The Other’s Wave: Ethnographic Insights on Three “Tsunamis of Tourism” in Barcelona

Marco Romagnoli ()
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Marco Romagnoli: Ethnology and Heritage, Université Laval, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Department of Historical Sciences, IPAC and CÉLAT member, Vanier Scholar, Québec, Canada

Journal of Tourismology, 2021, vol. 7, issue 1, 101-121

Abstract: Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the case of Barcelona was an emblematic example of how a city had turned into an iconic tourism destination in a few decades thanks to smart, yet incautious, tourism development policies based on the most attractive features the city is endowed with. The paper is a critical reflection analyzing the major complications, called “tsunamis”, the city of Barcelona has faced in recent years: political instability, terrorism and tourismophobia. The paper aims at 1) retracing the causes and motivations but also community reactions and sociocultural consequences to the three tsunamis, and 2) trying to learn lessons from the Barcelonan case study proposing solutions to the tourismophobia phenomenon. The results stem from an ethnographic fieldwork undertaken during the IPAC Summer School in 2018, whose aim was to understand the paradox of international tourism, at once bringing economic benefits but creating sociocultural disequilibria. The analysis considers written sources and the participant observation during the ethnographic fieldworks in Barcelona.

Keywords: Tourismophobia; Tsunamis of tourism; Barcelomania; Mass tourism; Political instability; Terrorism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ist:iupjot:v:7:y:2021:i:1:p:101-121

DOI: 10.26650/jot.2021.7.1.0005

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