Gentrificación y overtourism en destinos urbanos. El caso del Barrio de San Pedro en Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, España).

Abstract

During the last decade, one of the main challenges of the development of the tourism industry in historic European cities, and increasingly throughout the world, has been to face the pernicious effects of gentrification and overtourism. Both affect the quality and the authenticity of the tourist experience, and cause problems of privatization and congestion of public spaces, loss of purchasing power of residents, and increase in housing prices in the affected destinations. This paper analyzes these trends in the Barrio de San Pedro, one of the most emblematic of the city of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), an international urban tourism destination, which is also the final destination of the Camino de Santiago, the first European Cultural Itinerary, and one of the most important pilgrimage routes in the world. The aim of the study is to present the first advances of a research engaged with the progressive citizens' awareness and their associative response, given the problems perceived and associated with the development of the tourist phenomenon in heritage cities. A qualitative methodology is adopted to point out the social and cultural dynamics that interact in this singular neighborhood within the urban and tourist space of Compostela.