Historic city centres of European cities are one of the most important elements of the European cultural heritage. They are places that attract many visitors due to their relevance in terms of heritage, but the recent growth of tourist flows constitutes a threat to the conservation of their values. In some European cities, such as Venice or Barcelona, the debate has taken to the streets, and there is significant social mobilization taking place, with very belligerent positions against tourism (anti-tourism, tourismphobia). The mass media also generates discourse on the topic and places the debate on urban tourism sustainability at the forefront of the public debate. In this context, this article reviews the state of the art on tourism impact and identifies, describes and evaluates the different dimensions of tourist pressure based on a case study: the historic centre of the city of Donostia-San Sebastián (Basque Country, Spain). The main goal of the research is to help determine how tourist pressure affects the safeguarding of “historic urban landscapes” and the desirable or desired models of city and tourist destination.

Urban centres in Europe have been recently affected by touristification processes which endanger their sustainable development. In this context, education in urban sustainability is gaining great importance at all stages of education. It has been noticed that this issue is not appropriately presented in primary education studies where “tourism” is one of the topics to be addressed. This paper provides the design of a teaching activity for teachers in training in order to understand the process of tourism gentrification in European cities. The aim of this activity is to enable the transfer of knowledge to primary education concerning contemporary urban processes involving tourism within a framework of respect and sustainability. This activity is based on an urban geographical analysis in public squares located in touristified districts of several European cities. This is achieved by way of a visual, interactive and cartographic analysis and evaluation. This paper presents the results of the didactic experience in Madrid. The results are positive, since students develop geographic abilities, attitudes of respect, critical thinking, and contrasted knowledge about tourism gentrification. We conclude with a call for a conceptual update of contemporary urban processes involving tourism in primary education curricula and advise that teachers in training should be taken to the field to explain complex spatial phenomena.

Tourism gentrification, as a complex phenomenon in large urban destinations, is an important topic for future tourism professionals. The aim of this paper is to offer a digital cartography making activity based on the contemporary dynamics of commercial transformation within tourism gentrification contexts in Madrid in order to facilitate its understanding. This innovative teaching activity is in accordance with the sustainable tourism pedagogy approach and follows an active methodology using three different GIS applications: Google Street View, ESRI ArcGIS Desktop and ESRI ArcGIS Online Story Maps application. A 4-phase methodological design is proposed so that the activity is customizable (1- recognition of previous ideas), achievable (2- significant streets’ mapping), collaborative (3- collective idea-sharing) and replicable (4- academic and didactic evaluation). Finally, the results from an initial implementation are brought to light: i) an initial conceptual lack was found, ii) examples that help to see the proposal materialized are shown and iii) expected positive consequences according to the scientific literature are presented. It is concluded that, despite the scarce bibliography, the use of GIS software and Google Street View in tourism higher education is convenient, not only to facilitate the learning of complex territorial phenomena but also to learn digital tools highly valued in the professional field.

Archaeological heritage sites constitute the most recent addition to the tourism supply of Madrid, one of the most visited regions of Spain. In 2003, the Plan de Yacimientos Visitables (Plan of Archaeological Visitable Sites) was implemented, museumising 21 sites. However, the peripheral nature of these sites and the lack of personnel prevent strict control being carried out of who visits them, the practices of these visitors and how they rate the sites. This study proposes a systematic procedure to analyse the data gathered from Twitter and Flickr, in order to determine the most shared archaeological spaces in the years immediately preceding the pandemic, and to assess the perception that the visitors had of them. The information provided is useful for learning about the real weight that these sites have in leisure experiences (school trips, guided tours, recreation, etc.). Now that travel has been restricted due to the pandemic, we should ask whether Spain’s minor heritage is able to structure new proximity tourism routes. This is based on the hypothesis that, until now, these types of heritage have had a very limited role in recreational practices, but offer potential as “outdoor museums” in the present climate.

Cuando se cumplen casi tres décadas desde el arranque del turismo rural en España, se percibe un déficit de atención a la circulación de los instrumentos y modelos que han marcado su desarrollo. Sin embargo, los procesos de recomposición del medio rural europeo están profundamente afectados por flujos globales de políticas públicas en las que el turismo ocupa un lugar predominante. Por ello esta investigación propone una lectura del desarrollo del turismo en el medio rural a través del marco de la transferencia de los programas LEADER y Planes en Destino, instrumentos de la Política Europea de Desarrollo Rural y de la Política Turística nacional, respectivamente. Adoptando el marco analítico propuesto por Dolowitz y Marsh (2000) se hace recapitulación de la literatura que estudia la implantación de ambas políticas con el objetivo de sistematizar y caracterizar su transferencia. En particular, se aporta el estudio de su contenido desde una perspectiva evolutiva atendiendo a los modelos de turismo que se ponen en circulación.

Turismo en Albarracín y Comarca. Acción pública local y dinámica reciente en clave de desarrollo turístico sostenible