Content uploaded by Istvan Egresi
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Istvan Egresi on Sep 26, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
TAW2018 International Scientic Conference
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
from 20th to 23rd September 2018 / POLIS University
www.tiranaarchitectureweek.com
[CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape
scientic coordinators / editors
Laura Pedata
Enrico Pordo
Loris Rossi
POLIS board
Besnik Aliaj
Sotir Dhamo
Dritan Shutina
international scientic committee
Alessandra Battisti , Alessandra Cappai, Alessandro Gaiani, Alexandra Tsatsou, Anna Bruna Menghini, Besnik Aliaj,
Camillo Boano, Elizabeta Susaj, Giovanni Avosani, Gökçen Firdevs Yücel Caymaz, Iván Álvarez León, Jan Fransen,
Jason Payne, Jim Stevens, Joan Moreno Sanz, Joaquin Sabaté Bel, Ledian Bregasi, Letizia Martinelli, Luca Emanueli,
Marcella Del Signore, Maria Goula, Marina Tornatora, Maroš Finka, Marta Bertan Sella Gabardo, Matteo Colleoni,
Melisa Pesoa Marcilla, Michael Jakob, Michelangelo Russo, Michele Montemurro, Nicola Martinelli, Ogenis
Brilhante, Peter Nientied, Pietromaria Davoli, Roberto Di Giulio, Roberto Pasini, Sara Favargiotti, Silvia Lupini, Sotir
Dhamo, Theo Zaagnini, Vezir Muharremaj, Vincenzo P. Bagnato, William Veerbeek
organizing team
Enkelejda Kucaj, Amanda Terpo, Ilda Rusi, Besjana Qaja, Eranda Janku
graphic design
Enrico Pordo, Keisi Katiaj, Xhulio Joka
organized by
Universiteti POLIS / Co-PLAN Institute
sponsored by
Aldent University
supported by
Municipality of Tirana, Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania, Embassy of Spain in Albania, Istituto di Cultura
Italiano, World Mapper, Tulla - Culture Center and Tulla-Nouvelle terrace, International Hotel Tirana, Destil Hostel.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
TAW2018 International Scientic Conference
from 20th to 23rd September 2018 / POLIS University
[CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape
Scientic Coordinators / TAW2018 Curatorial team
Laura Pedata is an Architect and researcher, her main interest lies in
observation, analysis and representation of urban landscape conditions and
environmental regeneration strategies. Her most recent design research
initiatives are focused on residual landscapes in transitioning cities and
on the reassessment of their role within the urban context, considering
them as a potential ground for future urban development. Currently
Laura is lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Design at
POLIS University, where she received her Doctoral degree in Architecture,
University of Ferrara – POLIS University. She also works ad bioclimatic and
landscape design consultant and takes part in EU funded research projects.
Laura holds a Master in Architecture from “La Sapienza” University, Rome
and a Masters of Architecture II degree (M.Arch.II) from UCLA. She was
awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2007. Laura is a Licensed Architect since
2007 and was co-principal of the architecture oce ‘ungroup’ until 2011.
From 2009 to 2011 she was an Adjunct Professor in Landscape Architecture
and Architecture at University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and from 2012 to
2013 she was employed by SOM in San Francisco.
Enrico Pordo is a licensed architect graduated at Ferrara University. His
research activity started in 2012, joining ClusterTheory - a multidisciplinary
research group focused on theoretical approach in contemporary
architecture practices. In 2013 he studied at Oslo School of Architecture
(AHO), where he continued his research activity working on Santo
Domingo grid. His working experience at landscape oce PROAP in Lisbon,
introduced him in the landscape design panorama. In 2014 he cofounded
“pais(vi)agem”, an independent research group that aims to develop an
innovative touristic model, using it as tool for regenerating and protecting
the landscape. Since 2015 he is a collaborator of the departmental research
unit Sealine of Ferrara University. Now he is a researcher and lecturer at
POLIS University, developing a research on tourism development in Balkan
countries, with a specic focus on the Albanian coastal territory. Recently
he has been invited as external expert in the Landscape Master of UPC
(Polytechnic University of Catalonia) in Barcelona. He is also member of
the research unit Institut Habitat Turisme i Territori, UPC Barcelona and
University of Malaga.
Loris Rossi graduated in architecture in 2004 at “La Sapienza” University of
Rome, Master degree in Architecture “Ludovico Quaroni”. He was awarded
a PhD scholarship in Architectural Composition and Theory at “La Sapienza”
and he developed part of his PhD dissertation research at the Department
of Architecture and Urban Planning of UCLA, in Los Angeles. He was an
adjunct professor at the Five Year Master course in Architecture EU of “La
Sapienza”. From 2005–2011 he was co-founder of the ungroup Architecture
oce based in Rome. Since October 2011 he is a Full time Professor at the
POLIS University in Tirana, from 2012 till 2013 he was Dean of faculty in
Planning and Urban Design. In January 2015 he was Visiting Faculty Member
at UCLA Department of Architecture & Urban Design, Los Angeles California.
Currently he is Head of the Applied Research Department. His most recent
research eld is centered on observation, analysis and investigation in
the context of Urban expressions, where the character of spontaneous
processes is a manifestation of interrupted city images.
Alessandra Battisti
Ass Prof PhD - Università La Sapienza | Rome (ITA)
Alessandra Cappai
PhD - CETT - Universitad de Barcelona (ESP)
Alessandro Gaiani
Adj Prof - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Alexandra Tsatsou
IHS - External Expert - Erasmus University (NLD)
Anna Bruna Menghini
Ass Prof PhD - Politecnico di Bari (ITA)
Besnik Aliaj
Full Prof PhD - Universiteti POLIS (ALB)
Camillo Boano
Full Prof PhD - University College London (UK)
Elizabeta Susaj
Ass Prof PhD - Universiteti POLIS (ALB)
Giovanni Avosani
PhD - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Gökçen Firdevs Yücel Caymaz
Asst Prof PhD Istanbul Aydın University (TUR)
Iván Álvarez León
PhD - IHTT - Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ESP)
Jan Fransen
Ass Prof PhD - IHS - Erasmus University (NLD)
Jason Payne
Ass Prof PhD - UCLA University of California (USA)
Jim Stevens
Ass Prof PhD - Lawrence Technological University (USA)
Joan Moreno Sanz
Asst Prof PhD - Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ESP)
Joaquin Sabaté Bel
Full Prof PhD - Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ESP)
Ledian Bregasi
PhD - Universiteti POLIS (ALB)
Letizia Martinelli
PhD - Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” (ITA)
Luca Emanueli
Visiting Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Marcella Del Signore
Ass Prof PhD - New YorkInstitute of Technology School of
Architecture and Design (USA)
Maria Goula
Ass Prof PhD - Cornell University (USA)
Marina Tornatora
Full Prof PhD - Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria
(ITA)
Maroš Finka
Full Prof PhD - Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
(SVK)
Marta Bertan Sella Gabardo
Full Prof - Pontifícia Universidade do Paraná (BRA)
Matteo Colleoni
Ass Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca (ITA)
Melisa Pesoa Marcilla
PhD - Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ESP)
Michael Jakob
Full Prof PhD - Haute École du paysage, d’ingénierie et
d’architecture de Genève (CHE)
Michelangelo Russo
Full Prof PhD - Università Federico II di Napoli (ITA)
Michele Montemurro
Asst Prof PhD - Politecnico di Bari (ITA)
Nicola Martinelli
Full Prof PhD - Politecnico di Bari (ITA)
Ogenis Brilhante
PhD - IHS - Erasmus University (NLD)
Peter Nientied
PhD - NCOI Rotterdam (NLD)
Pietromaria Davoli
Full Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Roberto Di Giulio
Full Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Roberto Pasini
Full Prof PhD - Universidad de Monterrey (MEX)
Sara Favargiotti
Ass Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Trento (ITA)
Silvia Lupini
Adj Prof PhD - Università di Camerino (ITA)
Sotir Dhamo
PhD - Universiteti POLIS (ALB)
Theo Zaagnini
Ass Prof PhD - Università degli Studi di Ferrara (ITA)
Vezir Muharremaj
Full Prof PhD - Universiteti POLIS (ALB)
Vincenzo P. Bagnato
Adj Prof PhD - Politecnico di Bari (ITA)
William Veerbeek
PhD - UNESCO IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (NLD)
International Scientic Committee
Notes
All papers presented at this conference have undergone a process of double blind review by the members of the
international scientic committee. The quotation system adopted is the Harvard Referecing System.
As stated in the call for papers, all copyright responsability is fully and solely on the author(s) of the text. The
coordinators, organizers and scientic committee are not legally responsible for any claims for compensation if
the author(s) have included gures, tables or text which have already been published.
