Zoekresultaten

A review of the Copenhagen tourism manifesto versuscoeval Nordic urban futures concepts, both designed asvalid in 2016-2020

Is Overtourism overused? Understanding the impact of tourism in a city context

In less than two years, the concept of overtourism has come to prominence as one of the most discussed issues with regards to tourism in popular media and, increasingly, academia. In spite of its popularity, the term is still not clearly delineated and remains open to multiple interpretations. The current paper aims to provide more clarity with regard to what overtourism entails by placing the concept in a historical context and presenting results from a qualitative investigation among 80 stakeholders in 13 European cities. Results highlight that overtourism describes an issue that is multidimensional and complex. Not only are the issues caused by tourism and nontourism stakeholders, but they should also be viewed in the context of wider societal and city developments. The article concludes by arguing that while the debate on overtourism has drawn attention again to the old problem of managing negative tourism impacts, it is not well conceptualized. Seven overtourism myths are identified that may inhibit a well-rounded understanding of the concept. To further a contextualized understanding of overtourism, the paper calls for researchers from other disciplines to engage with the topic to come to new insights.

Urban tourism studies : a transversal research agenda.

The debate on tourism in cities, both academically and in practice, has for a long time taken place in relative isolation from urban studies. Tourism is mostly addressed as an external agent and economic force that puts pressure on cities rather than as an interdependent part of city systems. The recent debate on city touristification and excessive dependence on the visitor economy, as well as the associated processes of exclusion, and displacement of local city users, serves to highlight how tourism is an integral part of urban developments. A wider urban perspective is needed to understand the processes underlying the tourism phenomena and more transdisciplinary perspectives are required to analyze the urban (tourism) practices. The current article seeks to contribute to such a perspective through a discussion of the literature on urban and tourism studies, and related fields such as gentrification, mobilities, and touristification. Based on this, theoretical reflections are provided regarding a more integral perspective to tourism and urban development in order to engage with a transversal urban tourism research agenda.

Crowd-pleasing, niche playing and gentrifying: Explaining the microgeographies of entrepreneur responses to increasing tourism in Amsterdam

Touristification of consumption spaces describes a process in which retail and hospitality businesses adapt to the tourist demand, eroding place attachment among local residents. While this is an important cause of resistance to tourism, little is known about the mechanisms that drive or mediate this process. We address this gap by interviewing entrepreneurs in Amsterdam. We found three distinct areas in close proximity where entrepreneurs responded to increasing tourism in markedly different ways; by crowd-pleasing, niche-playing and gentrifying. The resulting microgeographies of touristification of consumption spaces have not only been overlooked in literature, but also in urban policies. This causes a mismatch between the more generic, city-wide regulation and the highly differentiated effects of tourism on consumption spaces.

“I refer to it as <i>throwing wads</i>”

As multifunctional places that combine shopping and hospitality with public space and residential functions, urban consumption spaces are sites where different normative orders surface and sometimes clash. In Amsterdam, such a clash emerged over touristification of consumption spaces, eroding place attachment for local residents and urging the city government to take action. Based on policy analysis and interviews with entrepreneurs and key informants, we demonstrate how Amsterdam’s city government is responding to this issue, using legal pluralism that exists within formal state law. Specifically, the city government combines four instruments to manage touristification of consumption spaces, targeting so-called tourist shops with the aim to drive them out of the inner city. This strategic combination of policy instruments designed on various scales and for different publics to pursue a local political goal jeopardizes entrepreneurs’ rights to legal certainty. Moreover, implicitly based on class-based tastes and distrust towards particular minority groups of entrepreneurs, this policy strategy results in institutional discrimination that has far-reaching consequences for entrepreneurs in itself, but also affects trust relations among local stakeholders.

The role of frame resonance in resistance to touristification

Recent studies on urban policy responses to increasing tourism have moved beyond the physical impact of tourism to also include the way tourism is framed by social movements. This paper contributes to this line of research with a focus on frame resonance: the extent to which frames strike a responsive chord with the public in general and policymakers in particular. We introduce a specific form of frame amplification through cultural resonance; the appeal to pre-existing societal beliefs. Using an analysis of policy documents, print, online and social media, we demonstrate that frames around tourist shops in Amsterdam appealed to pre-existing beliefs that portray the inner city as: a delicate mix of functions, an infrastructure for criminal activities, and a business card reflecting the city’s quality of place. These beliefs amplified frame resonance to such an extent that they convinced an initially reluctant local government to ban tourist shops from the inner city, a policy that undermines the accessibility and inclusivity of urban spaces that the local government aims to promote (SDG 11). This suggests that the contingencies in the local context that enable or foreclose the cultural resonance of frames are essential in understanding policy responses to touristification.