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International organizations, public authorities and researchers have increasingly been concerned with urban resilience and sustainability. We focus on the triangle retail, urban resilience and city sustainability, aiming to uncover how cities have coped with retail challenges to increase their resilience towards a sustainable path, highlighting the role played by public policy. The case study asks, is Central Lisbon strongly affected by processes of regeneration, touristification and gentrification, simultaneously with changes in retail. The analysis of planning and other policy documents complemented by fieldwork evidence shows a close link between public initiatives and private entrepreneurship and their impacts in the vitality of the core. The text shows that the policy outlined by local authorities to overcome the decline of the city center and to meet the aims of sustainability implies urban resilience. The transformation of retail is aligned with that vision and is supported its achievement, while the commercial fabric suffered an evolution from shopping to consumption spaces, polarized by culture and entertainment, targeting new consumers and lifestyles. However, new social and economic challenges arise due to escalating housing prices, change in retail supply, the excessive dependence of tourism and the danger of losing part of the city’s identity.

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Retail is a dynamic sector and for several decades shopping centres have been the most successful format. Although such shopping centres have been held responsible for the decline of other retail concepts, they are not without problems and some retail precincts are losing their viability, becoming dead malls. Some other shopping centres however are quite resilient. In this study we analyse the different retail resilience strategies used by older shopping centres to overcome their declining trend. For empirical evidence we adopt a case study methodology and fieldwork to investigate the evolution of all old shopping centres in Lisbon, confirming that a general trend of decline is affecting a large majority of those retail precincts. Refining our analysis, we interviewed managers from three shopping centres that remain viable. We conclude that a wide range of strategies can be implemented, all of which enhance the relevance of the shopping centre management structures.

To overcome the decline of the vitality and viability of town centres across several Western European cities, urban regeneration projects have been implemented. Despite their dissemination, there are shortcomings regarding the evaluation of the impacts produced by such projects. We aim to contribute to the existing literature on the subject by undertaking an evaluation of a retail-led urban regeneration project that was implemented in Lisbon's historic centre. We conclude that although there were significant outputs, the project was not effective and did not manage to improve the viability of the area as an important commercial area of Lisbon.

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Purpose The excess of tourism in some destinations has led to the discussion of overtourism. One of the sectors that most interacts with tourism is retail, a key element in the experience lived by tourists. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how retail evolves in a context of an overtourism city, how it relates with touristification and what are the elements that best characterise such evolution and relation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a case study, using the main historic city centre of Lisbon for that purpose. Fieldwork was developed by the author to collect information about the commercial fabric and its main characteristics. Findings The findings show a clear adaptation of the commercial fabric of the analysed area to the tourism industry. Furthermore, the author unfolded that the change of retail is towards a consumption environment based on leisure, involving the adaptation of the public space into terraces, and on the thematisation of stores, using elements seen as “authentically” Portuguese, which bestows on theses spaces a sort of certification of quality and authenticity. Originality/value The mere reference to the homogenisation of the retail fabric is too simple to explain the richness and variety of elements imbedded in the process of retail change in a context of excessive tourism and touristification. In this paper, the author produced novel knowledge by analysing the elements that embody the evolution of retail in such a context.

Retail gentrification is gaining relevance to study the transformation of several urban districts. In this article we explore the connections between this process and the appropriation and use of the elements of authenticity of a given urban district. Drawing upon the production standpoint, we based our research on the objective, constructivist and existential perspective of the concept of authenticity. We developed fieldwork on Mouraria, a traditional neighbourhood of Lisbon city centre, affected by gentrification as a consequence of a strong growth of tourism in the last decade. Information was collected about the size and evolution of the commercial fabric and business owners were interviewed. Its treatment allows to gather three set of elements that were considered as representative of the authenticity of Mouraria: community values, multiculturality and urban features. The way retail spaces use these elements is diverse and intertwined with the different perspectives of authenticity and, on the part of business owners, arises as a management practice. Although Mouraria can be currently placed within an early stage of retail gentrification, the current pace of retail change and gentrification occurring in the neighbourhood may led to a wider replacement of the commercial fabric with detrimental consequences for local residents.