VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

Tourism is usually associated with the development of infrastructures, a wider range of offer in several different businesses and sectors and, consequently, to a greater opportunity of profit, for investors, and employment, for the locals. Moreover, external interest generally contributes for the construction and projection of an appealing and positive image of the destination. However, a politicial and economic unmeasured focus on the promotion of tourism may lead to, or support, as it often does, what has widely been known as overtourism. In several historic cities, such a phenomenon brings about several challenges and problems, such as concerns with sustainability, the rise of housing prices and unorganized urban dinamics, amongst others. From a cultural standpoint, gentrification not only has a negative impact on the quality of life of the local residents who, unable to cope with such a reality, are increasingly pushed out of the city centres, but also on traditional shops, restaurants, coffeshops and activities. Eventually, the experience of the tourist is also affected as, progressively, the core identity of the destination place seems to be progressively lost. This reality seems to be increasingly notorious in Lisbon. However, whereas local authorities tend to stress the advantages of tourism, an approach to the unsettling apparent signs of overtourism in the city, be it from the media or the academic point of view, have been recurrent over the last years. My intention, in this paper, is, therefore, twofold. On the one hand, to address the changes the city has recently experienced and the challenges the locals have been forced to face,as a consequence, and, on the other hand, to analyse how such changes impact on the cultural ethos of the city and its identity.