A post-pandemic look at short-term tourist accommodations and World Heritage Site management

ABSTRACT

Overtourism is a novel and complicated phenomenon that has hastened the rapid expansion of short-term tourist accommodations (STTA) in many European art cities. This study aims to establish a link between the rapid growth of the STTA and the likely dissemination of novel COVID-19 variations in World Heritage Sites (WHS). Using a comparative case study method, we assert that the atypical evolution of STTA renders WHS more vulnerable to novel COVID-19 variations. The findings highlight that until there are no feasible multi-sectoral and multi-level approaches to management, policy agreements on what overtourism means, and measuring tools for the proper number of visitors, the STTA issue persists, which makes WHS more vulnerable to novel COVID-19 variations in the post-pandemic time.

KEYWORDS:

• Overtourism
• World Heritage Sites
• short-term tourism accommodations
• management
• post-pandemic time

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Toscana Promozione Turistica Agency was founded in accordance with Regional Law 22/2016 and began operations on April 1, 2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ahmadreza Shirvani Dastgerdi

Ahmadreza Shirvani Dastgerdi obtained his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florence in Italy. He is an urban researcher with interests in tourist management, cultural heritage planning, and resilient landscapes.

Giuseppe De Luca

Giuseppe De Luca is a full professor of urban planning and the director of the department of architecture at the University of Florence in Italy. His research is focused on cultural heritage policy and spatial transformation.