*3.2. Social Conflicts in Tourism*

The studies on social conflicts have gained increasing attention among researchers representing tourism studies (e.g., [15,24,42,48–50]). The conflict issue has been explored in different perspectives (e.g., cultural, economic, or political [51,52]) usually employing qualitative research methods [24,42]. Tourism researchers propose several additional dimensions referring to conflict within the tourism contexts. These include tourism and cultural conflict [51,53,54], tourism development conflict [49,55], environmental and functional conflict [56] and, last but not least, social conflict [42,57], referring directly to Coser's [44] concept.

By analyzing the genesis of conflicts in tourism space, Kowalczyk-Anioł and Włodarczyk [15] investigated its inevitability, the ambivalent nature of conflicts. They also identified the functions of conflicts in the perspective of local development, for example, whistleblowing (i.e., warnings and information signaling tourism disfunctions), stimulating (stimulating the search for innovative solutions), diagnostic (exposing weaknesses and problems of the local system, as well as revealing differences and interest groups), and integrative (involvement against something). Referring to context-specific conflicts within the tourism development perspective and based on a literature review, Colomb and Novy [50] explored the context of contemporary urban tourism conflicts. Applying the grounded theory, Kreiner et al. [24] proposed a systematic conceptual understanding of the conflicts surrounding the development of religious-tourism sites. The authors stated that disputes revolve around the conflicting interests, values, and goals espoused by different stakeholders; by ethnic communities and outside developers (over the economic benefits of tourism); and by tourists and locals (over limited resources). Thus, three "super-frames" of the conflicting parties' perception of the destination can be distinguished, i.e., issues (physical and spatial), procedure or process, and value-influenced function. High-intensity conflicts involve deviation within all three super-frames, and lower intensity conflicts typically involve deviation in only one or two super-frames, or possibly low-intensity deviation in all three [24].

As far as the specific real conflicts are concerned, the so-called "Chinese tourists' wave" in Hong Kong has been relatively the most explored conflict in the tourist literature [58–61]. Tsaur et al. [60] conceptualized tourist-resident conflict and developed a scale for assessing this particular conflict type on the basis of the relationship between Hong Kong residents and tourists from mainland China. The authors claimed that from the perspective of residents, every tourism conflict can be perceived in terms of cultural, social, and resource/transactional issues. Within the cultural conflict, besides the traditionally indicated elements such as the commercialization of the host culture, the use of natural and cultural resources, and the degree of economic dependence of the destination community [51], it is crucial to understand the interactive influence of tourist stereotypes and the attribution process of residents' encounters with tourists [62]. The resource/transactional conflict refers to physical space conflicts that result from residents' physical space (e.g., leisure facilities and public transportation) being occupied by visitors [60,61]. The concept of urban hypertrophy of tourism conceptualized by Kowalczyk-Anioł [63] refers indirectly to the resource conflict.

In summary, although the social conflict issues have been gaining attention in the tourism studies, the need to deepen the studies on the theory of social conflict in a tourism context is still apparent, as stressed by Yang et al. [42] and Kreiner et al. [24]. In particular, since the first instance of overtourism as a (new) urban issue, the death of the comprehensive analysis of understanding and managing conflicts has been even more noticeable. That is why, in the next section, we identify the main research paths of overtourism, i.e., conflict scientific literature review.

#### *3.3. Social Conflicts in Overtourism: Causes, Approaches, and Applied Tools*

As cities have grown progressively to the leading tourism destinations [64–66], the tourism industry has become more and more integrated into local economic structures [67,68]. This effect has escalated in cities, which have incorporated tourism as a tool for economic development or renewal [69,70]. However, for a long time, tourism has been promoted as a tool to enhance the community's quality of life [71–73] mainly owing to the sector's interdisciplinary character, seemingly beneficial outcomes for a wide range of stakeholders, and a multiplier effect [74,75]. The constant development, liberalism, and boosterism, supported by associated optimism have been the dominant logic within the industry and among its advocates [76–78]. The overtourism phenomenon currently observed, particularly in European cities, is the harmful consequence of these policies to the sector's evolution [16,69,79–83].

