Influence of the Residents’ Perception of Overtourism on the Selection of Innovative Anti-Overtourism Solutions

Abstract

With a constantly and rapidly increasing number of publications, modern expertise on overtourism is becoming increasingly complete. However, a subject that has not been sufficiently presented in the literature thus far is the issue of identifying groups of inhabitants of various destinations that are most severely affected by overtourism and the perception of innovative remedial solutions. In numerous previous publications that analyzed the impact of overtourism on the inhabitants of destinations, the inhabitants were most often treated as a homogeneous group. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to describe the phenomenon of overtourism from the perspective of residents of two Polish tourist destinations and propose innovative solutions to the problem of tourist overcrowding, dedicated to areas with different specificities. Empirical research was conducted among the inhabitants of popular destinations in Poland—Kraków and Białka Tatrzańska—where overtourism has been noted in the scientific literature in recent years. The results allow us to outline significant differences in how the impact of overtourism is perceived by the inhabitants of a large city and a peripheral tourist resort. Additionally, the research demonstrated that respondents who live in the central part of a tourist destination much more clearly perceive their exposure to the effects of overtourism than the inhabitants of other parts, and that this phenomenon is more evident in cities than in resorts. According to the diagnosis of the situation, it was proposed to implement open innovations in the nature of preventive solutions.

European historic cities and overtourism – conflicts and development paths in the light of systematic literature review

“…Further, they state that commodification and gentrification contribute to socio-spatial injustices and make the city "inauthentic" for visitors and residents (Diaz- Parra & Jover, 2021). A similar situation can be found in Krakow (Kruczek, 2019;_ Zemła & Szromek, 2021) and Venice (Salerno, 2022). Results by _ Zemła & Szromek (2021) suggest that residents of Krakow not only cannot afford to spend their free time in the Old City but do not wish to do so as they perceive the district as lost and dedicated to tourists purely.…”

“…The perception of urban tourism has evolved significantly lately. Public transportation, infrastructure, roads, museums, attractions and other services primarily created for local use suffer from increasing tourist flows (Koens et al, 2018;_ Zemła & Szromek, 2021). This resulted in recent community unrest concerning tourism (Amore et al, 2020).…”

“…What is interesting is the fact that residents of Krakow, especially those who live outside the city center, do not perceive excessive touristification of the old city as a major problem and accept that this part of the city became dedicated purely to tourists. Instead, their worries are connected mainly with what is happening in their everyday environment ( _ Zemła & Szromek, 2021). They perceive the development of short-term rental offers in their neighborhoods negatively influencing the local real estate market and prices in local shops.…”

“…The cities were selected for analysis based on their spatial organization, and similarities in consequences of this organization are among the most typical features of overtourism in studied historic cities. The most characteristic issue is the extreme tourism pressure exercised in the historic centers (Abbasian et al, 2020;Amore et al, 2020), accompanied by relatively low pressure in the other districts (Talk et al, 2023;_ Zemła & Szromek, 2021). While monumental zones in old cities undergo fast touristification, residents of the other districts of the cities do not complain too much about crowds, noise, security issues, etc.…”

Assessment of the Activities of European Cultural Heritage Tourism Sites during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The idea of using open innovation in counteracting the effects of COVID-19 was present in the literature since the beginning of the pandemic, as it seemed to be an extremely valuable solution in a situation of crisis requiring unity in actions taken. H. Chesbrough [ 58 , 59 , 60 , 66 ], as the creator of the concept of open innovation, extended it by this aspect [ 67 ], and the idea was followed by other researchers [ 68 ].…”