Mitigating the Impact of Touristification on the Psychological Carrying Capacity of Residents

This study explores the impact of touristification on the residents of the Seochon and Bukchon areas of Seoul, Korea. Touristification refers to changing an urban space to promote tourism; however, this process displaces the original residents and affects the commercial and social fabric of neighborhoods. We examine the psychological carrying capacity of local residents to adapt to touristification, and present ways to mitigate the negative effects of touristification. First, a semantic differential scale was used to elicit adjectives to assess the carrying capacity of residents to adapt. This was correlated with a classification of the residents’ awareness of the changes. Second, a space improvement index was developed to verify whether an improvement in the physical space will change the psychological carrying capacity of residents. A space improvement simulation indicated the changes in carrying capacity based on the improvement of space. Finally, we established the key factors for each space type and proposed strategies to mitigate the impact of touristification.