Sunset tourism: Between experience and socio-economic development on the French Atlantic coast

Résumé En

Tourism became widespread and massive throughout the 20th century. In the 21st century, tourist locations and practices have become much more diversified, becoming widespread and competitive in a capitalist society (Duhamel, 2023). This is a response to society's desire for experiences, as promoted by tourism stakeholders (Duhamel, 2018). Tourists, but also tourism stakeholders, highlight these experiences in an attempt to stand out in a competitive offer (Stock, et al, 2020).Within this competition, sunset tourism seems to be one of the new offers promoted by public and private accommodation players to meet the demands of experiences for tourists and at the heart of current tourism issues. We will be looking in particular at the French Atlantic coast.In order to analyse how the stakeholders promote sunset tourism, we identified what offers existed on their websites. Several results can be highlighted. The players are promoting places that are already promoted by tourism, sometimes emblematic places such as Biarritz or Mont Saint-Michel. Around a third of these sites are natural areas, many are beaches, without accommodation, while another third are seaside resorts. The remaining third are other tourist areas (Equipe MIT, 2002). A distinction is made between free spaces, i.e. accessible to all, and places for consumption, some of which are bars or restaurants, particularly gourmet ones, requiring considerable economic capital to experience the uniqueness of the sunset. Our research also shows that some people, particularly on the islands, refuse to promote this type of experience for fear of over-tourism.