Which commercial sectors coagglomerate with the accommodation industry? Evidence from Barcelona

Abstract

The expansion of accommodation establishments in an urban area might bring about a transformation to its commercial structure to meet tourists' needs. This can result in the loss of the area's identity, jeopardize its authenticity, and worsen the residents' quality of life. Yet, beyond some anecdotes which currently dominate the policy debate, no empirical evidence exists identifying which specific businesses abound around accommodation establishments. This paper proposes to fill this gap by estimating in Barcelona the degree to which each commercial sector appears to be geographically coagglomerated with the accommodation industry. Barcelona seems to be an appropriate case of study since it has already shown signs of the touristification of the commercial sector in neighborhoods that comprise most of the tourist accommodation offer. The results of this study allow identifying the particular commercial sectors that most and least coagglomerate with accommodation establishments; and show that tourism-oriented sectors tend to colocate with accommodation establishments, whereas residential-oriented ones do not follow this pattern. These results might help design policies aimed to preserve neighborhoods' identities and community resilience in tourist cities.