Overtourism in urban destinationsthe myth of smart solutions

  1. García Hernández, María 1
  2. Baidal, Josep Ivars 2
  3. Mendoza de Miguel, Sofía 1
  1. 1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
  2. 2 Universidad de Alicante, España
Revista:
BAGE. Boletín de la Asociación Española de Geografía

ISSN: 0212-9426 2605-3322

Ano de publicación: 2019

Número: 83

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.21138/BAGE.2830 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Outras publicacións en: BAGE. Boletín de la Asociación Española de Geografía

Obxectivos de Desenvolvemento Sustentable

Resumo

The rapid increase in urban tourism flows generates problems of tourist overcrowding and gives rise to important challenges for city management. Within this context, urban tourism planning is experiencing a convergence of new paradigms related to the so-called Smart Tourist Destinations (SD). Smart tourism and its operational level open up new avenues for intervention in the city which can help to manage overtourism. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse the level of implementation of smart solutions in four Spanish destinations: Donostia-San Sebastián, Madrid, Málaga and Valencia. The methodology used combines the compilation of information on initiatives and measures found in public tourism planning documents with semi-structured interviews with those responsible for managing the Smart City strategy and the SD project. The results reveal that there is a gap between the SD approaches, the level of implementation of smart solutions and their operability in relation to the management of tourist overload. Almost no technological solutions have been developed to address this issue, which is barely perceived as a problem by local governments. However, the need to generate knowledge that is useful for managing tourist overload constitutes a challenge faced by a growing number of destinations.

Información de financiamento

This section aims to offer an overview of technological/smart solutions and overtourism from a comparative perspective (Spanish cities that participate in publicly funded programmes and international experiences). It is also based on the analysis of secondary documentary sources: reports and publications of public bodies and different organisations, documents related to the projects financed in the two rounds of the Plan Nacional de Ciudades Inteligentes (National Smart Cities Plan) (2015–2017) and in the Plan Nacional de Territorios Inteligentes (National Smart Territories Plan) (2017–2020) in its “Smart Tourist Destinations” category and diagnostic reports and improvement plans of the municipalities involved in the “Smart Tourist Destinations” Programme (hereafter SD), promoted by SEGITTUR (a public body devoted to tourism technologies and innovation attached to the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism).

Financiadores

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