Migration is probably the biggest social challenge of the last decades. The large human ux mobilized
by this phenomenon aects the social and urban patch of our cities, it transforms our landscapes and it
calls for a further reection on the concept of boundaries. The latter, currently a core aspect of dierent
disciplines’ research agendas, can be considered a contact zone, hybrid and porous, whereby cultural
interchange and co-habitation are possible. The aim of this session is, on one hand, to explore how users
perceive these spaces, their capacity of interaction and adaptability through co-habitation tactics, and
on the other, to propose material and spatial solutions that overcome both, physical and conceptual
boundaries. Researchers are invited to present contributions to the topic of migration and its impact in
dierent contexts: architecture, city and landscape.
conference proceedings
[TOU/03]
abstract
701
“This is a warning sign. Any city that sacrices itself on the altar of mass tourism will be abandoned by its people
when they can no longer aord the cost of housing, food, and basic everyday necessities.” (Colau, 2014)
Ada Colau, since 13 June 2015 mayor of Barcelona
Introduction
Most people were taught that tourism is good for the economy and for the community because it brings jobs,
foreign currency and helps local businesses. They believe in advertising their city/region/country to attract more
tourists and the more people visit the more successful they think their city/region/country is.
Over the last few years, however, a series of protests against tourists, widely covered in the media have shocked the
public. Last year, 2000 residents from Venice marched through this historical city to protest against uncontrolled
tourism that is damaging and polluting the city (Anonymous, 2017b; Coldwell, 2017; Sansom, 2017). There
were also crackdowns in Rome and Dubrovnik as locals were protesting against city-breakers and cruise ships
(Coldwell, 2017). In Barcelona, residents protested against the proliferation of tourist apartments (Burgen, 2017).
Some protesters even occupied a rental apartment and posted a banner on the balcony (Jessop, 2017) while
in San Sebastian certain left-wing groups painted anti-tourist slogans on the wall, such as “Tourists go home!”
(McLaughlin, 2017). Similar actions took place in Valencia, Majorca (McLaughlin, 2017), Bilbao (Jessop, 2017) and
Venice (Hunt, 2017). Most of these events were peaceful. However, in Barcelona some youths attacked a tourist
bus, punctured a tire and sprayed the bus with anti-tourist slogans. No tourist was harmed but they were shocked
and shaken by the event (Burgen, 2017). So what were these local residents protesting against?
Research Objectives
The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it will examine the main factors that have contributed to “tourism
overcrowding” in a number of European cities. This part is important to understand the more recent manifestations
of “tourismophobia” reported in the media. Secondly, it will try to understand whether or not it is still possible
for residents and tourists to co-habitate in the “touristy” cities and what tactics should be employed to change
tourism so as to manage its impact and make it more sustainable for both tourists and residents.
keywords Urban Tourism, Place Marketing, Home-Sharing Platforms, Tourist-Resident Co-Habitation
Tourism development provides numerous advantages to the host nations and places. However, more recently,
indiscriminate place marketing, as well as the development of low-cost ights and the popularization of home-sharing
platforms, such as Airbnb, has led to massive surges in the number of tourists visiting European cities. Swelling number
of tourists creates massive overcrowding making it dicult for locals to live in the more touristy neighborhoods. Some
cities, where tourists and locals battle for the use of shared spaces, are already stretched to breaking point. The questions
we ask in this paper is whether or not it is still possible for residents and tourists to co-habitate under these conditions
and what tactics should be employed to change tourism so as to manage its impact and make it more sustainable for
both tourists and residents.
”Tourists Go Home!” – Tourism Overcrowding And
“Tourismophobia” In European Cities
(Can Tourists And Residents Still Co-Habitate In The City?)
István Egresi
Center for Research on Settlements and Urbanism, Faculty of Geography, Department of Human Geography and Tourism, “Babes-Bolyai”
University, Cluj, Romania
702
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
Background information
Transformation of cities from production-oriented into consumption-oriented
Tourism development provides numerous advantages to the host nations and places. Cities are particularly keen
on developing the service industry related to leisure and tourism activities as with de-industrialization they have
lost their industrial base and needed to reinvent themselves as service centers (Bramwell and Rawding, 1996).
This is in line with post-Fordism which is characterized by a shift in trend from the consumption of goods to the
consumption of services (Mowforth and Munt, 2009).
To make them more appealing to tourists, cities were subjected to gentrication. In fact, the relationship between
gentrication and tourism development is so strong that it is often known as “tourism gentrication” (Janoschka et
al., 2014). Tourism gentrication refers to the transformation of working class - or middle class – neighborhoods
through the proliferation of hospitality and entertainment venues, thus making them more attractive not only to
upper class residents but also to tourists (Gotham, 2005). This has had numerous social, economic and residential
impacts (Nofre et al., 2017), the most important one being the transformation of neighborhoods from residential-
oriented into leisure- and tourism-oriented spaces (Quaglieri Dominguez and Scarnato, 2017). Gentrication has
been encouraged by local authorities through specic urban planning and regulations (Gotham, 2005; Nofre et
al., 2017) and has often led to changes in the retail landscape (Nofre et al., 2017) and to displacement of residents
(Gotham, 2005).
In addition place marketing has played a major role in changing the image of industrial cities (Ashworth and Goodall,
1990; Bramwell and Rawding, 1996). For example, the heavy marketing of Barcelona as a tourist destination since
before the 1992 Olympics has changed its image from that of an industrial city ridden by crime and suocated by
pollution to that of a city of art, culture and entertainment (Petkar, 2017).
Lately development of low-cost ights as well as numerous internet platforms that allow travelers to book their
own accommodation and plan their entire travel from the comfort of their home (Dunne et al., 2007; Egresi,
2016a) have also revolutionized the tourism industry and led to growing number of tourists (Williams, 2009).
Moreover, much cheaper ights have encouraged people to travel more (especially short and medium distances
on which the great majority of these low-cost airlines operate) not only for business but also for leisure (Bieger
and Wittner, 2006; Rey et al., 2011). Major cities with cultural heritage and vibrant nightlife are especially attractive
for city breaks (Graham and Dennis, 2010). This has led to a rise in the frequency of short travel alternative forms
of tourism, mainly to other countries in the European Union (Dunne et al., 2007). An important contribution to
the popularization of short travels and city breaks had the creation of economic and political blocs (such as the
Schengen Agreement or the Euroland) which made border crossings faster and cheaper (Egresi, 2016d). Especially
professionals prefer several shorter vacations in a year instead of or besides one longer vacation (Williams, 2009).
On the other hand, the number of repeat visits is decreasing as more tourists are seeking alternative sites and
attractions (Franklin, 2003).
During weekdays many accommodation units are occupied by business travelers so there is underutilized
accommodation capacity during weekends which can be reserved by leisure-seeking travelers at discounted
prices. Moreover, with the advent of home-sharing platforms accommodation could be much cheaper (Airbnb) or
even free (Coach Surng). Airbnb has been particularly successful (Guttentag, 2015). In Spain, already, there are
almost twice as many accommodations in private apartments as in hotels (Lambea Lop, 2017). In Barcelona, while
the number of hotels has increased by 83.74% between 2001 and 2014, the number of tourist apartments has
increased by 258% within the same interval (Nofre et al., 2017). In fact, Barcelona is ranked fourth in terms of the
number of tourist apartments listed on Airbnb (Lambea Lop, 2017). However, in many cities, a great proportion
of these rental apartments function illegally. For example, in Barcelona, 78% of all accommodations that can be
booked on Airbnb are illegal (Nofre et al., 2017 citing an Airbnb document).
Cities like Venice, London, Paris or Rome which in the past were visited as part of longer tours and, generally,
more auent populations have now become aordable weekend destinations for almost everyone. Due to the
dramatic drop in costs, today even low-income people (including students) can aord these weekend city breaks
(Dunne et al., 2007).
Emergence and development of home-sharing platforms, such as Airbnb has led to over-touristication of
attractive neighborhoods situated within or close to city centers (Ioannides et al. 2018). Gutierrez et al. (2017)
have analyzed the patterns of spatial distribution of Airbnb accommodations in Barcelona and compared it to the
pattern of spatial distribution of hotels and with that of the most visited places by tourists. They found that Airbnb
accommodations, while visibly concentrated in the central areas of the city are more scattered in those areas than
hotel accommodation. This means that Airbnb listings extend the areas in the city center under pressure from
tourism making life for local residents more dicult.
703
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Rising number of tourists and tourist-resident relations
The total number of international tourists increased by 7% in 2017 against the previous year to reach 1,322 million
(WTO, 2018). In Europe, the number of international tourists grew by a remarkable 8% driven especially by the
extraordinary results in Southern Europe (13%) (WTO, 2018).
The number of international tourists has reached a record 84 million in 2017 and tourism accounts for about 13%
of all jobs in Spain (Anonymous, 2017a). Important increases in the number of foreign tourists have also been
announced in other European countries. For example, in Hvar, in the rst seven months of 2017, the number of
visitors increased by 20% over the same period in 2016 (Lyman, 2017).
