‘Management strategies’ growth in eight European cities

Can Overtourism at Heritage Attractions Really Be Sustainably Managed? Lights and Shadows of the Experience at the Site of the Alhambra and Generalife (Spain)

“…It includes a large academic production that offers general reflections based on case studies, generally based on interviews with stakeholders and documentary reviews. And it also includes reports from bodies such as the UNWTO [27], the European Parliament [10], the World Travel & Tourism Council, the European Cities Marketing (ECM) and the World Tourism Forum Lucerne (WTFL) [28]. In contrast to the more critical views, which are close to the approaches in favour of reducing tourism by theoretical academic discourse, at the institutional level, what predominates is a position that aims to improve management as a formula for responding to the more negative impacts of the success of tourism by establishing measures and strategies for sustainable growth [29].…”

“…In heritage sites, the limitation on visitors and tourist activities forms part of the approaches inherent to heritage management, although specific competition to regulate these matters include other areas of government [27]. In fact, many of the measures adopted are regulatory in nature and emanate from different levels of government according to what is being regulated.…”

“…The adaptation of supply means increasing business opportunities. It is therefore the preferred option of business organisations and has even been noted as the preferred response by the resident populations of some locations suffering from overtourism [40]. Its greatest limitation lies in the fact that, often, there is no real possibility of extending the physical capacity of the site without altering its heritage value.…”

“…Given this situation, the possibility of creating physical or virtual replicas of the most popular sites has also been considered [47]. Of all strategies to combat overtourism, this one is perhaps the most difficult to put into practice: first of all, it means having significant financial resources to undertake civil works, and second, it involves the long-term engagement of many government departments and stakeholders outside heritage and/or tourism [27]. All of this means having medium-and long-term horizons that do not adapt to the resolution of problems generated by sudden tourist growth.…”

Sustainable certification of a tourist destination through the prism of visitor's point of view

“…Some studies from the last decade have concluded that the risk of negative impacts of tourism development increases with the number of tourists, which in turn leads to lower tourist satisfaction with the experience and destination (Geneletti and Dawa 2009;Juutinen et al 2011;Vasiljević et al 2011;Navrátil et al 2014). It also has a number of negative consequences for the quality of life of the local population (Moscarda 2011;Gravari-Barbas and Jacquot 2017;Koens and Postma 2017;Postma, Buda and Gugerell 2017). Some authors speak of the emergence of overtourism (Koens, Postma and Papp 2018;Rangus, Božinovski and Brumen 2018;World Tourism Organization 2018;Polajnar Horvat and Ribeiro 2019).…”