"Take us to study nature into the middle of it and industry inside the factories;
take us to study art besides the monuments and geography through the Planet Earth;
take us to study history in the archives and museums, and still in the precise places in which
the events happened; take us to study sociology talking and living with people" [1]
Industrial tourism takes us to places where culture and nature interact: for people who want to travel merely beyond the well deserved rest, so they can enlarge their knowledge of the world. Not only the museums and monuments are culture. Culture is also science and technology, and factories, labour and its social organization. Industrial heritage is settled down natural surroundings which are modified by human kind, and offer simultaneously aesthetic, intellectual and touching experiences. It probably tells us more about the contemporary human being than any other cultural expression.
The industrial routes shown here put together all the right ingredients for a “total tourism experience”. On the one hand, there are plenty of rich natural environments like the "Parque Natural de los Calares del Mundo y de la Sima " (A National Park at the top of the river Mundo's source and the valley of Sima). On the other hand, by the coast of Cartagena there is the "Parque Minero de la Unión " (a mineral park) where it is possible to enjoy nature and to look at antique cultures. These cultures left tangible evidence from the fight of survival of the men kind through the transformation of the natural resources: from towns whose identity is marked by industrialization; to the artistic and technological knowledge that have remained for hundreds of years. Those are our roots and who we are nowadays.
Give yourself the privilege of getting immersed in specific cultures, being in contact with the local communities, their traditions, and to be able to open your mind from the roots. The development of local people, who carries a well traced industry path from the past, is allocated in unique natural contexts, and it also depends to a great extent on its opening to the rest of the world, and sharing its secrets without losing the essence.
The ”industrial tourist” knows it: the industrial tourist respects the mother earth and its son, homo faber, homo ludens, homo sapiens. The industrial tourist seeks to heal the wounds.
[1] Institución Libre de Enseñanza, cited by Juan José Castillo, in La soledad del trabajador globalizado: memoria, presente y futuro
