Overtourism Dystopias and Socialist Utopias: Towards an Urban Armature for Dubrovnik^*

* This paper is inspired by the work we carried out at the Overbooking the City: An International Urban Design workshop, which took place in Dubrovnik between the 20-26th of August 2017, of which Carlo Pisano was a mentor, and Aggelos Panayiotopoulos a participant. We would like to acknowledge the other participants Mirna Udovcic, Ivana Gramatikova, Hana ElShiaty and mentor Ivan Jurićfor a great week of stimulating exchange of ideas and insights.

ABSTRACT

The recent discourse on overtourism and anti-tourist attitudes has opened up the space to reimagine tourism development and planning. Employing an interdisciplinary approach we combined research by design methodology and rapid ethnography in order to problematise Dubrovnik's overtourism. The research turned for inspiration to the ex-Yugoslavian resorts and integrated planning. The paper advocates a praxical, socially informed and environmentally aware perspective and proposes interventions that offer the potential of practical applications in Dubrovnik's urban planning. Focusing on the need for connectivity and continuity the interventions address issues of segregation and marginalisation of local groups, such as students and seasonal workers. Inspired by the utopian ideals of socialist resorts, the research developed an urban armature that aims to connect the different parts of the old and modern city, reclaim tourist spaces for locals, and create open spaces in local areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Overtourism
• Dubrovnik
• urbanism
• post-socialism
• research by design
• rapid ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.⁠

Notes

* This paper is inspired by the work we carried out at the Overbooking the City: An International Urban Design workshop, which took place in Dubrovnik between the 20-26th of August 2017, of which Carlo Pisano was a mentor, and Aggelos Panayiotopoulos a participant. We would like to acknowledge the other participants Mirna Udovcic, Ivana Gramatikova, Hana ElShiaty and mentor Ivan Jurićfor a great week of stimulating exchange of ideas and insights.

1 These areas are very difficult to be accessed by the older population and people with mobility problems. For a discussion on the issue see https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g295371-i1555-k10018531-Hills_and_Steps-Dubrovnik_Dubrovnik_Neretva_County_Dalmatia.html