The short life of a concept: tourismphobia in the Spanish media. Narratives, actors and agendas

Abstract

This article forms part of a classic social science debate on the role of the media in the construction of social and political narratives. The object of the paper is to study the rise and fall of the concept of tourismphobia in the Spanish media. The case is analyzed in the light of public policies studies, especially those analyzing agenda-setting, the social construction of the definition of public problems and the struggles of coalitions seeking to impose their public policy narratives in the policy-making process. With this purpose, a database was used that collected more than 11,000 news items over a substantial period of time. Its analysis reveals that media attention rises sharply after active protest actions against tourist saturation and that the term is mostly linked to specific territories and cities and to certain political figures. It also allows us to observe how some political responses to the problem appear more in the media, while others are minimized. The conclusions indicate that the “tourismphobia” neologism was capitalized on – which is often the case with terms that circulate in the public sphere – by various groups attempting to highlight some of its semantic dimensions over others. The study also reveals that the media assume an active position in the construction of discourses in relation to tourism also as a political and not just an economic issue. Furthermore, it shows that the use of the term has greatly declined, either because the problem has become dormant or because it has been reformulated into other terms that are more in line with dominant narratives.

The Crossfire Rhetoric. Success in Danger vs. Unsustainable Growth. Analysis of Tourism Stakeholders’ Narratives in the Spanish Press (2008–2019)

“…This study builds on previous research [58] that analysed nearly 19,000 headlines in the Spanish press featuring the term "tourismphobia," which appeared, spread, and virtually disappeared from the Spanish media between 2016 and 2019. The conclusions of that study pointed to the need to deepen the analysis of content in order to understand the reasons behind this process based on the hypothesis that some of the actors had been able to impose a certain narrative that explained how the definition of the problem should be understood and what the solution to be adopted should be.…”

Hospitality and anti-tourist attitudes through the host-guest relationship in the Westworld science fiction series

“…This dystopia captures the limits to which a host-guest relationship can reach in the world of leisure and tourism. This concern is not new, nor has it lost relevance over the years, as shown by the appearance of conflicts between residents and tourists in some destinations, under the media label of 'tourismphobia' (Screti, 2022;Seraphin et al, 2019;Velasco González & Carrillo Barroso, 2021), a concept related to overtourism (Veríssimo et al, 2020;Vetitnev et al, 2021). Therefore, the host-guest relationship deserves deeper reflection on its theoretical fundamentals and the implications of various interpretations of hospitality.…”

Impacto del turismo deportivo sobre la masa social y la economía de un club de fútbol. El caso del F.C. Barcelona

“…Además, el 94,77% de los participantes estima que la aportación del turismo es absolutamente necesaria desde una perspectiva económica para las finanzas de la institución, y el 91,08% considera que sirve para potenciar la imagen y la marca del F.C. Barcelona. En cualquier caso, el turismo deportivo relacionado con el fútbol también genera efectos negativos de índole económica, social, ambiental o cultural, siendo causa originaria de conflictos relacionados con los excesos y molestias de los turistas o con el fomento de fenómenos como la turismofobia, la gentrificación o la presión ambiental (Alonso-Almeida et al, 2019;Chang et al, 2020;Cooper y Alderman, 2020;Hu y Yang, 2020;Velasco-González y Carrillo-Barroso, 2021;Gutiérrez-Aragón et al, 2022;Tobar y Ramshaw, 2022). Así, los Investigaciones Turísticas N° 26, julio 2023, pp.…”

“…No obstante, también conviene significar que el turismo relacionado con la ciudad de Barcelona y su club de fútbol, más allá de unos evidentes resultados económicos positivos tanto para el F.C. Barcelona como para la comunidad, es causa primigenia de un buen número de inconvenientes, fomentando fenómenos como la turismofobia, la gentrificación o la presión medioambiental, que afectan a todos los vecinos de la ciudad (Alonso-Almeida et al, 2019;Velasco-González y Carrillo-Barroso, 2021;Gutiérrez-Aragón et al, 2022). Por otro lado, también origina otros problemas como los relacionados con el comportamiento molesto de un turismo excesivo, la apropiación en los estadios del patrimonio cultural perteneciente a los aficionados locales o el aumento de los precios de las entradas a los partidos debido a su demanda turística (Tobar y Ramshaw, 2022).…”