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Managing Resilience in Neighborhood against Over-Tourism. Case study on Kyoto.
1  Professor, Faculty of Policy Science, Ryukoku University

Abstract:

Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. However, in some cities like Venice, Barcelona and Kyoto, tourism has become an important political issue; “overtourism”. It has become clear that too much concentration of touristic activities in some destinations in a city often could make inhabitants feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably. The advent of sharing economy for tourism accommodation like Airbnb has also provoked serious tensions between local residents and incoming tourists. Barcelona is struggling to cope with the sheer numbers of visitors, and the debate has erupted on a global stage, with residents’ rising anger and frustration over the intolerable rising land price and its following lack of affordable housing, which have been blamed on private accommodation being rented illegally. Japanese cities are not the exception. In recent years, the growing demand for touristic accommodation in Kyoto has been apparent due to explosive increase of foreign tourists. Among others, the number of cheap lodging house including holiday rental of private rooms has been emerging very rapidly. Therefore this study aims at 1) identifying a trend of site location of holiday rentals, 2) examining social impacts to its neighborhood and 3) arguing possible counter measures from urban planning perspective to improve living condition and resilience of neighborhoods that have been struggling for the overtourism. The implications are as follows; 1) holiday rentals have started to be located in residential area and in the narrow alley, 2) the number of accommodation owned by private corporate is increasing and the increase of those accommodation might produce the rapid increase in land prices and subsequent urban and social change of neighborhood.

Keywords: overtourism; vacation rental accomodation; Kyoto; land price
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