The touristification of urban spaces: measurement proposal

Abstract

In the years prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid growth of tourism and the emergence of online tourist accommodation rental platforms gave rise to a considerable increase in the tourist pressure on urban destinations, leading to processes (and problems) such as overtourism, tourism gentrification or touristification. The post-pandemic tourism recovery has placed these processes at the centre of debate once again. This text reflects on the possibilities for measuring the touristification of the urban space. A methodology is proposed that is based on the elaboration of two indicators that are applied on a city block scale in Donostia-San Sebastián: an indicator of the intensity of tourism accommodation and an indicator of the tourism specialisation of the retail and restaurant supply. Then, a spatial cross analysis is made of the values obtained and they are compared with the presence of visitors, enabling us to reflect on the geography of the touristification of the city on a block scale. Touristification is, above all, a process of the intensification of the tourism activity which is distributed unevenly across the urban space and acts on a pre-existing fabric that determines its scope. From an applied perspective, the study generates useful knowledge for making decisions about the series of urban policies that contemplate the sustainable insertion of tourism into the city.