A city for whom? Urban tourism, neighbourhood conflicts and planning policy in Berlin and Barcelona

This paper analyses the conflicts arising from the prioritization of tourism in the urban development strategies of Berlin and Barcelona over the past two decades (during which the two cities witnessed a major increase in annual tourist flows). It considers whether planning can mediate the conflicts between residents, tourists and ‘temporary city users’. In both cities official tourism policy has remained primarily concerned with promoting further tourism growth, rather than encouraging the development of a qualitatively adequate tourism from an integrated urban development perspective. In recent years, a debate on the negative impacts of mass tourism on particular neighbourhoods, for example due to the conversion of residential units into holiday rentals, has emerged in the two cities under the impetus of local residents, the local media, and part of the local political sphere. In Barcelona the debates have focused on the historical district of Ciutat Vella; in Berlin, on mixed, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods such as Kreuzberg. Current conflicts not only reveal a tension between ‘hosts’ and ‘guests’, but reflect wider struggles over the socio-spatial restructuring of particular neighbourhoods and who has a ‘right’ to enjoy them. The paper identifies the stakeholders who started a debate about tourism’s adverse impacts, analyses the demands they make to the local state for more (planning) regulations, and critically considers policy responses to date.