The impact of Airbnb on a non-touristic city. A Case study of short-term rentals in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain)

Abstract

Short-term rentals such as Airbnb have become a persistent element of today’s urbanism around the globe. The impacts are manifold and differ depending on the context. In cities with a traditionally smaller accommodation market, the impacts might be particularly strong, as Airbnb contributes to ongoing touristification processes. Despite that, small and medium-sized cities have not been in the centre of research so far. This paper focuses on Santa Cruz de Tenerife as a medium-sized Spanish city. Although embedded in the touristic region of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz is not a tourist city per se but still relies on touristification strategies. This paper aims to expand the knowledge of Airbnb’s spatial patterns in this type of city. The use of data collected from web scraping and geographic information systems (GIS) demonstrates that Airbnb has opened up new tourism markets outside of the centrally established tourist accommodations. It also shows that the price gap between Airbnb and the housing rental market is broadest in neighbourhoods that had not experienced tourism before Airbnb entered the market. In the centre the highest prices and the smallest units are identified, but two peripheral quarters stand out. Anaga Mountains, a natural and rural space, has the highest numbers of Airbnb listings per capita. Suroeste, a suburban quarter, shows the highest growth rates on the rental market, which implies a linkage between Airbnb and suburbanization processes.

Planning behind Closed Doors: Unlocking Large-Scale Urban Development Projects Using the Stakeholder Approach on Tenerife, Spain

“…I frame the discovering of such originally nontouristic spaces as touristification [7,41], because it "refers to the complex processes of territorial transformation brought about by tourism on a determined geographical space" [42] (p. 3). On the one hand, this process might take place gradually, as described in Gotham's concept of tourism gentrification [43], or due to the spatial proliferation of short-term rentals, which increasingly move to neighborhoods outside the touristic center [24,44]. On the other hand, touristification can also be triggered by large-scale projects transforming an important part of the city, such as waterfronts or brownfield sites [14,45,46].…”

“…With Santa Cruz Verde 2030 we would go up to 3000 or 3500 in Santa Cruz" (I13: 18, Mayor). Although this argument seems logical, one has to question whether this is the appropriate scale of comparison, with the north of Tenerife being a partially touristified area and Santa Cruz a nontouristic [24] converted city [20]. Some interviewees observed a general tendency towards touristifying the city (I8: 52, Geographer; I9: 93, journalist) extending beyond the built infrastructure: "This is a government that stimulates short-term rentals" (I15: 39, Unidas Podemos).…”

“…However, Santa Cruz Verde 2030 is expected to undergo a considerable touristification process, as it fosters the city's transition towards a service-oriented economy. The megaproject (a) contains the city's first urban beach and intends to reshape Santa Cruz' relationship with the sea, and (b) almost doubles the number of hotel beds in the city [23] in an area where neither hotels nor short-term rentals are currently present [24]. Although Santa Cruz is a nontouristic city [20], it is the capital of Spain's third most visited tourist region, namely the Canary Islands [25] (see Figure 1).…”

Home Dispossession and Commercial Real Estate Dispossession in Tourist Conurbations. Analyzing the Reconfiguration of Displacement Dynamics in Los Cristianos/Las Américas (Tenerife)

“…This has ramifications for the whole housing market: property prices and rents experience further spikes while urban neighborhoods lose their social cohesion [42][43][44]. As Hübscher et al illustrated in the case of the island city Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Airbnb-led touristification increasingly impacts even small and medium-sized cities outside of the traditional tourism markets [45]. This is also related to politically-steered urban branding: in the course of a decades-long tourist marketing and the mercantilization of Spanish cities, city councils actively promoted inner-city touristification.…”

La Vivienda Vacacional en La Palma (Canarias): Evolución Y Distribución Espacial (2015-2020)

“…Ello puede estar relacionado con el relativo retraso en la incorporación de las principales ciudades del archipiélago a las nuevas dinámicas del turismo urbano internacional. Aunque este vacío ha comenzado a cubrirse en las dos capitales autonómicas (Hübscher et al, 2020, Domínguez Mujica, 2020, en Canarias continúa sin abordarse la cuestión desde una perspectiva insular.…”