This massive increase in the number of tourists visiting selected places in Europe brings into question the
tourist-resident relations. The study of tourism impact on host communities has preoccupied a great number of
researchers from a broad range of disciplines over the last four decades to become one of the main subjects of
inquiry in tourism studies (Gilbert and Clark, 1997). Interest in tourist-resident relations goes back to the 1970s,
when, following development of mass tourism, researchers started to be concerned with the impact of tourism
and tourists on the local communities (Harrill, 2004). Doxey (1975) suggested that relation between tourists and
residents will pass through a sequence of reactions as the number of tourists in the community rises. Initially
residents’ perception of tourism development is best characterized by euphoria. This reaction will, in time, be
succeeded by apathy, irritation and, eventually, antagonism. The recent surge in demonstrations and even
violence against tourists shows that the tourist-resident relation in the most tourist-sought European cities may
be entering the last phase in Doxey’s Irridex Scale. However, as pointed out by Faulkner and Tideswell (1997),
most communities are heterogeneous; thus, resident responses to tourism stress will be dierent and could be
both positive and negative (Jordan and Moore, 2018). In general, residents tend to accept the negative impacts of
tourism if they benet from it (Rasolimanesh, Jaafar, Kock and Ramayah, 2015).
Overtourism and tourism overcrowding
When locals and/or visitors complain about too many visitors in one place which could aect the residents’ quality
of life and the tourists’ and excursionists’ quality of experience we can talk about overtourism (Goodwin, 2017).
Many locations in Europe have been identied for experiencing overtourism today; however, studies on tourist
crowding in high-density destination are still scarce and most of these studies are approached from the perspective
of tourists. For example, a study by Neuts and Nijkamp (2012) has concluded that, while, in general, acceptability of
tourists decreases with the growing number of tourists, this depends to a great degree on individual perceptions.
Similarly, based on a case study in Florence, Italy, Popp (2012) argued that in case of urban tourism there could
be negative crowding (due to the stress involved) as well as good crowding (in situations in which crowding could
add to the experience). She stressed that while negative crowding could be a major problem in a city like Florence
there are spatial and temporal strategies that could be employed to best experience a city aected by mass
tourism. Weber et al. (2017) also emphasized that while crowding could sometimes be perceived as a sign that
the attraction is worth visiting, therefore attached a positive connotation, negative crowding leads to overtourism.
There are few works on tourist crowding from a resident perspective. One problem is that, very often, tourist
crowding is not identied as a problem for residents. It is understood as a problem only when local people start
rebelling; hence, overtourism is also perceived as a social movement (Milano et al., 2017). In a study published
more than 20 years ago, Montanari and Muscara (1995) posit that very often conicts between tourists and
locals in some of the world’s greatest tourist-historic attractions, such as Venice, are explained in a very simplistic
manner leading inexorably to the equally simplistic conclusion that the number of tourists should be limited.
They argue that, in fact, tourist ows are made up by many types of tourists, each with his/her spatial behavior,
perceptiveness, receptiveness and spending power and not all these types are causing troubles for the residents;
hence, the authors propose that some types of tourists be actually encouraged. Similarly, Clements (1989) argued
that, in order to reduce crowding, tourism marketers should target certain market segments and discourage
others. Finally, Montanari and Muscara (1995) believe that, in order to peacefully co-habitate, tourists and
residents/commuters should be eectively separated when using the water transport system.
Resident-tourist co-habitation and tourismophobia
The co-habitation of residents and tourists is troubled especially when boundaries between tourist spaces and
resident spaces are blurred as tourists like to wander into residential neighborhoods and mingle with locals in
search of more genuine atmospheres (Quaglieri Dominguez and Scarnato, 2017). Tourists are no longer seeking
the extraordinary in a location but rather looking to experience the picturesque urban fabric and urban every-
day lifestyle (Quaglieri Dominguez and Scarnato, 2017). This is in line with the postmodernist trend emphasizing
cultural dierence and fragmentation that has replaced the global culture model. This new trend explains why
more and more people travel today in search of authentic culture (Egresi, 2016d).
704
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
Previous studies have identied a clear correlation between tourism “overdevelopment” and the deterioration in
the residents’ quality of life in cities popular with tourists, such as Barcelona (Casado Buesa, 2017). Overtourism
has been blamed for reducing the residents’ buying power and increasing congestion as well as for reducing
their sense of place and sense of belonging leading to collapsing socio-cultural connectivity (Milano, 2017b). The
most aected by this massive tourism development seems to be the right of residents to decent housing (Casado
Buesa, 2017). This may be because, as explained earlier in this paper, tourism gentrication is more complex than
classical urban gentrication and residents can be aected in more than one way. Thus, long-term residents are
displaced not only because rents normally increase after gentrication but also because tourists can aord to pay
more. Moreover, as more residents move out and more tourists move in, tourism gentrication will also aect
the socio-economic activities in the neighborhood (such as the type of retail) and the public spaces which are
invaded by tourists and visitors further alienating the residents (Casado Buesa, 2017). Further, tourists’ behavior
and tourists’ encroachment on residents’ personal spaces could put a lot of pressure on the remaining residents,
eventually forcing them to move out (Casado Buesa, 2017). For example, the neighborhood of Barceloneta has lost
over 11% of its permanent population in just 15 years, between 2000 and 2015 (Ballester, 2018 citing documents
published by the local government of Barcelona).
“Overtourism” and “tourismophobia” are often used interchangeably although the two concepts are not
synonymous (Soydanbay, 2017). Yet there is a relationship between the two concepts. That is, if the troubled
resident-tourist relationship caused by overtourism is not xed, it could eventually lead to “tourismophobia”1
(Vainikka and Vainikka, 2018, Milani, 2017b). The term was coined by the sta of the El Pais newspaper in Madrid
(Ballester, 2018) and was later adopted by much of the mass media. The concept has more recently permeated into
the academic literature, particularly in Spain (see Huete and Mantecon, 2018). The concept of “tourismophobia”
could be shortly dened as extreme aversion to tourism and tourists2 (Donaire, 2008; Milano, 2017b). This is
manifested publicly through dierent forms, including verbal and/or physical violence against tourists and attacks
on tourism infrastructure (Huete and Mantecon, 2018). It is dicult to assess what percentage of residents are
tourismo-phobic. However, based on the great number of newspaper articles that were published on the subject,
Abril-Sellares et al. (2015) argue that residents’ degree of tourists’ rejection is quite high. This is how a journalist
described what he understood by “tourismophobia”:
“Tourism has ceased to be an undisputable manna. If once the native population welcomed visitors with open
arms at the beginning of the season, now they fear their arrival. From Palma de Mallorca to Barcelona, tourists
have become the annoying invasive species ‘guilty’ of overcrowding and abusive prices. Tourismophobia was
born.”(Barberia, 2017; originally in Spanish, the text was translated with google translate).
Ballester (2018) argued that “tourism overcrowding” and the rise in “tourismophobia” have led to nothing less
than an urban crisis which can be solved only through new tourism governance. Unfortunately, lack of strategic
planning and ideological contradictions can only reduce the ability to arrive to solutions that ensure peaceful
co-habitation of residents and visitors (Ballester, 2018). Moreover, residents’ protests reect not only a tourism
regulation crisis but also a deeper identity crisis as these new tourism developments may have weakened the
cohesion and trust between the elites who benet greatly from tourism (over)development and the residents
who do not benet but are forced to pay the price (Baron, 2017).
Methodology
This study is based on the qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles and their reader’s comments. We
have shown elsewhere (Egresi, 2017; Egresi, 2015) that qualitative content analysis of reviews and comments
posted by travelers could be used as a reliable and relevant method to investigate people’s attitudes towards
and perception of certain tourism phenomena and issues. However, to our knowledge, so far, there has not been
any study to rely on reader’s comments on newspaper articles, although these could provide rich information
and insights into tourists’ experiences that cannot be obtained through other methods (Law, 2006). The main
advantage of this method is that the comments are not led by the researcher’s questions and subjects can post
and interact with their online community members in a relatively uninhibited manner (Banyai and Glover, 2012).
The idea for this study emerged as the author was documenting for another study and came across one article
about residents of Barcelona protesting the “touristication” of residential neighborhoods. To select the newspaper
articles to be analyzed for this study we employed a purposive sampling method. We used Google’s search engine
to look for relevant articles using “anti-tourist protests” as keywords. We started with the rst choice by google,
clicked on it to check whether the document was a newspaper article and whether the content was relevant to our
research topic. If it did not meet our criteria we moved on to the next document. Sometimes, the site visited would
recommend similar articles published by the same or other newspapers which were also scrutinized.
In compiling our list of newspaper articles preference was given to articles with comments from readers, although
some articles without any comment but which included interesting information not covered by any other articles
705
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
were also included in the list. We included only articles in English regardless of the date or year of publication,
although most of the articles in our list date from 2017 when most protests took place. Since we did not use
probability sampling, we did not have a denite sample size in mind. We stopped our search when we felt that we
reached a point of saturation, when the information started to be repeated and no new content was produced
(see Lopez and Whitehead, 2013).
The main disadvantage of this type of sampling is that it suers from a number of biases due to the fact that the
articles selected may not be representative for all articles and all comments that were written on the topic over
a certain period of time. However, considering that the total number of articles and comments published online
on this subject is not known and considering the pioneering character of this study, this was the only choice.
