Overtourism in Urban Space: A Case Study – Rome

Overtourism is a phenomenon characteristic of destinations that are subject to mass tourism, supported by apparent physical and economic saturation of the environment. Its occurrence is interlined by numerous social, economic, and environmental problems, thereby posing increasingly complex issues on the socio-economic and political agendas of many destinations. Adopting Rome as an example, the publication reveals the causes and consequences of overtourism employing a local spatial analysis, identifying it as a trend within mass cultural tourism in urban areas. A thesis is set that the neoliberal model of economic development encourages the massification of tourism through the continuous increase of oversupply and overconsumption within a free market permeated by distribution and communication channels via digital reservation platforms. Affected in this regard are spatial changes in the morphology of the city, such as the "sharing economy" developed on the "Airbnb" platform, and the trend of dominance of "fast tourism" with the degeneration of tourist behavior and consumption. The article highlights specific problems related to overtourism, such as social segregation of the local population; inflation in the real estate business; commercialization of cultural heritage; environmental degradation of the urban environment; and the criminalization of the urban economy. In the concluding section, concrete proposals are set forward to mitigate the negative consequences of overtourism, advocating for a "stricter" state intervention in the economic life (including the tourism sector) and the establishment of a "social threshold" for free travel to cultural sites.