06 | “Get smart”, tourism in big cities put to the test

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#aroundthetourisminbigcities

Politecnico di Milano Urban Planning and Policy Design Master A.A. 2018-2019 Contemporary City Course Prof. Laurent Devisme Tutors. Alice Buoli, Matteo Del Fabbro, Mario Paris Students. Verena Frenzen, Yalda Golmakani, Lucia Ludovici, Alessia Pardi

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around the turism in big cities

Mass tourist, over tourism. What is it?

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Towards a smart tourism 6

Two cases in Rome: Bus and stalls 7

Another kind of tourism is possible: Milan 13

Conclusions 15

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1.Mass tourism, over tourism.

What is it?

Nowadays more and more people visit places that once were almost inaccessible without understanding their essence.

Everybody wants the inalienable right for vacation at all costs, as much as possible, just to say “I was there”; in this way the importance and the beauty of the place take second place. A different way of travelling, where people tend to rush through all the most attractive places without understanding them at all.

We can call it irresponsible tourism, a tourism that does not consider the historical, geographical and geological characteristics.

This is the case of the Rainbow Mountain in Peru, already entered in the places at risk for the excessive mass of disrespectful people that reach it every year.

The sociologist Paolo Giuntarelli gave the new definition of mass tourism:

“It is a phenomenon of post-materialist society. Owning something is no longer a priority, we just want to be entertained”.

In fact, we don’t want to collect objects and souvenirs, but experiences, which never fully satisfy us, due to the continuous offers; much has been favoured by the great explosion of low-cost airlines which have grown enormously since the late nineties.

And other sad consequence of this continuous wandering is undoubtedly the social tourism: posting photos on Instagram with the hashtags and with the goal of reaching more likes.

Most of the negative impacts are attributed to mass package tourism. It is the most common type of tourism, perceived and criticized as “crude, homogenous, insensitive to hosts, involving resorts that alter the landscape, crowded, frivolous”.

Mass tourists are criticized and caricatured as “unthinking and blind to both the damage they do and the better time they could be having if only they would adopt more ethical practices”. While mass tourism is one of the outcomes of technological ingenuity, prosperity and democratization, it now carries more negative connotations than positive ones.

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However, if the negative impacts of tourism are generally attributed to visits to developing and economically poor countries, the outcry against mass tourism is ironic, considering the comparatively small number of tourists who visit Africa, South East Asia or Latin America, or even underdeveloped regions in Europe.

The anthropologist Graburn believes that mass tourists “are likely to have the greatest impact on the culture and environment of the host peoples both by virtue of their greater numbers and by their demands for extensions of their home environments for which they are willing to pay handsomely”.

According to another sociologist, MacLeod, however, argues that these tourists “do not mix with local people and, therefore, are less likely to have deep cultural influence on them than the ‘alternatives’ who, although smaller in number, do actually interact with the host community at a more personal level”.

Some shades of mass tourism.

overcrowding fo people

selfie sticks invasion

inability to enjoy the beauty of the place

imitation

threat of cruise ships

The Great Wall of China, TCThirdculture

One face of the mass tourism. www.marieclaire.com

“Selfie stick are getting banned in museum�, TEDCast Torre di Pisa, Martin Parr

Venezia, Berengo Gardin

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The case of Venice One place where the dramatic impact of mass tourism has been well documented is, ironically, known also as ‘La Serenissima’.

Venice, the famously extremely overcrowded romance capital of Europe.

While many of the city’s remaining locals sensibly lock their doors and flee to the coast for the duration, school holidays and package deals tourism to both the Venetian lagoon and the city itself ramps up throughout July and August. The city is estimated to receive 20m visitors a year; its permanent population is just 55,000.

But like any other destination promising something unique, this influx in search of an authentic experience has become a threat to the very existence of what draws the crowds in the first place.

Venetian officials are taking action to preserve the city.

By 2021, cruise ships more than 55,000 tonnes in weight will no longer be able to make their way up the canals and dock in the city.

Venice, www.marieclaire.com Owercrowded bridge in Venice (la Repubblica) Venetia’s Residents Strike (La Repubblica)

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2.Towards a smart tourism Concerning the urban case, touristic fluxes are determinated mainly by 3 factors: presence of attractions comunication and promotional policies identity of the city Matching these three elements, cities marked by economic crisis as Glasgow or Bilbao have been able to collocate themselves in the rank of the touristic destinations through requalification policies directed to the culture.

A big problem for many cities is the tradition of the tourism: cities as Rome and Venice saw their touristic

“boom” in 60’s, when the concept of the tourism was willing more to gain than to enhance the city.

