Reclaiming the City: Moving from Overtourism to Sustainable Tourism in a Post-COVID World

@misc{27365,
   author = {Studnička, Petr},
   keywords = {COVID-19, indicators, overtourism, pandemic, Prague, sustainable tourism},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Reclaiming the City: Moving from Overtourism to Sustainable Tourism in a Post-COVID World},
   url = {https://tu-dortmund.sciebo.de/s/MJQaWngTUVJTvJZ},
   year = {2021}
}

TY  - SLIDE
ID  - 27365
AU  - Studnička, Petr
PY  - 2021
TI  - Reclaiming the City: Moving from Overtourism to Sustainable Tourism in a Post-COVID World
KW  - COVID-19, indicators, overtourism, pandemic, Prague, sustainable tourism
UR  - https://tu-dortmund.sciebo.de/s/MJQaWngTUVJTvJZ
N2  - With tourism being one of the largest industries around the world, experiencing it for oneself is not uncommon. But seeing its impact and how much it was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as knowing how to cope with the situation sustainably is a discussion that should be held. In 2020, the tourism sector suffered from a decrease in global tourist numbers of as much as 74% compared to 2019 (UNWTO, 2021). Not only is the tourism sector affected, but it also creates a big impact on tourism-dependent regions or countries, because of the number of employees in the sector and its revenue. The pandemic creates a unique situation, since for the first time in the 21st century, there could be a chance to fend off the biggest problems of mankind, being climate change and poverty. Even though the pandemic led to negative impacts on the economy, it also forms a huge possibility to move on from them. Therefore, the following research question was chosen: How can spatial planners help overtouristed cities to permanently move to more sustainable tourism in a post-COVID world? To answer it, a literature review was conducted to develop better fitting definitions for overtourism and sustainable tourism, identify existing sustainable tourism concepts, and barriers to transitioning to sustainable tourism, as well as to determine the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19. Then data and literature reviews were combined to construct a list of indicators, which local policy makers can use to determine the degree to which a city suffers from overtourism. With a list consisting of 12 data-based indicators and six more subjective indicators, the list provides a wide spectrum of analyzable data. Data-based indicators are essential to get an overview on the touristic situation in a city in those 12 various aspects, whereas the subjective indicators give an insight on how the touristic sector is perceived by the inhabitants of each city. The next step was to develop a table of actions, to help cities to become more sustainable. It is designed as a list of instructions that offers ways to improve the quality of life of every involved stakeholder of a destination. A SWOT-Analysis and a Multi-Criteria-Analysis were the main methods to find actions that can be measured easily, but which are also generally applicable. The table helps to achieve better surroundings by providing cities and their policy makers in their tourism sectors 14 different ways to improve overtouristed tendencies. The indicators and table of actions are designed to work together, so the list of indicators should be used first, and then the table of actions as an addition. Both of their results can then be used to develop an own tourism concept that suits best to the policy makers’ cities. The existing list of indicators was applied to Prague, which serves as a case study to show how they can be used in practice in both the city’s current situation, along with already existing measures.
ER  - 

STUDNIČKA, Petr. \textit{Reclaiming the City: Moving from Overtourism to Sustainable Tourism in a Post-COVID World}. 2021.