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.

The rapid growth in urban tourism has brought great pressure to the historic centres, intensifying the negative externalities that threaten their protection and proper functioning. The aim of this article is to analyse the use of urban planning regulations as an instrument for containing tourism activity in situations of overtourism. A two-stage methodological approach is employed: Firstly, a review of the local governments’ response to the effects of tourism growth and the possibilities of local control in 46 Spanish cities is presented; secondly, a comparative analysis of the stricter short-term rentals regulations adopted by those cities is carried out. The common basis of the adopted regulations is the control of tourist use of an entire dwelling. Of the cities analysed, Barcelona has the most restrictive regulation, while in all the other cities, regulation is less restrictive and depends on the type of accommodation in question and/or the conditions imposed on issuing new licences. The results demonstrate the difficulties entailed in the process of formulating and applying regulations and reveal imbalances between the economic and urban planning visions, and between the rapid change in tourism and the much slower response capacity of governments.

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.

For a number of years, heritage resources have suffered the negative effects of tourist pressure. Overtourism has been generating a wide-ranging debate on this issue. This work focuses on the strategies and measures adopted to address overtourism during the last 30 years at heritage attractions, which are much less studied than urban heritage centres. Specifically, it analyses measures relating to the management of site capacities based on the concept of tourist carrying capacity, using content analysis as a methodology. We have used the Alhambra in Granada as a case study as one of the most visited Spanish World Heritage Sites. The results obtained reflect a strong consensus on the need to introduce measures to restrict tourist activity, although these measures imply a great effort in terms of management and tend to be taken advantage of by some stakeholders for their own benefit. The extensive time frame of the measures adopted allows us to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of dealing with overtourism by using capacity management strategies and to extract useful conclusions for other heritage sites with similar problems.

Turistificación de espacios urbanos: propuesta de medición En los años previos a la eclosión de la COVID-19, el rápido crecimiento del turismo y la irrupción de las plataformas online de alquiler de viviendas turísticas supusieron un incremento muy notable de la presión turística en los destinos urbanos, desencadenando procesos (y problemas) de overtourism, gentrificación turística o turistificación. La recuperación turística postpandemia sitúa de nuevo estos procesos en primera línea de debate. Este texto reflexiona sobre las posibilidades de medición de la turistificación del espacio urbano. Se propone una metodología que arranca con la elaboración de dos indicadores que se aplican a escala de manzana en Donostia-San Sebastián: un indicador de intensidad de alojamiento turístico y un indicador de especialización turística de la oferta comercial y hostelera. Seguidamente, se procede al cruce espacial de los valores obtenidos y su contraste con la presencia de visitantes, lo que permite reflejar a escala de manzana la geografía de la turistificación de la ciudad. La turistificación supone ante todo un proceso de intensificación de la actividad turística que se distribuye de forma desigual sobre el espacio urbano y actúa sobre un entramado preexistente que determina su alcance. Desde una perspectiva aplicada el trabajo realizado genera conocimiento útil para la toma de decisiones sobre el conjunto de las políticas urbanas que afrontan la inserción sostenible del turismo en la ciudad.

Capacidad de carga en grandes recursos turístico-culturales