This is the problem why now it is difficult to change direction, revoke licences and modify tourists habits.

On the contrary an italian city which has been able to change its image in Italy and in Europe is Milan.

Ten years ago Milan was considered just like the city of the business, workers and fog.

Thanks to precise policies directed to tourism development and accessibility has became the city where the “italian dream” could appeare, the city of the possibility, where people flow from all the parts of Italy and the world.

As said before, the change is not immediate, a lot of factors can influence it.

In a city as Milan, which has expanded and renewed itself in occasion of the Expo in 2015, has been easier to manage policies because its touristic tradition wasn’t so strong.

The city of Rome, which is the Capital of Italy, but not in the economic sense, is trying to solve many problems linked to the mass tourism, which is damaging the image of the city, but the change is not immediate.

Every year the European Council elects a capital of smart tourism in Europe on the occasion of the Smart tourism Day.

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3.Two cases in Rome: buses and stalls.

1.touristic buses

2. touristic stalls

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1. Turist bus’ plan (15.05.18) In Rome the tourism has always been based on the private bus transport for many reasons: the lack of public transport, the pilgrims to see the Pope are old people, and the lack of an adequate street path which could spread other mobility means, such as the bike.

In recent years the traffic in the city became insufferable for citizens and tourists, so the major Virginia Raggi promoted a new measure to reduce the effects of the touristic buses, called Bus Plan.

3 new ZTL zones (limited traffic zone)

reorganization of the busses stops near Colosseo and Piazza S.Pietro

The zone C is always interdicted to pullmann

1934, hystorical center of Rome (Ansa)

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abolition of passes subscription, which would be replaced by more expensive licences.

Controversies on benefits The Administration point of view The interests of the roman Administration are various; first of all to reduce the number of touristic buses which occupy a big part of the main streets of the city center, in particular the ones which come from Civitavecchia’s harbor transporting tourists from cruises, which don’t bring value to the city be-

cause they come daily visiting just the main monuments.

The measure tries to reduce the buses’ flux interdicting the access to the main historical center and rising the prices of licenses to access to the other places of the center.

dicember 2018, Post published by Virginia Raggi Facebook’s Page “ WE WON, from january touristic bus will be out from the center of the city”

The workers point of view

dicember 2018, Piazza Venezia, Roma (La Repubblica)

The protest by labor unions has been immediate: the consequences will be the dismissal of many drivers favoring sightseeing tours which show to the tourists the cities without the explanation of touristic guides, replacing them with recorder voices.

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They also validate the thesis of a not adequate public transport system, which couldn’t absolve the touristic flux, in particular the one of most fragile people, like old and disabled people.

They organized a strike and blocked Piazza Venezia for a day, one of the most famous squares of the city, and the administration was forced to intervene removing buses.

How is the situation now ?

The original proposal dates back to may 2018.

After that the unions disputed the Administration in Court, which gave reason to the Administration in October 2018.

So, from the 1st January 2019 the is in force.

After their strikes, the tour operators accepted the situation, and have adapted to new rules.

The heads of the Administration boasts a freer city, not involved in a tourism decreasing.

However, some streets have continued to be occupied by coaches, as many users on social networks report, stopping illegally on the main roads.

dicember 2018, Piazza Venezia, Roma (La Repubblica)

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2. Touristic Stalls (2014-2019) Another big problem for the city are the souvenirs and food stalls which occupy and sometimes mess up the main monuments.

The first proposal of a measure has been launched by the previous major Ignazio Marino.

The proposal was to reduce the number of stalls in Piazza Navona during Christmas’ holidays.

The reactions of sellers was to threaten not to attend the event.

The situation is more detailed and deeper than that, recent investigations revealed that the situation was manipulated by the Tredicine’s family, which owns mosts of the stalls in the city.

Howewer, as the previous example, the meaning of this case, is to show how measures that could be considerated right from public opinion could have consequences on workers.

The unions protested for this measure, but the Court gave reason to the Administration and the measure is being structured.

Controversies on benefits The Administration point of view The Administration decided to activate this measure to preserve the main monuments from the mass tourism.

The prices of the stalls are very high for tourists and often they enlarge their autorized space.

The workers point of view The unions complain about job loss, because the plan includes the rearrangement of the stalls in other places of the same district, impossible for some district of Rome.

Circo Massimo, Rome (Il Corriere della Sera)

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Fontana di Trevi, Rome(La Repubblica)

How is the situation now ?

The action is not in force yet, because there are some problems.

The first one is the opposition of labor unions, the second one is the opposition of the President of The First Municipality of

Rome, which includes the hystorical Center.

She doesn’t agree with the measure because it asks Municipalities Presidents to rearrange the stalls, but the First Municipality is full of stalls.

