When tourism disrupts it all: An approach to the landscapes of touristification

Abstract

Touristification refers to an intense tourism expansion and appropriation in a specific area due to the activity’s rapid growth in a short period of time. COVID-19 meant a halt to touristification disruption of urban life—affecting housing markets, cultural expressions, public spaces, or the environment—that is growing again as global mobilities have recently resumed. In cities that have become important tourist destinations, touristification intertwines with other urban processes, such as built environment renovation or people and retail gentrification. We explore these processes linking them to the concept of landscape, understood as space socially produced, perceived, and shaped, looking into the transformations in the physical, social, symbolic, and emotional arenas inspired by previous studies on the landscapes of gentrification. Drawing on landscape, urban, and tourism theorizations, we come up with the landscapes of touristification as an integrative approach that enable us to comprehend a multi-faceted process of tourism-led urban transformation. Through qualitative analyses, we study San Luis Street, an axis that connects traditionally non-tourist neighborhoods in Seville’s historic district in the years before the pandemic.