Contextual Effects on Crowding Perception: An Analysis of Antwerp and Amsterdam

Abstract

Crowding studies have a long history in urban geography and environmental psychology, although results are mixed at best. While crowding is found to influence residential quality and visitor experience and crowding perception models show some agreement on influential determinants, research is typically limited to a single setting, therefore minimising generalisability. To account for contextual effects, this paper tested a crowding perception model in two study areas: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Antwerp, Belgium. The results confirm that while most variables from earlier studies are significant, their effect on crowding perception depends largely on environmental context, with elements such as street layout, primary functionality of the area, and local culture affecting strength and direction of the relationship. The study reveals the importance of a case based approach to crowding perception, while demonstrating the overall applicability of the methodology and the possibilities of comparative analyses to suggest policy recommendations for specific areas.

Benign or disordered development? Assessment and simulation of security of highly aggregated tourist crowds in China

“…For example, previous research mentioned that the more tourists there are in an area, the lower the acceptability levels of tourists [ 47 ]. Besides, crowding has a negative impact on the residential quality, visitor experience [ 7 ], perceived luxury brand value [ 4 ], and satisfaction [ 26 , 31 ].…”

“…Modern society is becoming more crowded, and the incidents caused by it are increasing [ 1 – 3 ]. Due to the negative impacts on security, satisfaction, and loyalty, crowding has received growing research attention [ 4 – 7 ]. With economic development, the number of tourists has grown rapidly, leading to complex crowding issues [ 6 , 8 ].…”

“…As such, HATC security becomes a consideration for destination development [ 25 ]. Due to the spatial attributes of crowd management, previous research has focused on crowds in different environments, such as mountains [ 26 ], beaches [ 27 , 28 ], underwater environments [ 29 ], urban cities [ 7 , 16 , 17 , 30 ], heritage sites [ 31 , 32 ], national parks [ 21 , 33 – 35 ], theme parks [ 36 ], festival sites [ 37 ], and cruise ships [ 4 , 38 ]. However, previous research on crowd management was criticized as being limited to a single environment and lacking mutual comparison.…”

The INPReS Intervention Escalation Framework for Avoiding Overcrowding in Tourism Destinations

“…Technically, overcrowding exists when tourism flows are larger than the capacity of the place [1]. This maximum capacity is not always easy to establish because the perception of (over)crowdedness can appear before the technical maximum capacity is reached, as has been shown for beaches [2], mountains [3], and cities [4,5].…”

Touristische Aktionsräume und die Wahrnehmung von Crowding

“…Vanneste, 2018). Dies hat auch damit zu tun, dass es schwierig -wenn nicht unmöglich -erscheint, für Städtebesucher zu erkennen, ob es sich bei der angetroffenen "urbanen Crowd" um Touristen oder weitere raumwirksame Stadtnutzer handelt.…”