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4.Another kind of tourism is possible: Milan Even if the monumental heritage is less than the roman’s one, Milan for the lasts three years hosted more visitors than Rome.

Visiting the capital is too challenging because of the time and because of the effort, that’s the reason why a lot of Italian and foreign prefer to spend their week end in Milan, which is smaller than Rome and hosts different events every weekend.

The city rescued to manage in the best way the success of the Expo in 2015.

This event launched it in the top of smart and international cities in front of the eyes of the whole world.

From the Expo until nowadays the face of the city has totally changed and the amount of citizens increased.

The city hosts people coming from all the Italy and the world for studying or working, and this is also the

reason why it’ s so vivid.

The restaurants and the pubs are always full of people who want to meet someone new and the discos host most famous DJs every week end.

If the life for the livers is easy, for the tourism is still better, using the same facilities for the citizens.

Mobility The system of the sharing mobility works at many levels: cycles, motocycles, cars, scooters, everytrhing is shared!

The parking is not payed anymore with the old paper, but it needs just a phone’s transition.

Wasting recycle The system of the waste collecting functions very well from a lot of years, and it’s indoor, so the rubbish is not on the street

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StartUp Promotion The city promotes the presence of different startup which operates at many levels: from cyber spending to home deliveries, from fintech to smart home, Milan is often the testing ground and test bed where to test new intelligent applications.

Research and Science Center The city became a reference for the medicine and science research thank to the collaboration with the MIT. In 2016 it has been candidate to host the European Medicine Agency.

Security The healthcare and the public security are very developed in order to maintain the livability of people peacefully.

The week phenomenon The most traditional “week” has been started in 1958, and is the Fashion Week.

Milan, in fact has always been attracted the fashion tourism and business.

The capability of the city has been to exploit the attractiveness of these events like “Il Salone del Mobile” and create a circuit of events linked with them.

The luckiest case is the Design Week linked with il Salone del Mobile, which brings in Milan thousands of people just for two or three days.

During this period the city is able to show itself in its best way thanks to cultural and gastronomical events, and finding a free room is very hard.

Another kind of tourism is directed to the Architecture.

In recent years, the Arch Week hosted important personalities by the architecture world.

In summary, you will probably find a Week In Milan in a field you are interested in!

ARCH WEEK

ART WEEK

FASHION WEEK MEN FOOD WEEK

FASHION WOMEN WEEK FASHION MEN WEEK

jeanuary february

DESIGN WEEK

april

may

MOVIE WEEK

june

july

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BOOK CITY FALL DESIGN WEEK

PHOTO WEEK

PIANO CITY

MUSEO CITY

march

FASHION WEEK

MUSIC WEEK

august september october november dicember

A Sinlge Action: QRCodes on turistic signs An example of smart tourism action in Milan is the mapping of the signs through a QR Code system.

Italy has always have been criticized for the touristic signs.

According to tourist’s perception the position wasn’t good, the text often were just in italian etc..

So, in 2010 the Italian Touring Club promoted the new mapping of touristic signs in order to give more detailed information to tourists.

Milan was the first city to approve this initiative, which then is spread in other Italian cities.

The measure had a great success and has facilitated the tourist’s life.

It’s been the start point to show in the digital world the beauty and the events of Milan, thanks to the creation of different Apps where to find advised routs or manifestation.

This example wants to show how a simple startup action can change the perception of the city by the tourist point of view, giving back the image of a modern-fitted city.

The most important factor is about the tradition, as mentioned before.

Milan benefits greatly from its capability in growth in the use of the tourism recently, thanks to some start up initiatives and investments. There is a plan. All the actions are directed to reach the same goal.

In Rome the tradition of the tourism is older and the lasts administrations were not able to develop a strategy

for the future tourism.

Is it possible to say that it’s more likely to find the smart tourism concept in so-called “smart-cities” as Milan, Wien or Amsterdam.

It means that in this era often the success or not of the tourism is directly linked with the functioning of the city itself.

5.Conclusions

The comparison between the two cities is not simpley solvable just with the experience.

There are lots of favorable factors towards Milan: it’s territory is nine times smaller than the roman’s one and its population density is three times the roman’s one, it means that for the same piece of territory there are three times the amount of taxpayers.

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Bibliography - www.marieclaire.com - www.coolgeography.co.uk - www.viaggiarelibera.com - www.citymetric.com - Controversies in Tourism,Edited by Omar Moufakkir , Peter Burns,2012 - www.tourismstrategy2020.vienna - www.urbaninnovation.at

- www.presseportal.ch - La Repubblica - Il Corriere della Sera - RomaToday

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