Many tourism destinations are facing overtourism situations, where the increase in visitors negatively impacts on residents’ life. Even if the perceptions of overtourism amongst residents have been analysed, the use of that perception by other key stakeholders remains largely unexplored. The discursive co-optation of the concept of overtourism amongst supply-side stakeholders, governmental and civil society stakeholders, provide a unique insight to discuss the use of power through tourism-related discourses and to face societal challenges in tourism destinations. Taking Majorca (Spain) as a case study, we carry out semi-structured interviews to government officials, tourism suppliers (e.g., hoteliers, cruise companies, intermediaries, holiday rentals), NGOs and researchers, to analyse how the perception of overtourism is used by those actors to promote their own agenda, often in opposition to the interests of other stakeholders. The article offers a dual contribution: on the one hand, it shows how the term “overtourism” is co-opted by supply-side stakeholders to justify their own interests and strengthen their agendas. On the other hand, we argue that the lack of consensus on how to address overtourism shows the limits of stakeholder theory to solve societal challenges, and the need of perspectives of social justice to build consensuses around the issue of overtourism.

Traditionally, medium-sized cities have been compact urban centres, which have also emerged as satellite nuclei within metropolitan areas of larger cities. However, urban dispersion models have led to growth in population and the increasing urbanisation of large cities’ peripheral areas. This article will analyse medium-sized cities in Spain, as well as their urban areas within the national urban network. Medium-sized cities will be defined herein, and their urban areas of influence will also be established. The increase and growth in area and population of the so-called medium-sized cities draws a new map of urban relationships. Empirical analysis will resort to a nuclear, demographic source, the population of urban areas. Source data will be analysed both statistically and cartographically. Finally, a spatial analysis of Spain’s urban network will be presented as the main method used to obtain results, with a characterisation of Spain’s urban system and the role of cities in such system being displayed. There is a trend which aims at re-balancing the permanent configuration of the country’s urban network. The article concludes with a typology of medium-sized cities regarding their relative position in the territory. This research contributes to the current scientific debate on the dynamics of urbanisation in the environment of medium-sized cities.

Historic centers have become first-line tourist destinations. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is essential to get to know the opinions of the host community on the impact of tourism, the positives, as well as the negatives. This paper aims to understand the residents’ opinions and perceptions of destinations as the historic cities. This research looks into the residents’ opinions on the impact of tourism in the historic city of Toledo, Spain. The results of a quantitative survey among 442 residents in the city of Toledo are presented. The study is a revision of the literature and analysis and explanation of an empiric study’s results. Descriptive statistics have been used, as well as factor analysis and non-parametric tests to analyze data. The main results point out that residents have a positive vision of tourism development, rather than negative. The economic importance of tourism and its ability to create jobs stand out. However, they also think that the historic center is being turned into a museum for tourists. Analyzing their opinions according to certain demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, some major differences come up, such as that the inhabitants of residential areas have a more positive opinion than those who live in the historic center. Understanding the perspective of the residents can help the managers and planners of the tourism in the city to play down the potential negative impact of tourism and to achieve support from the host community in regards to tourism.

El turismo cultural urbano tras la pandemia de la COVID-19: una perspectiva y propuestas de un modelo alternativo El turismo era una máquina en continuo crecimiento hasta su paralización con la pandemia de la COVID-19. En las ciudades, se incrementaban sus impactos negativos y había situaciones de sobreturismo. La pandemia es un momento disruptivo y excepcional. Es una ocasión para abandonar el camino hacia la insostenibilidad. Este artículo es un análisis turístico crítico donde se plantea cuál es la perspectiva pospandémica del turismo cultural urbano con una visión alejada de la búsqueda del lucro como fin último. El objetivo principal es plantear propuestas de un modelo alternativo y sostenible. Es un trabajo teórico que recurre a la revisión literaria de 180 obras científicas. De manera complementaria, se accede a las informaciones de los medios y se realiza una observación de la realidad, con trabajo de campo. Se propone una limitación de los visitantes y una mejora en la calidad mediante visitas guiadas, rutas turísticas, turismo experiencial y turismo virtualizado. Y se plantea una nueva gobernanza turística centralizada y una regulación de los agentes privados. Se considera que el artículo es de interés para los responsables públicos del turismo en las ciudades.