Citizen Resistance in Touristified Neighborhoods. A Post-pandemic Analysis

Abstract

Consolidated tourist destinations transform cities in terms of both their urban characteristics and territorial nature. So intense are some of these processes of touristification that they have a profound impact on cities’ popular neighborhoods, which find themselves struggling to contain the effects and preserve their roots. These dynamics are accelerated by the exposure of the local real estate market to global investment processes and its tourist specialization, which trigger ongoing neighborhood protests. Against this backdrop, touristification has a number of repercussions: first, the expulsion of local residents due to the reduction in housing stock, as residential uses are replaced by tourist uses; second, the disappearance of local shops and services; third, the saturation of public space and fourth, the conflicts of coexistence between residents and tourists. This chapter examines the response of residents to the touristification of the city of Barcelona by combining a quantitative study—drawing on data taken from Barcelona City Council’s Cens d'establiments d'allotjament turístic (Census of Tourist Accommodation), official Registres de la Propietat (Property Registers) and the Censo de Población y Viviendas (Census of Population and Housing) conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) (National Institute of Statistics)—and a qualitative analysis—based on in-depth interviews with members of local government and leaders of the city’s neighborhood associations. While the pandemic represented a temporary interruption in tourism activity and provided an opportunity to rethink the dominant model of tourism development, the resumption of activity in the sector has resurrected longstanding problems and old resistances in a new scenario.