Moreover, the chosen sampling method was appropriate for the purpose of our study as we did not intend to
clarify exactly what percentage of the articles/comments can be classied as “anti-tourist” and what percentage
as “pro-tourist”. The fact that there are articles/comments that report on anti-tourist attitudes of residents means
that a segment of the local population (the size of which is irrelevant for the purpose of our study3) displays
negative feelings towards tourists visiting their cities. The purpose of our study is to understand the factors that
have contributed to this attitude and for this goal a purposive sampling was considered adequate (Lopez and
Whitehead, 2013).
For this study we analyzed the content of 16 articles and 1880 comments. The newspaper articles examined for
this study are listed in the bibliography (together with the number of comments). However, some comments were
discarded from the analysis for being duplicates or for not being related to the article examined. This resulted in
a number of 1845 cases and 101,862 words that were further analyzed. Codes were pre-determined and based
on our research questions and the cases analyzed were mined for useful quotes to illustrate the main problems
identied.
Findings
Tourist overcrowding
Based on the media sources consulted, we found that overcrowding has become a major problem in many (West)
European cities. In fact, residents of Barcelona consider overcrowding to be the second biggest problem for the
entire city (Roca, 2017) and according to a recent poll conducted and published by the municipality of Barcelona,
the residents of this Spanish city blame tourists for causing this problem (Peter, 2017).
Barcelona received 30 million tourists in 2016, of which 12 million day-trippers, a gure that is almost 20 times
higher than its resident population (Sansom, 2017). Another popular destination, Venice, an old historical city of
70,000 inhabitants receives no less than 70,000-90,000 visitors a day more than doubling its permanent population.
These visitors crowd all the popular sites and even wander into the residential neighborhoods which is resented
by the locals who are transformed willy-nilly into actors for the tourists’ photo albums. As Valeria Duot, co-
founder of Venezia Autentica (Authentic Venice) rightly put it: “Venice is being turned into a theme park and locals
and visitors alike resent this fact” (Sansom, 2017). This explains why residents are upset. As Goundwater (2017)
explains:
“No wonder there’s a backlash. Surely people in Barcelona don’t want to live in a tourist attraction, don’t want to
exist purely as a backdrop for Instagram photos. They want to live in a normal city, a place where they’ll have the
same neighbors next week and the week after, where they can go to the market and buy some jamon and not
have to push past a group of hungover tour passengers taking photos of the tomatoes to get there.”
1 / However, Soydanbay (2017) argues that “tourismophobia” is not caused by overcrowding but is rather triggered by xenophobia.
2 / We should be aware that in the past “tourismophobia” was used with dierent meanings. For example, Korstanje (2011) dened
“tourismophobia” as “fear of traveling”.
3 / For those readers who still want to get a sense of how widespread this anti-tourist attitude is, I will provide some numbers as
a footnote. A survey conducted in 2016 on a sample of 4959 residents of Barcelona concluded that more than half of the city’s
residents viewed tourists’ behavior positively, 29.3% considered it to be neither good nor bad and 14.5% perceived it to be bad or
very bad. However, in the more touristy neighborhoods the proportion of residents with negative perception of tourists was much
higher, reaching 49% in Barceloneta and 37% in the Gothic District. Moreover, we should remark the sharp increase in anti-tourist
attitudes. While in 2013 almost 70% of the residents believed that the city should continue to attract more tourists this segment
dropped to only 47.5% in 2016, while 48.9% opined that the city has reached its maximum capacity to service tourists (up from
27.2% in 2013). Similarly, while in 2013, 74.7% of the residents assessed tourism management in their city positively and only 10%
negatively, in 2016 these proportions changed to 43.9% and 23.6% respectively (Alvarez-Sousa, 2018).
706
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
What is somewhat surprising in Ms. Duot’s statement is that not only locals but also tourists nd overcrowding to
be a major problem. Indeed, a poll conducted in Barcelona revealed that 58% of tourists found that some places
in the city were overcrowded (Roca, 2011). For example, this is how reader/tourist NEurGeeza describes his/her
experience in Barcelona: “Me and my partner spent the last 2 nights of a Catalan holiday in Barcelona before ying
home and was shocked how overcrowded and downmarket Las Ramblas had become. Also the area around the
Cathedral was like a sardine can” (Hunt, 2017).
Others, who visited the European city after (or have lived in it for) several years were able to document the changes
that increasing tourism activity brought to the place. For example, a reader from Australia who commented under
the name “Doctor Strabismus” wrote about the changes he witnessed in the city of Florence, Italy which he visited
with his wife 40 years after his last visit: “I found it as beautiful as ever, but the congestion was almost unbearable,
hardly possible to move at times, and I know I will never go back, which saddens me” (Hunt, 2017). Another reader,
known as “The Moustache” who has been living and working in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) for ten years concluded
regarding the changes in the number of tourists:
“Over the years, Palma centre has increasingly stopped catering for those who live there, replacing regular shops
with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, and traditional simple restaurants and cafés with pricey tourist-friendly
places serving frozen paella and the like. It’s incredibly dicult to nd aordable accommodation for rent, such is
its scarcity, and buses are now so full that it’s not uncommon to be waiting for nearly an hour before one turns up
which has some space on it. Bins are overowing, despite daily collection; the volume of trac is higher than ever
before, and there’s no parking; and beaches are full and littered with plastic and junk.” (Coldwell, 2017)
When reading these comments it becomes clear why travelers themselves resent overcrowding of the places they
visit. This, in fact, has been noticed also by Groundwater (2017) who concluded:
“In fact, ‘travelers’ are a major part of the issue. They want to get o the beaten track, they want to see the ‘real’
city – but in doing so they’re breaking down the traditional tourist/local barriers, they’re popping up in quiet
neighborhoods, invading locals-only havens in the name of seeing something authentic. At least the tourist crowd
just congregates in one spot and can easily be avoided.”
Most readers commenting on the articles analyzed for this paper were of the opinion that, although there are
many advantages to tourism development, unchecked growth would eventually alienate residents and destroy
the very characteristics that made those places famous. For example, “Airstavros”, a British resident of a “tourism-
oriented” region in England stated that: “Tourists bring money but ruin everything with litter and overcrowding
during the summer. Second homes force locals out and expensive restaurants replace old pubs. Tourism will
become antisocial if it keeps growing” (Lopez Diaz, 2017).
Next we will examine the main factors leading to the phenomenon of overcrowding visible in most tourist-
attractive European cities.
Rise of city breaks and short trips leading to a focus on a few major tourist objectives
One of the major changes that have aected the tourism industry in the last decade or so is the shift towards
shorter trips and city breaks (Dunne et al., 2007). When people have only two or three days to see a place they will
prioritize the most obvious tourist objectives. These are those objectives that each tourist guide classies as “must
see’’ in the area. The consequence is that tourists travel with a list of places they want to see and take photographs
with. When they ock en masse to these objectives, these places become clogged with tourists. One reader aptly
described this situation as the “Mona Lisa eect”:
“I would argue a larger problem (at least for the moment) is the numbers of tourists are gigantic compared to the
number of places they actually go to. Places get famous and people tend to ock to them, causing more people
to follow and you end with a literal Mona Lisa eect where everyone is crowded into one small room taking
photos of a single small painting that is behind glass and barriers whilst the rest of the gigantic gallery is quieter
or untouched.” (Coldwell, 2017)
Day trippers and city breakers, therefore tend to stay in the city center, rarely choosing to explore further aeld
(Coldwell, 2017). They are driven by a desire to quickly check objectives o their list, then take a few seles and
post them on social media. On the other hand, when a tourist stays in the area for a longer period of time, he/
she will visit the most famous objectives in the rst few days after which they will visit objectives considered of
secondary importance. These tourists also spend more time on resting and enjoying life so their agenda is less
dense and they tend to be more relaxed and less aggressive when visiting places. The same is true with the
tourists visiting the same city several times. While the rst time they may, indeed, concentrate on the primary
objectives, the next times they visit they would want to see places that are less “touristy” and experience local life
(Gitelson and Crompton, 1984).
707
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Rise of cheap ights leading to a focus on a limited number of cities
With the advent and rapid expansion of low-cost airlines, the cost of ying medium-distance has dropped
signicantly. In fact, as one reader (“cakefordinner”) observed, “it’s usually cheaper to y than taking the train
nowadays. It’s insane!” (Hunt, 2007). This has encouraged people to travel more often and has allowed even the
poorer segments of the society to participate in the tourism phenomenon.
However, because they still need to be protable, low-cost airlines tend to y only to a number of select destinations
which are already very popular or have the potential to become very popular with tourists. By so doing, low-cost
airlines channelize the ow of tourists creating hot-spots that could lead to overcrowding of destinations. We,
therefore, agree with one reader’s (“waaliki”) assertion that cheap ights have changed “the scale, type and impact
of tourism on most European cities […] in the last 10-15 years’ (Hunt, 2017).
