Mechanisms, actors and impacts of the touristification of a tourism periphery: the Saint-Ouen flea market, Paris

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms involved in the progressive integration of marginal and peripheral urban areas, located close to established tourist destinations, into the visited tourism perimeter, and the interplay of the supporting public and private actors. It focusses on the intertwining processes of commercial gentrification, heritagization and aestheticization of former “ordinary” or marginal areas as tools for and indications of their tourism development. It explores how the metropolitan tourism geography is progressively redesigned. Design/methodology/approach Following a comprehensive literature analysis, the Saint-Ouen flea market was selected as the object of study. The methodology is based on extensive in situ observations, a systematic analysis of the press and a corpus of tourist guides and several in-depth interviews with local public and private stakeholders. Findings This paper shows that combined public (Parisian urban and tourism stakeholders) and private interests led to the integration in the tourism perimeter of a space that was once on the margins of the tourism and metropolitan area. It highlights the mechanisms of this integration and the link between touristification, gentrification, aestheticization and artification. It was found that private investors and political decision makers regard Saint-Ouen flea market as a major opportunity for tourism and real estate development, which leads to some contradictions regarding heritage protection. Finally, it shows that market traders opposed the evolution of a commercial place into a place of symbolic consumption. At another level, it shows the stakes of tourism diversification in a metropolitan tourism destination that is characterized by overtourism. Research limitations/implications More studies are needed to identify not only the potential of flea markets to diversify tourist areas and practices, but also any potential resistance. The consequences on metropolitan tourism can be the subject of additional investigations: can this tourism diversification reduce overtourism in the centre, or is it only a diversification that functions as an additional driver of attractiveness? This research opens new perspectives on the modes of diversification (spatial and experiential) of metropolitan tourism as well as on the role that commercial changes play in these evolutions. It also makes it possible to question the modes of engagement of investors and traders in tourism. Originality/value This is an in-depth analysis of the case of Saint-Ouen flea market. The issues raised herein are applicable to similar peripheral urban areas, flea markets especially, that are rarely studied on the tourism-aestheticization-gentrification nexus. The analysis also shows the diversification of places and imaginaries of metropolitan tourism.

Loyalty in Heritage Tourism: The Case of Córdoba and Its Four World Heritage Sites

“…In recent years, the cities that are declared world heritage sites are undergoing a process of touristification. This process often has a negative impact with the depopulation of popular parts of the city which are in touristic areas [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The depopulation of these areas brings with it the so-called gentrification process.…”

“…On the other hand, in a large number of cases (medium-sized cities and developing countries), the inhabitants of these communities depend on tourism, which gives them economic gains, employment and an income, with improved infrastructure, services, and standard of living [41][42][43]53,54] These communities may prefer to support the social costs of heritage tourism. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]44,45].…”

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

“…Specific spatial organization of tourism hotspots and flows (Amore et al, 2020) results in the very distinct attitude of residents. The competition between residents and visitors for access to public spaces typical for numerous big cities (Gravari-Barbas & Jacquot, 2019) is limited here as residents perceive monumental centers of their city as lost and often do not intend to spend their free time there (Żemła & Szromek, 2021). Extremely uneven distribution of tourism pressure makes a small and still diminishing number of residents of old cities complain strongly about all possible negative impacts of overtourism, while most of the other inhabitants rather observe overtourism and its impact on the city than exercise them in their everyday lives.…”

Perceptions of touristification according to place of residence in the destination: the case of Malaga

“…Although the touristification of cities has been widely addressed (Milano & Mansilla, 2018), few studies have focused their analysis on the impact of the extension of the tourism frontier to the suburbs (Maitland, 2019;Gravari & Jacquot, 2019) and how residents perceive it (Milano et al, 2022).…”