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Abstract
The historic centre of Palma is undergoing significant socio-urban change due to tourism-real estate speculation—an issue that is constantly highlighted in debates on tourism gentrification. This revaluation of the historic centre as a place for investment coincided with a serious economic crisis and an increase in urban inequality throughout the city. Tourism gentrification is spreading throughout neighbourhoods in the old town, most notably in areas with high heritage value. Our aim herein is to examine tourism gentrification in the historic centre of Palma through the increase in luxury hotels and short-stay holiday home rentals, particularly those listed on Airbnb, as the two most recent agents of gentrification. The advent of social resistance to this phenomenon can be tied to the socio-urban impacts that have stemmed from this tourism speculation: financial (real estate speculation and rising property prices), social (evictions), and functional and scenic (symbolic and commercial transformation). The strongest political response has come in the recent Tourism Act (August 2017) introducing certain regulatory measures: firstly, the focus on the illegal nature of renting holiday accommodation and, secondly, tourism zoning which, in Palma, has led to a complete ban on holiday rentals in residential apartment blocks. Palma is the first city in Spain to opt for this solution.
摘要
帕尔马的历史中心由于旅游房地产投机正在经历重大的城市社会变化, 该议题在旅游绅士化的论辩中经常被涉及。伴随严重的经济危机和城市不平等的加剧, 这个历史中心作为一个投资场所正经历重新评估。旅游绅士化正在老城区的各个街区蔓延, 尤其在遗产价值较高的地区。本文的研究目的是通过豪华酒店和短期度假家庭租房（特别是爱彼迎上列出的那些豪华酒店与短期家庭租房）的增加作为绅士化最新的代理指标, 研究帕尔马历史中心的旅游绅士化。社会大众对这一现象抵制的出现可能与旅游投机所造成的城市社会影响有关:金融方面(房地产投机和房价上涨)、社会方面(拆迁)、城市功能和景观方面(蜕变为象征性的商业景观)。最强烈的政治回应来自最近的《旅游法案》(2017年8月), 该法案引入了一些监管措施:首先, 强调假日住宿租赁的非法性质;其次, 帕尔马的旅游区划导致了对住宅公寓楼假日租赁的全面禁止。帕尔马是西班牙第一个选择这种解决方案的城市。
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This research has been funded by the research project: “Crisis and social vulnerability in Spanish island cities. Changes in the social reproduction spaces”. CSO2015-68738-P (MINECO/FEDER).
Notes
Notes on contributors
Jesús M. González-Pérez has a doctorate (1998) in Geography from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). He is Senior Lecturer at the University of the Balearic Islands. He has also been a visiting researcher at thirteen European and American universities, including the universities of Bergen (Norway), Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Glasgow, São Paulo, La Habana, UNAM (Mexico), and Stanford as Visiting Scholar (2015) and Visiting Professor (2016). He has contributed as author or co-author to more than a hundred publications of a national and international nature, many of which were published in journals included in the Journal Citation Reports (Annals of Tourism Research; European Planning Studies; Sud-Ouest Européen; The Open Urban Studies Journal; Sustainability;, Urban Affairs Review; Eure, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Urbano Regionales; Die Erde, Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin; Habitat International; Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences; Geographical Research – China-…). Professor González is an expert evaluator of different Spanish scientific agencies: National I + D+i Plan of the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness, Catalan Government’s Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), ANEP and ANECA. He is also member of the scientific or editorial committees of five international journals and reviewer for another twenty one. Dr. González is Chairman of the Urban Geography Group of the Association of Spanish Geographers since 2014.
Notes
1 Between Q3 2015 and Q3 2017, the land registry value for non-regulated homes in Palma rose by 10.12%. In the last year alone (2017–2018), rental prices (euro/m²) increased by 8.54%. Furthermore, between 2007 and 2015 the judicial district of Palma (roughly, the city's metropolitan area) recorded a total of 9,679 evictions (Vives, González, & Rullan, Citation2015).
2 Gerreria-Sindicat is practically the only neighbourhood in the old town that still contains run-down and decaying areas, alongside others undergoing renovation and gentrification.
3 Smith (Citation2018) accuses online platforms like Airbnb of using algorithms that input racially biased housing market data that distort the perception of the neighborhood.
