Recent years have witnessed the development of a type of cultural proximity tourism, comprised of people interested in visiting places of historic or natural interest. One of the options that is acquiring increasingly greater importance is related to industrial heritage. The first factor of interest is production. Industrial heritage shows how things were made during the industrial revolution. The machines and the processes of that era were governed by the same principles as today.

The other characteristic of industrial heritage is its relationship with society; most museums and interpretations explain how people lived and worked in a certain place, and the visitor compares it to the life of contemporary society. The third factor that defines a large part of this heritage is the relationship with the physical or human environment, as in the case of mines, riverside factories or a city's industries, which is why itineraries often include tours of the surrounding landscape, be it natural or built up.

Catalonia has its own unique elements, such as the industrial colonies, Capellades Paper Mill, the Clot del Moro Cement Factory, the Cardona Salt Mines, the Cercs Coal Mine or the Bellmunt Lead Mine, or the industrial heritage of Terrassa. It is therefore time to make our industrial heritage known around the world, fine-tune it and suitably promote it as a tourist product.