Increasing popularity of home-sharing platforms leading to the spreading of tourists within
the city and displacement of residents
Although a very new phenomenon, the popularity of home-sharing platforms has skyrocketed in the last few years
both among tourists and among owners of rental properties. In Barcelona, for example, there are 16,000 holiday
rentals which accommodated around 9 million tourists in 2016 (Sansom, 2017) and every day new apartments
are listed. Since few of these homes are newly built, this means that, in fact, residential apartments serving local
population are transformed into holiday rentals to serve the needs of tourists. In the historic Gothic district already
27% of all housing is being used as tourist accommodation and there are buildings in which the number of holiday
rentals has surpassed the number of residential apartments (Roca, 2017).
One eect, as already intimated in this paper, is that rents go up and ordinary residents are forced to move out.
In central Barcelona, for example, rents increased by 25% since 2014 (Roca, 2017) and an ordinary apartment is
rented now for €800 or more while many young locals earn €1,000 or less a month (Peter, 2017). They can no
longer aord to live in those neighborhoods and are forced to nd cheaper arrangements on the outskirts. This
residential trend is reected in the statistics showing that the number of residents in the central neighborhoods
of Barcelona has fallen by almost one-half in the past decade (Roca, 2017).
The situation in Barcelona is not unique. Many commentators have reported similar urban problems in London,
Amsterdam or Berlin. For example, “Deanna” pointed out that “investors and foreign buyers have bought most
of London driving up prices and rents, with Airbnb adding to it” and believes that “[…] uncontrolled greed is the
reason and unless governments put their foot down and make laws and implement them nothing will change”
(Lopez Diaz, 2017). When people cannot aord to live in the towns and villages in which they were born, “Airstavros”
claims, “they […] resent the tourism and expensive restaurants that have replaced shops and cafes” (Lopez Diaz,
2017).
Moreover, besides the eect these have on rents in the area, residents resent home-sharing platforms, such as
Airbnb, “[…] because of noise, but more often because of total collapse of community you get when people come
and go weekly” (opinion expressed by “waaliki” commenting on Hunt, 2007).
Increasing popularity of cruise ships and day-trips by coaches leading to higher concentration
of tourists
A relatively new phenomenon, the popularity of cruise ships is growing year by year. As many as 3.6 million cruise
passengers visited Spanish port-cities in the rst half of 2017, a gure that is twice as high as a decade ago (Tadeo
and Penty, 2017). Readers commenting on the newspaper articles analyzed for this research mentioned that
cruise ships could unload as many as 5000 visitors (“Frenchview” in Hunt, 2017) and very popular historical cities,
such as Venice, could receive as many as eight cruise ships in one day (“Anne Baillie” in Groundwater, 2017). Even
second-tier tourist cities, such as Cadiz (Spain) could be “ooded” with as many as 17,000 cruise passengers in one
day (“Professor Parkin” in Hunt, 2017). In small towns, such as Dubrovnik, the impact of these masses of visitors is
even greater (“Georgette Wheeller” in Anonymous, 2017b). And the numbers are predicted to go up in the coming
years (Tadeo and Penty, 2017) creating resentment among residents (Peter, 2017).
Although these visitors usually behave well (“Frenchview” and “Professor Parkin” in Hunt, 2017), they are detested
by the locals because they “[…] have pre-paid their meals and crowd the towns with masses of people in shorts,
funny hats and sele sticks with cameras attached who just walk around and buy nothing” (“Frenchview in Hunt,
2017). Moreover, “these multiple groups of 50+ people often have head phones and are listening to their guide
and don’t care who they run over or push into walls in their determination to keep their guide in sight” (“Georgette
Wheeler” in Anonymous, 2017b). The general conclusion is that these visitors do not benet local economies,
yet, simply by their sheer numbers could bring a city “to a halt” (“Anne Baillie” in Groundwater, 2017) and the
708
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
recommendation is that city governments take responsibility, limit the number of ships allowed per day and
charge per visitor (“Anne Baillie” in Groundwater, 2017) and that cruise ship organizers “encourage people to
travel more responsibly and with consideration to the locals” (“Georgette Wheeler” in Anonymous, 2017b).
Overall impact on residents
Many residents in European cities and towns are complaining that the recent increase in the number of tourists
is making their lives intolerable (Anonymous, 2017a). For this reason, many residents would like to see a stop to
their places being promoted as a destination for tourists. “Ivan Tiger” explains that his city does not need more
tourists because space and resources are limited:
“Sorry, but London’s economy does seem to promote unnecessary tourism to the fatal outcome of residents – e.g.
all these Central London blockages every weekend – which means locals cannot get taxis, buses, roadways thru
to hospitals, work, any social activities, childcare/elderly lunch clubs and most tubes are still not accessible to
disabled, so we’re all trapped in our homes from Fridays to Mondays.” (Hunt, 2017)
The same idea is echoed by another reader (“Doctor Strabismus”) who calls for solutions to limit the number of
visitors “within bounds of sanity” while recognizing that “everyone has an equal right to travel and love places like
Florence” (Hunt, 2017).
What most residents complain about is not overcrowding but a complete transformation of their place from a
residential neighborhood into a tourist-oriented area with no regard for the residents. “Kate King” commenting on
the article by Hunt (2017) summarized this situation very clearly:
“[…] The point is that the whole place becomes taken over, not only with coaches, tour buses and thousands of
extra people per day. The shops become gift shops and every recreational space becomes a melee. It isn’t that
locals don’t appreciate the tourist yen or dollar. It’s that they don’t want their environment to become nothing but
that. Locals need real shops, would prefer to eat out in places that aren’t dominated by loud tourist groups with
phones on sticks and don’t want all their pedestrian precincts lled with mobile stalls selling spinners and wooden
roses – or whatever the equivalent in their town …” (Hunt, 2017).
The result is that cities invaded by tourists become uninhabitable by year-round residents who are forced to move
out and abandon their places of residence to tourists (Anonymous, 2017b). For example, “Ferdy Lijftogt” laments:
“I used to live in Amsterdam and while I still like visiting the city, I wouldn’t want to live there anymore because of
the tourists. Especially the British stag parties who think that the city is a sort of adult Disneyland and roam the
streets looking for drugs, drinks and prostitutes.” (Coldwell, 2017)
Three conclusions can be drawn from the quote above:
1. Many tourists fail to notice that their playground is also a residential neighborhood in which locals try to go
on with their lives. In some of Barcelona’s central neighborhoods banners were hung from balconies to remind
tourists of this fact but these had a very limited eect (“necronancy” – an ex-resident – in Colau, 2014).
2. It is not only the overcrowding that bothers residents but also the behavior of tourists, who, unlike tourists in
the past, are not as much interested in a cultural experience as they are in getting drunk and doing things that
would never dare to do in their hometown. Or, according to “Jonellsworth”, perhaps they would: “Part of the
problem these days is that many ‘tourists’ are not ‘touring’ at all or seeking any form of cultural experience or
knowledge gains whatsoever. They are simply boorish, binge-drinking louts who behave pretty much the same
way when they are at home” (Coldwell, 2017).
3. Most residents want their neighborhoods (and their city/town) to remain “residential”. However, with each
new tourist moving in and each resident moving out there is a possibility that their neighborhoods/cities would
turn into a theme park. As a reader, known by the handle “Mad Maki”, in a response to another reader who
accused residents of xenophobia, puts it:
“It’s not about appreciating diversity, it’s about turning historical cities into theme parks for tourists who walk
around like sheep, not caring where they are, their only purpose being to take a sele at the world-known
sights (sic!) and buy some ‘Made in China’ typical souvenir (in a place where a ‘real’ shop used to be). […] The
architecture and cultural attractions of a city are important, but without the people who live there, their bars,
restaurants and shops it’s something more like Disneyland.” (Coldwell, 2017)
Of course residents understand the benets of tourism and are willing to make some compromises. However,
they do not want to live in a “fantasy” place. Moreover, as was also evidenced in previous studies (see, for example,
Egresi, 2016c) most locals do not benet from tourism – tourism brings indeed a lot of money but “this doesn’t
lter down to ordinary working people” (“Bee Locks” in Hunt, 2017) – they only share the costs as “ordinary people
get priced out of living in the city where they work” (ibidem). Even some residents who make a living from tourism
feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of tourists during the summer season making everyone’s life so much more
dicult and declare that they would happily agree with any restrictions and regulations to limit the number of
tourists (“el Brujo” in Coldwell, 2017).
709
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Also, while most of the complaints seem to come from larger and more populated places (cities), it is possible
that the eects of tourist overcrowding are felt worst in smaller and/or less densely populated places, such as
Iceland, a country in which the number of tourists skyrocketed after the 2008 nancial crisis. This is how “Kriabird”
describes the impact of tourism on residents in this country:
“Iceland’s been hit very hard with this. We have more tourists visit each year than we have people living here.
Our already poor road system is crumbling, idiots keep chasing horses with drones for ‘dramatic eect’, and far
too many people are ignoring warnings at the ice oes, clis or dangerous beaches and getting into trouble and
putting the (volunteer!) search and rescue teams in danger. … [Tourism is] a huge part of our economy but the
attitude of a lot of tourists is infuriating, and the negative eects the sheer numbers is having on locals is getting
absurd.” (Coldwell, 2017)
What can be done to ensure peaceful co-habitation of residents, tourists and visitors?
