Cultural tourism pressure on historic centres: Its impact on public space and intervention strategies for its mitigation. Florence, Italy, as a case study

Corinna  Del Bianco; Laura  Montedoro

Titles

Abstract

In recent decades, mass cultural tourism has imposed itself on European historic centres’ various economies without planning or a clear direction. Today, it is evident that this specific development within tourism is not sustainable and has generated a series of problems. Public space is a mirror of these transformations – congested, dirtied, polluted and impoverished of its traditional richness of co-presences and plurality of uses, it clearly demonstrates the limitations and problems that plague tourist cities. Following the temporary cessation of travel due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, tourism is now among the economic sectors undergoing a major recovery. This paper first broadly outlines a theoretical framework of overtourism. Then, it presents a case study of Florence, Italy, exploring the possible ways in which to mitigate the impact of tourist flows in the historic centre by designing public space in a sustainable manner that caters to the needs of both tourists and inhabitants.

Keywords

public space, Florence, overtourism

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DOCUMENTS AND DATA

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Information

Information: Housing Environment, 2023, 42/2023, pp. 80 - 86

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/25438700SM.23.006.17807

Article type: Original article

Titles:

English:

Cultural tourism pressure on historic centres: Its impact on public space and intervention strategies for its mitigation. Florence, Italy, as a case study

Polish:

Cultural tourism pressure on historic centres: Its impact on public space and intervention strategies for its mitigation. Florence, Italy, as a case study

Authors

Corinna Del Bianco

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1271-0790

Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano

Laura Montedoro

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0494-4810

Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano

Published at: 06.2023

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Percentage share of authors:

Corinna Del Bianco (Author) - 50%

Laura Montedoro (Author) - 50%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 590

Number of downloads: 523

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