Tourism-philia versus tourism-phobia: residents and destination management organization’s publicly expressed tourism perceptions in Barcelona

Abstract

The current research on hosts’ perceptions of tourism has focused on survey-based studies, proving their heterogeneity at the moment of the study, but lacking to present any evolution over time. This paper aims to show if, and how, hosts’ public narratives of tourism have changed in the particular case of the city of Barcelona (Spain) from 2004 to 2015, analyzing any common and opposing points of their argumentation as they may change over time. These narratives represent the perspectives of two opposing groups of hosts: residents and destination management organizations (DMOs). We used thematic analysis to portray their public discourse, as expressed in the residents’ magazine Carrer, and the annual reports of Turisme de Barcelona. Through the analysis of common and opposing points of their argumentation, our findings show a clear division between the residents’ tourism-phobic perception and the DMO’s tourism-philic one, which appears to change their structure over time, going from complete opposites to searching for common ground when tourism is addressed as part of the city’s identity by both sides.

摘要

目前关于东道主对旅游的看法的研究主要是基于调查的研究, 证明了在研究开展之时他们的看法是多样的, 但是缺乏展示这些看法随时间演变的情况。这篇文章的目的是展示, 西班牙巴塞罗纳东道主民众在2004至2015年对旅游的叙述是否发生变化以及如何发生变化的, 分析他们的论点随时间变化中的共同点和对立点。这些叙述代表了东道主社会两个对立群体的视角:居民和目的地组织。我们用主题分析法描绘了民众杂志Carrer和巴塞罗纳旅游年度报告所表达出的居民和目的地管理组织的公共话语。通过分析他们观点的异同点,我们的研究结果显示, 居民惧旅游的看法与目的地管理组织的亲旅游看法有明显的分化, 但是它们的结构似乎随着时间在发生变化, 尤其是当双方都把旅游看作反映部分城市个性的时候, 他们的看法正从完全对立发展到寻求共同点。

Keywords:

• Residents
• destination management organizations
• perception
• social representation theory
• Barcelona
• tourism-phobia

关键词:

• 居民
• 目的地管理组织
• 看法
• 社会表征理论
• 巴塞罗纳
• 旅游恐惧症

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Konstantina Zerva

Konstantina Zerva holds her PhD in Humanities from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2011). Her recent research is related with themes such as marketing of niche tourism markets, mobility and immigration, published in journals such as Tourism Management, Acta Sociologica, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, and Tourist Studies.

Saida Palou

Saida Palou holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Barcelona (2011). Since 2018, she is a researcher at the Institut Català de Recerca en Patrimoni Cultural (ICRPC). Since 2010, she is a professor at the University of Girona. She has participated as an expert in the City of Barcelona Strategic Tourism Plan 2015.

Dani Blasco

Dani Blasco has a PhD in Tourism (University of Girona, 2013). His research lines include organizational networks in tourism, destination planning and governance, and human capital of the tourism companies and institutions, published in journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Geographies, Journal of Heritage Tourism, and European Journal of Tourism Research.

José Antonio Benito Donaire

José Antonio Donaire Benito is a Professor at the University of Girona. He dedicates his research to the behavior of tourists in heritage spaces and to changes in tourism in a post-industrial society. He also investigates the application of ICT teaching innovation.