its own, Ipar Euskal Herria has become for some rulers a destination to promote. Territorial marketing has surpassed public policies.

I've been lucky enough to travel on the frankly continents of the world. Aware of my inconsistencies, I know that by simply travelling I have been involved in the acculturation of these territories. I also know that award-winning holidays and travel opportunities are the result of social struggles. The fact that tourists call kospei comes from French Congés payé, the legacy of a democratization.

But I also know that beyond the lists of what needs to be seen and selfies, another tourism is possible. Our people have something to convey, without distorting. For the new father of the ikastola, for the family that has come to live to the people, for the immigrant who passes through Baiona or for who is going to spend seven days in Euskal Herria, we have the need to collectively devise an inclusion model.