Urban renovation and massive tourism in the historic city: loss of population and social conflicts

Abstract

Urban tourism, resulting from the renovation of historical centers or emblematic
areas of the city, has experienced a strong development over the last years,
becoming an important source of economic activity and employment. However, the
concentration of visitors in the historical and cultural heritage areas has shown undesirable
effects either on the urban layout, or on the population. Saturation of public
spaces, increase of noise and excessive concentration of tourist apartments are some
of these effects, causing a continuous loss of population in historical areas as well as
a breakdown of the urban habitat balance. This research analyzes the conflicts produced
by the growth of tourism in historic centers, considering that they are one of
the city neighborhoods and, at the same time, a symbolic reference for tourism. The
case study is Malaga, which is currently transforming its tourist image, suffering the
negative impacts of its tourist success. This research contrasts the conflicts of tourism
growth with the proposals of the General Plan of Malaga, the Historic Center Renovation
Plan (PEPRI), the EU URBAN Programme and the recent Urban Agenda 2015,
whose objectives include the promotion of population growth in the old city Center.
The method analyzes data on population, land use, noise and density of restaurants
and bars, processed by ArcGIS program, QuGIS and GuSIC software. Other information
is provided, such as the routes of the visitors and the opinion polls of residents and
tourists. The excessive concentration of tourism in the Historic Center is creating mismatches
and imbalances in the classic urban morphology of the city and conflicts with
the resident population and municipal urban policies are not solving these conflicts.