Tourism-Led Change of the City Centre

José Fernandes (), Pedro Chamusca, Rubén Lois, Helena Madureira, Juliano Mattos and Jorge Pinto
Additional contact information
José Fernandes: Geography and Spatial Planning Research Centre (CEGOT), University of Porto, 4150-564 Porto, Portugal
Pedro Chamusca: Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
Rubén Lois: ANTE—Grupo de Investigación de Análisis Territorial, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Helena Madureira: Geography and Spatial Planning Research Centre (CEGOT), University of Porto, 4150-564 Porto, Portugal
Juliano Mattos: Geography and Spatial Planning Research Centre (CEGOT), University of Porto, 4150-564 Porto, Portugal
Jorge Pinto: Geography and Spatial Planning Research Centre (CEGOT), ISCET, 4050-180 Porto, Portugal

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: In multicentric and increasingly complex urban regions, a city centre reinvents itself. In the case of Porto, tourism was essential for its “Baixa” renaissance. A relevant increase in visitors meant also a dramatic increase in real estate prices and significant land-use change. In field interviews, retailers noticed a “new life” before COVID-19 arrived, remarking on the positive role of tourism on urban rehabilitation and the economic viability of companies, and the negative effects for residents and traditional shops, directed to the common resident. In this article, we present and discuss its main effects in this exceptional area in Portugal’s second city. We also discuss tourism dependency and the challenge of sustainability in a high-density context, defending public policies oriented for a “city with tourists” that replaces the current construction of a “city of tourists”.

Keywords: urban tourism; overtourism; gentrification; land use; sustainability; public policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/100/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/100/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:1:p:100-:d:1320147

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().