Introducción al número especial “Turistificación y transformación urbana. Debates sobre la especialización turística y sus consecuencias socioespaciales”

Abstract

Tourism has gained weight progressively and constantly throughout southern Europe, becoming a fundamental part of the economy in many of the region’s cities. However, these processes are not exempt from problems and contradictions, which are expressed in different ways within the urban space. As this monograph presents, the rapid growth of the urban tourism economy has brought about certain social, spatial and economic changes among local communities. These have been demonstrated in recent times by incompatible uses of public space, a general increase in living costs, the replacement of residents with outside visitors staying in residential accommodation, forced displacement, demographic decline in urban centers, and the replacement and disappearance of traditional commercial typologies. These, as well as other issues, are explored firstly in this introductory study, secondly, in a theoretical article focused on the relationship between excessive tourism and nightlife circuits, and thirdly, with four case studies covering Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Granada.