The digital information age has changed global tourism in profound ways. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are pervasive, and they have become inextricably linked with contemporary c...

Tourism, technology and ICT: a critical review of affordances and concessions

Although Italian cities have undergone several waves of touristification, concerns about overtourism have only recently become widespread. In the article, we suggest that the diffusion of short-ter...

Overtourism and online short-term rental platforms in Italian cities

The pre-pandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the future of cities; several authors suggest that neighbourhood change produced by tourism should be conceived as a form of gentrification. Yet research on population shifts – a fundamental dimension of gentrification – in such neighbourhoods is scarce. Our exploration of the Gòtic area in Barcelona, using quantitative and qualitative techniques, reveals a process of population restructuring characterised by a decrease of long-term residents and inhabited dwellings, and the arrival of young and transnational gentrifiers that are increasingly mobile and form a transient population. We then use some insights from the mobilities literature to make sense of these results. In the gentrification of the Gòtic, the attractiveness of the area for visitors and for a wider palette of transnational dwellers feed one another, resulting in an uneven negotiation whereby more wealthy and ‘footloose’ individuals gain access and control of space and housing over less mobile and more dependent populations.

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Urban tourism and population change: Gentrification in the age of mobilities

Within the growing amount of literature on short-term rentals, which has started to increase in the past three years, research has focused mainly on world tourism cities, and intuitively on the cor...

Marginal hosts: Short-term rental suppliers in Turin, Italy:

Research on e-participation has grown significantly in the last years. This review focuses on public administrations, which are central actors in the solicitation and organization of e-participation and in the process of diffusion of more democratic decision-making in government contexts. However, research indicates that public administrations often struggle with technological and organizational changes, which suggests that e-participation initiatives may fail due to barriers within public administrations. Although researchers have paid considerable attention to the diffusion of e-participation in public administrations, research so far is multi-disciplinary and fragmented. The aim of this literature review is to structure and systematize the literature regarding phases of e-participation diffusion (adoption, implementation and institutionalization) and levels of analysis (micro, meso, and macro) to map the extant field of e-participation diffusion research and to provide a starting point for future research. The analysis shows that research has concentrated on the phases of adoption and implementation, and on the external context of public administrations (macro) and the organizational (meso) level. Overall, the review identifies major research gaps and offers avenues for future research.

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The diffusion of e-participation in public administrations : A systematic literature review

An in-depth look into the mechanics of short term rentals in Italy. The study is based on a vast dataset comprising of all the properties listed on the Airbnb website in 10 major cities in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. We discuss the spatial patterns of Airbnb supply and demand within and between cities, we then hypothesize on the possible drivers of the Airbnb offer and suggest a possible way to assess whether Airbnb supply could be driven by an economic advantage of short-term over long term letting. We also discuss the way the benefits of this particular incarnation of the sharing economy are shared among participants. Finally, we conclude by presenting a possible alternative way of regulating Airbnb.

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The Airification of Cities: Making Sense of the Impact of Peer to Peer Short Term Letting on Urban Functions and Economy

A room with a (re)view. Short-term rentals, digital reputation and the uneven spatiality of platform-mediated tourism

The article investigates platform-mediated tourism practices by focusing on the new recreational activities offered by Airbnb, namely “Experiences”. In recent years, the leading short-term rental platform has started an expansion strategy beyond accommodation towards services based on immersive activities led by local hosts. Drawing upon previous research on short-term accommodation platforms, we explore the platformization of such recreational activities by looking at their spatialities, the place-based resources engaged and emerging self-entrepreneurial practices. Our effort is experimental since most literature on Airbnb deals with accommodation listings while Experiences differ from accommodation since they combine different types of local resources, which are less spatially constrained, with the host's personal skills. This paper contributes to understanding the spatial and socio-economic implications of the Airbnb expansion strategy through Experiences. We develop a case study based on 385 Experiences collected in Florence (Italy) in 2019 and analyze their location and distribution patterns, the estimated revenue generated, the typology of resources which are commodified through such activities, and the professional profiles of the hosts. Results show that Experiences seem to erode the well-known spatial concentration of accommodation listings in city centres. This is explained by the different nature of the resources mobilized by the Experiences, which privilege the experiential character of these services (e.g. food tasting, cooking classes). Furthermore, Experiences become a self-employment opportunity for the hosts, reinforcing the unregulated and permeable environment of the digital platform.

The platformization of tourism: from accommodation to Experiences

The present paper investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Airbnb's market and focuses on the crisis's effects on areas affected by digital intermediation. The study's goal is to analyse Airbnb geographies by focusing on short-term rental supply and demand at the intra-urban scale. Using historical data and by adopting a quantitative and spatial data-oriented approach, the work highlights the shifting geographies of digital intermediation. Results show that while the areas that have increased their supply are limited, a large, clustered and contiguous portion of the cities seems to have reversed the exponential growth trend of recent years. Finally, the study offers a reflection on the future of short-term rentals in the post-pandemic city. The case study refers to four Italian cities: Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples.

Antonello Romano

Papers

Overtourism and online short-term rental platforms in Italian cities

The Airification of Cities: Making Sense of the Impact of Peer to Peer Short Term Letting on Urban Functions and Economy

A room with a (re)view. Short-term rentals, digital reputation and the uneven spatiality of platform-mediated tourism

The platformization of tourism: from accommodation to Experiences

The shifting geographies of digital intermediation: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on short-term rentals in Italian cities