In the previous section we have concluded that a series of factors related to tourism development challenge the
co-habitation of residents, tourists and visitors in many European cities. The question is what can be done to solve
this problem.
One reader (“Bucket”) suggests banning “Airbnb style lets” unless the owner lives in the house, banning cruise
ships from docking in busy destinations and limiting the access of tourist buses to city centers (Hunt, 2017).
Limiting the number of tourists is not a new idea. In the past, a number of studies have argued for demarketing
as a means to reduce overcrowding and to encourage/discourage certain tourist types (Beeton and Beneld,
2002; Carlsen and Ali-Knight, 2004; Clements, 1989). Demarketing, a term coined by Phillip Kotler (Kotler and Levy,
1971), is dened as “that aspect of marketing that deals with discouraging customers in general or a certain class
of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis” (p. 75).
Current urban policy and planning is outdated as it cannot cope with negative impacts of tourism development
and there is an urgent need for a new community based planning strategy that is able to ensure neighborhood
livability and co-habitation between residents and tourists (Nofre et al., 2017). Therefore, it is stringent that we
nd solutions that could both protect and preserve residential neighborhoods and satisfy the needs of the tourists
(Lambea Lop, 2017).
Some readers (“serpyuk”; “Hendouwenti”) also pointed out that most of the problems discussed here are not
the fault of tourists but rather the fault of central and local governments that failed to plan for and regulate
the increased tourism activities and are unable to control corruption and illegal activities (Coldwell, 2017; Lopez
Diaz, 2017). Their conclusion was that the number of tourists should not be limited. This opinion is also shared
by some decision-makers at both global and national levels. For example, while recognizing that the rise in
anti-tourist sentiments is “a very serious situation that needs to be addressed in a serious way”, Taleb Rifai, the
secretary general of the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), has argued that the solution to
this problem is not the limitation of tourism but rather the design and implementation of strategies for managing
crowds in destinations, such as extending the area visitation beyond the famous landmarks and tourist objectives,
diversifying tourist activities, reducing seasonality and addressing the needs of the local residents (Coldwell, 2017).
Although we agree that we should not blame the tourists for the situation, we believe that the number of tourists
must be capped. Of course, tourist apartment owners and hotel owners will not be happy with this decision
but we need to control tourism development “otherwise we’d end up having a city with just tourist apartments
and deserted neighborhoods” (Roca 2017; quoting Agusti Colom, chief of tourism for the Barcelona municipal
government). The ever increasing number of tourists in Barcelona could be interpreted as a sign of success but
these numbers cannot go up indenitely or else “Barcelona could die of success” (ibidem). The present mayor of
Barcelona, Ada Colau, has already taken the decision to freeze the total number of tourist accommodation units
(tourist apartments included) at 158,384 and to gradually redistribute these units away from the city center (Roca,
2017). Similarly, Venice is considering a ban on new tourist accommodations in the city center (Coldwell, 2017).
One reader (“Helen Wheels”) reports that similar concerns exist also in Amsterdam where the city council tried
(albeit unsuccessfully) to limit the number of centrally located accommodation units advertised by Airbnb (Hunt,
2007).
Next, these cities should clamp down on illegal tourist apartments and tax more those that are legal. Since the
existence and rapid expansion of tourist apartments shared on Internet platforms such as Airbnb emerged (in
this study and many others) as one of main factors responsible for the frictions between residents and tourists,
Lambea Lop (2017) suggests suspending the permits for tourist apartments and designing new regulations and
special urban planning rules for these short-term rentals.
There is already a strategy to do exactly this in Barcelona. Airbnb was ned last year €600,000 for continuing to
710
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
advertise unlicensed short-rental apartments on their website (Sansom, 2017). However, as already mentioned, in
many cities, the majority of these tourist apartments function illegally anyways. Moreover, visitor accommodations
listed on home-sharing platforms are dicult to regulate because in big, attractive cities there are so many of
them that it is very dicult to monitor them and they often avoid detection until neighbors complain (Gurran and
Phibbs, 2017). Furthermore, besides Airbnb, which, admittedly, is the most popular, there is a long list of websites
allowing home owners to advertise their residential properties which could make the task of detecting (and,
perhaps, closing) illegal short-term rentals next to impossible (Gottlieb, 2013).
Barcelona also intends to impose higher property taxes on legal tourist apartments (Roca, 2017; Sansom, 2017).
It is a well-known fact that the owners of most apartments on Airbnb listings do not pay any taxes (Guttentag,
2015). Hence they could keep their prices lower than hotels and still be highly protable. When they are properly
taxed, it is reckoned that some of these rental units may become less competitive and may have to close business.
Many problems arise from the absence of landlords from the premises to manage the property and tourists like
a traditional tourist accommodation provider (Jordan and Moore, 2018); hence Barcelona city council also intends
to ban illegal subletting (Sansom, 2017).
Another necessary step is limiting the number of cruise ships (we do not think that they should be completely
banned). As we have seen in this paper, cruise ships disembark thousands of tourists who crowd the area without
actually bringing many economic benets to the community. Venice already imposed a limit on the number of
cruise ships allowed to dock in its port (Lyman, 2017) and similar measures are being considered in Dubrovnik
(Coldwell, 2017). Meanwhile, the city of Barcelona, which receives about 750 cruise ships a year carrying at least 11
million visitors, is planning a new tax to be levied on each visitor staying less than 12 hours (Anonymous, 2017b).
Not only cruise ship passengers will be aected by this tax but also groups of visitors arriving by bus. For example,
each bus which parks at the foot of Montjuic Hill will be charged a fee of 34 euro (Roca, 2017).
Eliminating crowding of public spaces should be a primary concern of city governments. Already, Rome is
considering limiting the number of visitors to certain areas of the city center such as the Trevi fountain (Anonymous,
2017b) and, in Barcelona, large tour groups are forbidden to enter La Boqueria, the city’s famous food market
in order not to clog its alleyways (Lyman, 2017). At the same time, in Venice, the mayor’s oce is contemplating
the introduction of “people counters” at popular tourist sites to monitor crowding (Coldwell, 2017). Some city
ocials have even proposed to allow access to some of these sites, such as St. Mark’s Square, only with tickets
(Anonymous, 2017b). Authorities in Barcelona have also restricted the use of segways and electric bikes which are
dangerous in areas with large crowds (Roca, 2017).
Central and local governments should also implement stricter measures against tourists and visitors with anti-
social behavior. In Dubrovnik, cameras were installed to monitor the number and behavior of tourists in the old
town while on the Croatian island of Hvar the mayor is determined to crack down on the anti-social behavior of
drunken tourists by ning them (Coldwell, 2017). In fact, the residents of the island made it clear that “This new
generation that’s coming in, who come to rollick, who come to drink cheap alcohol, we don’t want this type of
clientele”. (Senka Halebic, spokeswoman for one of the most popular beach clubs; in Lyman, 2017). In Rome, it is
also not permitted drinking or eating in the streets and at tourist attractions or bathing in the public fountains.
Measures against anti-social behavior were also taken in Milan to protect residential neighborhoods (Coldwell,
2017).
In order to decongest the city centers of tourists and visitors, one reader (“Neur Geeza”) suggests visitors shift
their attention to “the 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th cities of a country/region”, a strategy that would also help visitors “to
have a more authentic experience” (Hunt, 2017). Others have made the case that, in order to ease overcrowding,
tourists should be redistributed from the city center to other neighborhoods (Roca, 2017). Copenhagen has already
started an aggressive tourist redistribution strategy from the city center to the more peripheral neighborhoods
(Goodwin, 2017). While we agree with the strategy to shift the attention of tourists away from the crowded tourist
cities, we do not think that spreading the tourists across residential neighborhoods would be benecial. We agree
with “Uriruri84” who lamented: “We have accepted that we’ve lost the center of the city, but now tourism invades
many other zones” (Colau, 2014). Indeed, in our opinion, the centers of the cities and some neighborhoods close
to it are already lost. There is not much the residents can do to reclaim them. What the governments should do
now is contain the damage and not spread it to other neighborhoods.
Finally, the ndings of this study conrm the conclusions drawn by previous studies that tourism growth and
development should be regulated because, in the absence of proper planning, mass urban tourism will evolve
in a haphazard way leading to numerous socio-economic and environmental problems (see also Egresi, 2016b).
We, therefore, agree with Ada Colau, the current mayor of Barcelona, that tourism needs to be controlled in order
to remain benecial, otherwise “it’s paradoxical, but uncontrolled mass tourism ends up destroying the very things
that made a city attractive to visitors in the rst place: the unique atmosphere of the local culture” (Colau, 2014).
711
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Conclusion
In this paper we analyzed the recent anti-tourist movements in several European destinations while trying to
understand the reasons behind residents’ anger. Through critically examining a number of newspaper publications
presenting the events and the comments readers posted to those articles, we found that many locals nd the
increasing number of tourists visiting their places of residence objectionable on the grounds that the overcrowding
caused by tourists has made their lives a lot more dicult.
