Now, we clock in electronically at the office or, if we are new entrepreneurs, we wake up thinking about how to get new loyal clients for SMEs we have set up as the deadline approaches to make the next bank loan payment, which in itself is another strident, equally punctual horn. Maybe some weekend we can chill out from stress at a spa - which used to be called a health resort, where elderly people used to go to take the waters (good for the bones) - or rent a cottage in a country village, which has moved directly from the primary to the tertiary sector where, after spending a busy day in a jam workshop, we will go to the agroshop to buy a traditional precooked dish. Or perhaps, outlook allowing, we can make the most of the May Day long weekend (is it still called Workers' Day?) to take a citybreak to some European capital, making the most of a low cost line.

And the fact is that we have gone from being an industrial society to living in a gigantic service company, with everything that involves. However, a country is configured by its past and this leaves its mark, conforms a way of life and a way of doing things. Moreover, this not so far-off past bequeathed an industrial heritage which some institutions, public and private, led by sensitive people, have managed to salvage from the neo-luddism which prevailed at the turn of the century, following the ideology and logic of the builders.

And, as with Modernism or the Romanesque, this heritage that defines us provides us with an extraordinary and enviable series of tourist and cultural resources, since it has all the different facets on which this type of theme tourism rests: it displays a real aspect of our immediate past, it generates an image of quality and it adapts to the new profiles of demand, since it is a source of emotional stimulation, at times becoming the main appeal of an area and at others, being a quality extra to the main offer, and it is designed on the basis of sustainability and viability.

For a decade now, Barcelona County Council has been supporting the Industrial Tourism near Barcelona programme to promote and aid the institutions that have committed to exhibiting industrial heritage as a tourist resource near Barcelona.

However, this form of understanding specialised tourism does not end with the testimonials of the past. The programme also offers tourists visits to a number of companies who open their doors to display this scientific and technological culture. It is what we call living industry.

It also brings these tourist resources into contact with guide or service companies or travel agencies that work with groups of travellers and institutions (local and supramunicipal) interested in promoting these new forms of development in their territory.

Envisaged as a competitiveness group, the participating organisations have a joint promotion service which advertises through publications, fairs, commercial or press actions, etc. and, at the same time, provides valuable support for competitiveness through tourism training workshops or the possibility of liaising with others to coordinate efforts or create tourist packages.

www.turismepropbarcelona.cat