Finally, it is suggested that the divergent viewpoints on tourism which are often found may be related to the social positions and environments of the people concerned. Thus, in general, the effects of tourism on Ibiza have been disliked by some local and non-local people belonging to the non-commercial branches of the middle- and upper-classes - particularly by those local people whose relative wealth and status have tended to decline as a result of tourism, and by those outsiders or local people who distastefully associate the current changes with urban-industrial development elsewhere and with the rise of "vulgarity". In complete contrast, the overwhelming majority of Ibizans (including - interestingly - the older generations of country-people) associate the past with economic "misery" and with socio-cultural "backwardness"; and they are actively (though not uncritically) assisting in the transformation of their own society which has been made possible by mass tourism.