Similar to other studies, we found that some European cities and mass tourism destinations, where tourists and
locals battle for the use of shared spaces, are already stretched to breaking point (Sanchez-Galiano et al., 2017)
causing resentment among residents (Dirksmeier and Helbrecht, 2015). As found also by other studies (Gutierrez
et al., 2017), one reason for residents’ discontent is the swift rise in rents fueled (at least in part) by the success of
home-sharing platforms, such as Airbnb. This has had the greatest negative impact in cities like Barcelona where
two-thirds of the population lives in apartments organized in condominiums (Lambea Lop, 2017). Moreover,
private parties in tourist apartments fueled by cheap alcohol consumption create excessive noise (Nofre et al.,
2017) which is another source of dispute with local residents as it challenges community livability (Colomb and
Novy, 2017). These factors coupled with increased cost of living have led to “collective displacement” of residents
from the central neighborhoods (Cocola Gant, 2016).
The results of our study present many similarities to ndings of other (previous) studies. However, our study is
novel in that our research methodology was dierent. This proves that qualitative content analysis of newspaper
articles and of readers’ comments to investigate co-habitation problems in urban contexts could lead to meaningful
results.
The main limitation of our ndings results exactly from the method we used as public opinions derived from
comments of readers on newspaper articles cannot be taken as representative for the entire population (Henrich
and Holmes, 2013). However, given the high number of comments some of the articles we analyzed received, we
could safely assume that they represent the opinion of a large segment of the population.
References
Academic Sources
Abril-Sellares, M., Azpelicueta, M.C. and Sanchez-Fernandez, M.D. (2015). Turismo sostenible: lugarenos frente a turistas.
El caso de la ciudad de Barcelona. Holos, 31(3), pp. 331-337.
Alvarez-Sousa, A. (2018). The problems of tourist sustainability in cultural cities: Socio-political perceptions and interests
management. Sustainability, 10, 503.
Ashworth, G. and Goodall, B. (eds.) (1990). Marketing tourism places, vol. 2. London and New York: Routledge.
Ballester, P. (2018). Barcelona face au tourisme de masse: “tourismophobie” et vivre ensemble. Teoros: Revue de
Recherche en Tourisme, 37(2). https://journals.openedition.org/teoros/3367. [Accessed 12 Jun. 2018].
Barberia, J.L. (2017). Turismofobia: ciudades de alquiler. El Pais Semanal, 6 August. http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/08/06/
eps/1501970746_150197.html [Accessed 12 Jun. 2018].
Baron, N. (2017). La contestation de la saturation touristique a Venise et Barcelone, occasion de relance des politique
urbaines? In E. Fagnoni ed., Les Espaces du Tourisme et des Loisirs. Armand Colin, pp. 381-385.
Beeton, S. and Beneld, R. (2002). Demand control: The case of demarketing as a visitor and environmental management
tool. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10(6), pp. 497-513.
Bieger, T. and Wittner, A. (2006). Air Transport and Tourism – Perspectives and Challenges for Destinations, Airlines and
Governments. Journal of Air Transport Management, 12(1), pp. 40-46.
Bramwell, B. and Rawding, L. (1996). Tourism Marketing Images of Industrial Cities. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(1), pp.
201-221.
Carlsen, J. and Ali-Knight, J. (2004). Managing wine tourism through demarketing: The case of Napa Valley, California. In
J. Carlsen and S. Charters, eds., International Wine Tourism Research: Proceedings of the International Wine Tourism
Conference, Margaret River, Western Australia, May, 2004. Perth, Australia: Vineyard Publications, pp. 35-53.
Casado Buesa, M.P. (2017). El impacto del turismo en el acceso a la vivienda: propuesta de analisis de los barrios de
Barcelona. Masters’ Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. http://www.conama11.vsf.es/conama10/download/les/
conamalocal2017/CT%202017/231372.pdf [Accessed 2 Jun. 2018].
Clements, M.A. (1989). Selecting tourist trac by demarketing. Tourism Management, 10(2), pp. 89-94.
Cocola Gant, A. (2016). Holiday Rentals: The New Gentrication Battlefront. Sociological Research Online, 21(3), pp. 10.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307554257_Holiday_Rentals_The_New_Gentrication_Battlefront [Accessed 10
Jun. 2018]
Colomb, C. and Novy, J. (eds.) (2017). Protests and resistance in the tourist city. New York: Routledge.
Dirksmeier, P. and Helbrecht, I. (2015). Resident Perceptions of New Urban Tourism: A Neglected Geography pf Prejudice.
Geography Compass, 9(5), pp. 276-285.
712
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
Dunne, G., Buckley, J., and Flanagan, S. (2007). City Break Motivation – The Case of Dublin, A Successful National Capital.
Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 22(3/4), pp. 95-107.
Egresi, I. (2017). Tourists’ Satisfaction with Shopping Experience Based on Reviews on TripAdvisor. Tourism, 65(3), pp. 330-
345.
Egresi, I. (2016a). The role of innovation in the restructuring of the tourism industry. In Proceedings of the 11th Silk Road
Conference: Innovations in Business, Education and Sciences, Tbilisi, Georgia, pp. 107-112.
Egresi, I. (Ed.) (2016b). Alternative tourism in Turkey: Role, potential development and sustainability. Cham, Switzerland:
Springer International.
Egresi, I. (2016c). Tourism and sustainability in Turkey: Negative impact of mass tourism. In I. Egresi, ed., Alternative
Tourism in Turkey: Role, Potential Development and Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, pp. 35-53.
Egresi, I. (2016d). Post-Fordism, alternative tourism and sustainability. In I. Egresi, ed., Alternative Tourism in Turkey: Role,
Potential Development and Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, pp. 271-283.
Egresi, I. (2015). Tourists’ Shopping Satisfaction in Istanbul’s Traditional Markets. Proceedings of the Geobalcanica
International Scientic Conference, Skopje, Macedonia, 5-7 June, pp. 292-298.
Faulkner, B. and Tideswell, C. (1997). A Framework for Monitoring Community Impacts of Tourism. Journal of Sustainable
Tourism, 5(1), pp. 3-28.
Franklin, A. (2003). Tourism: An introduction. London: Sage.
Gilbert, D. and Clark, M. (1997). An exploratory examination of urban tourism impact with reference to residents
attitudes, in the cities of Canterbury and Guilford. Cities, 14(6), pp. 343-352.
Gitelson, R.J. and Crompton, J.L. (1984). Insights into the Repeat Vacation Phenomena. Annals of Tourism Research, 11(2),
199-218.
Goodwin, H. (2017). The challenge of overtourism. Responsible Tourism Partnership, working paper 4. Haroldgoodwin.
info/pubs/RTP’WP4Overtourism01’2017.pdf [Accessed 16 Jun. 2018].
Gotham, K.F. (2005). Tourism gentrication: The case of New Orleans’ Vieux Carre (French Quarter). Urban Studies, 42(7),
pp. 1099-1121.
Gottlieb, C. (2013). Residential short-term rentals: Should local governments regulate the “industry”? Planning and
Environmental Law, 65(2), pp. 34-61.
Graham, A. and Dennis, N. (2010). The Impact of Low Cost Airline Operatios to Malta. Journal of Air Transport
Management, 16(3), pp. 127-136.
Gurran, N. and Phibbs, P. (2017). When tourists move in: How should urban planners respond to Airbnb? Journal of
American Planning Association, 83(1), pp. 80-92.
Guttentag, D. (2015). Airbnb: disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism innovation sector. Current Issues
in Tourism, 18(12), pp. 1192-1217.
Gutierrez, J., Garcia-Palomares, J.C., Romanillos, G., and Henar Salas-Olmedo, M. (2017). The eruption of Airbnb in tourist
cities: Comparing spatial patterns of hotels and peer-to-peer accommodation in Barcelona. Tourism Management, 62,
278-291.
Henrich, N. and Holmes, B. (2013). Webnews Readers’ Comments: Towards Developing a Methodology for Using Online
Comments in Social Enquiry. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 5(1), pp. 1-4.
Huete, R. and Mantecon, A. (2018). The Rise of Tourismophobia: Research Hypothesis or Ideological Noise? Revista de
Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 6(1), pp. 9-19.
Ioannides, D., Röslmaier, M. and van der See, E. (2018). Airbnb as an instigator of “tourism bubble” expansion in Utrecht’s
Lombok neighborhood. Tourism Geographies. Published online April 2018. Doi/10.1080/14616688.2018.1454505
Janoschka, M., Sequera, J., and Salinas, L. (2014). Gentrication in Spain and Latin America – A critical dialogue.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(4), pp. 1234-1265.
Jordan, E.J. and Moore, J. (2018). An in-depth exploration of residents’ perceived impacts of transient vacation rentals.
Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 35(1), pp. 90-101.
Korstanje, M.E. (2011). The fear of traveling: A new perspective for tourism and hospitality. Anatolia: An International
Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 22(2), pp. 222-233.
Kotler, P. and Levy, S.J. (1971). Demarketing, yes, demarketing. Harvard Business Review, 49(6), pp. 74-80. https://
web.uniroma1.it/dip_management/sites/default/les/allegati/Kotler%20%26%20Levy%20%281971%29%20-%20
Demarketing%2C%20yes%2C%20demarketing%20-%20Harvard%20Business%20Review.pdf [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018].
