TOURIST USE REGULATION IN OVERCROWDED HISTORICAL CENTRES IN SPAIN. IN SEARCH OF GOOD PRACTICES

Abstract

Overtourism management plays an important role in the sustainability of historical and cultural heritage assets. Tourism has been growing very fast and many places have suffered from the pressure of tourism. This situation has led to problems in heritage conservation. There are cities whose historical centres have been overcrowded for years ‒Venice is a paradigmatic case‒. However the problem is now reaching a greater number of destinations: in Spain it is especially intense in the historical centres of large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Malaga or Palma de Mallorca. The spread of tourism in these central spaces threatens the sustainability of those values that had previously motivated the application of certain categories of heritage protection. Tourism management strategies and measures on an urban scale are particularly important in this context. For this reason, this paper presents the partial results of an ongoing investigation into the local tourism policy. The work focuses specifically on the strategies for containing and regulating tourist activities, which are being adopted on a historical centre dimension in Spain. The conclusions of the first phase of the study are presented, focusing on the identification of the measures adopted in different particularly overcrowded destinations. The methodology used is based on the compilation of secondary sources, mainly academic literature, plans and programmes related to local tourism policy. The results obtained so far indicate that in the chosen cities the concern for overtourism already occupies an important role in the local political agendas.