Lambea Lop, N. (2017). A policy approach to the impact of tourist dwellings in condominiums and neighborhoods in
Barcelona. Urban Research and Practice, 10(1), pp. 120-129.
Lopez, V. and Whitehead, D. (2013). Sampling data and data collection in qualitative research. In: Z. Schneider, D.
Whitehead, G. lo Biondo-Wood and J. Haber, eds., Nursing and Midwifery Research: Methods and Appraisal for Evidence
Based Practice (4th Edition). Elsevier, pp. 123-140.
Montanari, A. and Muscara, C. (1995). Evaluating tourist ows in historic cities: The case of Venice. Tijdschrift voor
Economische en Sociale Geograe, 86(1), pp. 80-87.
Milano, C. (2017a). Turismofobia: cuando el turismo entra en la agenda de los movimientos sociales. Marea Urbana:
Revista de la Taula Veina d’Urbanisme de Barcelona. http://turismograas.org/es/2017/03/06/turismofobia-cuando-el-
turismo-entra-en-la-agenda-de-los-movimientos-sociales/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2018].
Milano, C. (2017b). Overtourism y turismofobia. Tendencias globales y contextos locales. Barcelona: Ostelea School of
Tourism and Hospitality. http://www.ub.edu/escult/psss/ostelea_informe_overtourism_y_turismofobia.pdf [Accessed 15
Jun. 2018].
Milano, C., Novelli, M., and Cheer, J. (2017). Call for papers: overtourism and tourismophobia. A journey through four
decades of tourism development, planning and local concerns. Tourism Planning and Development, pp. 1-4.
Mowforth, M. and Munt, I. (2009). Tourism and sustainability: Development, globalization and new tourism in the Third
World (3rd ed). New York: Routledge.
713
International Scientic Conference [CO]HABITATION TACTICS
Murray, M.C. (2018). La rebelion de los antriones. La Capital, 15 April. nulan.mdp.edu.ar/2876/1/murray-2018.pdf
[Accessed 1 Jun. 2018]
Neuts, B. and Nijkamp, P. (2012). Tourist crowding perception and acceptability in cities: An applied modeling study in
Bruges. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(4), pp. 2133-2153.
Nofre, J., Giordano, E., Eldridge, A., Martins, J. and Sequera, J. (2017). Tourism, nightlife and planning: Challenges and
opportunities for community livability in Barceloneta. Tourism Geographies. Published online 28 September 2017. Doi/10
.1080/14616688.2017.1375972.
Popp, M. (2012). Positive and negative urban tourist crowding: Florence, Italy. Tourism Geographies, 14(1), pp. 50-72.
Quaglieri Dominguez, A. and Scarnato, A. (2017). The Barrio Chino as last frontier: The penetration of everyday tourism
in the dodgy heart of the Raval. In: M. Gravari-Barbas and S. Guinand, eds., Tourism and Gentrication in Contemporary
Metropolises: International Perspectives. New York: Routledge, pp. 107
Rasoolimanesh, S.M., Jaafar, M., Kock, N.F. and Ramayah, T. (2015). A Revised Framework of Social Exchange Theory to
Investigate the Factors Inuencing Residents’ Perceptions. Tourism Management Perspectives, 16, pp. 335-345.
Rey, D., Myro, R.L. and Galera, A. (2011). Eect of Low Cost Airlines on Tourism in Spain: A Dynamic Panel Data. Journal of
Air Transport Management, 17(3), pp. 163-167.
Sanchez-Galiano, J.-C., Marti-Ciriqian, P., and Fernandez-Aracil, P. (2017). Temporary Population Estimates of Mass
Tourism Destinations: The Case of Benidorm. Tourism Management, 62, pp. 234-240.
Soydanbay, G. (2017). A systemic analysis of overtourism and tourismophobia: What destinations can do about it. The
Place Brand Observer, 17 November. http://placebrandobserver.com/overtourism-tourismophobia-causes-solutions
[Accessed 1 Jun. 2018].
Vainikka, V. and Vainikka, J. (2018). Welcoming the masses, entitling the stranger – commentary to Gill. Fennia, 196(1), pp.
124-130.
Weber, F., Stettler, J., Priskin, J., Rosenberg-Taufer, B., Ponnapureddy, S., Camp, M-A., and Bath, M. (2017). Tourism
destinations under pressure: Challenges and innovative solutions. Institute of Tourism ITW, Lucerne University of
Applied Sciences and Arts, working paper. https://www.researchgate.net/prole/Sven_Gross4/publication/317544595_
Tourism_destinations_under_pressure_-_Challenges_and_innovative_solutions/links/593e64000f7e9b3317c8c1/Tourism-
destinations-under-pressure-Challenges-and-innovative-solutions.pdf [ Accessed 16 Jun. 2018]
WTO (2018). 2017 International Tourism Results: The Highest in Seven Years. [online] Madrid: World Tourism
Organization, PR No. 18003. Available at: http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2018-01-15/2017-international-tourism-
results-highest-seven-years [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].
Newspaper articles analyzed
Anonymous (2017a), Tourists on segways “egged” in Barcelona as protests mount over crowds [online]. Traveller, 17
August. Available at: http://www.traveller.com.au/tourists-on-segways-egged-in-barcelona-as-protests-mount-over-
crowds-gxybt9 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]
Anonymous (2017b), “Go home”: Overcrowding causes angry backlash against tourists in Europe’s hottest destinations.
Traveller, 7 August. Available at: http://www.traveller.com.au/go-home-overcrowding-causes-angry-backlash-against-
tourists-in-europes-hottest-destinations-gxqlw5 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. + 17 comments
Burgen, S. (2017), Barcelona anti-tourism activists vandalize bikes and bus. The Guardian, 1 August. Available at: https://
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/01/barcelona-anti-tourism-activists-vandalise-bikes-and-bus [Accessed 11 Feb.
2018].
Colau, A. (2014), Mass tourism can kill a city – just ask Barcelona’s residents. The Guardian, 2 September. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/mass-tourism-kill-city-barcelona [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. +
113 comments
Coldwell, W. (2017), First Venice and Barcelona: Now anti-tourism marches spread across Europe. The Guardian, 10
August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/aug/10/anti-tourism-marches-spread-across-europe-
venice-barcelona [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. + 995 comments.
Groundwater, B. (2017), Barcelona, Berlin, Rome and Venice: The cities that are sick of tourists. Traveller, 21 June.
Available at: http://www.traveller.com.au/barcelona-berline-rome-and-venice-the-cities-that-are-sick-of-tourists-gwumm8
[Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. + 30 comments
Hunt, E. (2017), “Tourism kills neighborhoods”: How do we save cities from the city break?” [online]. The Guardian, 4
August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/04/tourism-kills-neighbourhoods-save-city-break
[Accessed 9 Feb. 2018]. + 525 comments
Jessop, T. (2017), Tourist-phobia: Why anti-tourism protests have exploded in Spain? The Culture Trip, 10 August [online].
Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/tourist-phobia-why-anti-tourism-protests-have-exploded-in-
spain/ [Accessed 19 Apr. 2018].
Lopez Diaz, A. (2017), Why Barcelona locals really hate tourists? [online]. The Independent, 9 August. Available at https://
www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/barcelona-locals-hate-tourists-why-reasons-spain-protests-arran-airbnb-
locals-attacks-grati-a7883021.html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018]. + 147 comments
Lyman, R. (2017), Croatian island Hvar to crack down on drunken tourists [online]. Traveller, 16 August. Available at:
http://www.traveller.com.au/croatian-island-hvar-to-crack-down-on-drunken-tourists-gxs8s1 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
McLaughlin, K. (2017), Anti-tourism attacks in Spain: Who is behind them and what do they want? The Independent, 10
August. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/spain-attacks-anti-tourism-british-tourists-visit-barcelona-
majorca-valencia-san-sebastian-a7886371.html [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. + 4 comments
Peter, L. (2017), “Tourists go home”: Leftists resist Spain’s inux. BBC News, 5 August. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/
news/world-europe-40826257 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
Petkar, S. (2017), Spain’s anti-tourism riots step up as violent clans merge to target tourists in Barcelona. Express,
714
Tirana Architecture Week 2018
4 August. Available at:https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/837142/barcelona-spain-tourists-violence-catalonia-
independence [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018]. + 49 comments
Roca, C, (2017), “Barcelona could die of success”: Why a Spanish city is cracking down on tourism. CBC News, 31 March.
Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/barcelona-tourism-1.4043864 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
Sansom, A. (2017), “This isn’t tourism, it’s an invasion”, say protesters against mass tourism in Spain. France 24, 18 August.
Available at: http://www.france24.com/en/20170807-spain-barcelona-tourism-airbnb-protests-demonstrations-italy-
venice [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
Tadeo, M. and Penty, C. (2017), People keep throwing eggs at tourists in Barcelona. Bloomberg, 16 August. Available at:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-16/barcelona-tourists-hit-by-eggs-as-protests-mount-over-crowds
[Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].
.