Regardless of whether overtourism is a buzzword, it has evolved, with the considerable role of new mechanisms of knowledge production (cf. [84]), from a news-media popular term to a comprehensive, but also blurring, relational, and stigmatizing concept [77,85]. Many researchers [1–3] stress that the problem behind it is not new. The concept of the vicious circle of tourism development in heritage cities was proposed by Russo [86] and is an antecedent study of overtourism. According to many researchers, it is rooted in the global discussion on the limits of growth, dating back to the 1970s (Club of Rome's report [87]), as well as the concerns and theoretical discourses surrounding the idea of

sustainable development and resilience, which have been discussed both in the context of tourism and in general [88–96], and later in the strict overtourism context [77,83,97–99]. Hall [98] claimed that the debate on this phenomenon is (and should be) an inseparable part of the global discussion on the limits of growth. Nevertheless, one can limit the overtourism syndrome to visitors' volume and discuss it within the tourism seasonality concept [100–103]. In this context, overcrowding and disturbances caused by an excessive tourist traffic are the extreme manifestations of the so-called high season and ineffective or even incompetent destination management [1,2], consequently challenging the destination's economic sustainable development [102] and its social resilience [103].

In the conditions of overtourism, the interdisciplinary character of tourism that is usually perceived as a strength acts, on the other hand, as a weakness. The infrastructure necessary to run a tourism business is highly interrelated and shared with the infrastructure use daily by locals in cities, for example, public transport, restaurants, points of interest, shopping centers, train stations, and airports [7,104]. In this regard, urban tourism can quickly be taken for either a conflict trigger or a context, given that frequent protests against tourism are nested deeper in a broader urban change and social issues [78], such as city rights, cost of living, housing affordability [4,105], corporate developments that are deemed to damage the fabric of local communities, and exclusion of precarious groups [9]. On the basis of the conducted systematic literature review, Table 2 exhibits the types of disadvantageous overtourism effects identified, until now, in cities.


Source: Author's elaboration upon the systematic literature studies.

One of the underlying conditions to enable tourism development in a destination is the local community acceptance [108,109]. The residents' attitude is often based on objections or refusal towards further growth, manifested through social movements' activity [21,70,77,110]. This situation indicates a rise in real conflicts and calls for integrated management procedures [74,104]. The works selected for our study build upon the following four concepts: economic growth, sustainable development, power, and conflict management (Table 3).


**Table 3.** Conflicts around overtourism: approaches and tools applied.

Source: Author's elaboration upon the systematic literature studies.

The majority of the analyzed papers relate the social conflicts to the notion of economic growth. The studies associate the problem's origin with the neoliberal boosterism model [78]. According to them, urban policymakers have, in many cases, introduced tourism into local economic development plans or adopted it as an urban renewal tool without proper planning [9]. Tourism is also perceived as a popular and easy tool to promote economic activity, which needs neither much public investment nor control to bear the fruits [21,78]. Such misconduct based on the maximization strategies has resulted in

adverse impacts on the residents' quality of life [105]. The detrimental effects include [9,21,77,78,105]: gentrification or tourismification of the cities, heritagization, proliferation of the private tourist rentals (short-term rentals and Airbnb facilities, influencing the housing market), structural changes in local commerce and the urban network (e.g., high dependence on the hospitality services), congestion, overcrowding, oversaturation and overexploitation, environmental changes, pollution and waste generation, producing or deepening social inequalities, violation of fundamental laws, privatization of public spaces and services, commercialization of the city, safety issues, and tourists' improper and invasive behavior (for a more detailed list of the consequences see Table 2). The adverse outcomes appear to undermine the existing economic paradigm and entail the tension between growth and degrowth [4,105].

The studies analyzed also reveal that there are two explicit social unrests' triggers, i.e., overcrowding and night-time entertainment connected with the so-called "party-tourism" [4,21,105]. With this in view, the industry with the local authorities have put forward the institution of Night Mayor, for example, in Budapest [21], and the academia elaborated the tourism activity optimization [105]. Oklevik, Gössling, Hall, Jacobsen, Grøtte, and McCabe [105] proposed the theoretical model of optimization to handle the overcrowding issue, based on the data retrieved from Norwegian destinations. The underlying assumption of the strategy is to increase profits and the value gained from maintaining or decreasing the numbers of arrivals. This aim should be achieved by extending visitors' length of stay and incrementing the local government revenue by imposing a departure tax. Nevertheless, the authors concluded that the suggested solution requires further development.

In the sustainable development concept, (Table 3, row 3) the interest concentrates mainly on a community's long-term well-being (embracing three dimensions, i.e., economic, social, and environmental), rather than on financial gains and market mechanism of sustaining the constant economic growth [7]. This research path focuses on determining the residents' perceptions and acceptance of tourism and tourist activity and its impact on the local environment, as well as on attempting to determine the destination's carrying capacity which limits the tourism development without producing adverse outcomes [107]. The main factors playing roles in the conflicts' upsurge, which are mentioned in the relevant reviewed papers, include gentrification or tourismification, heritagization, proliferation of the private tourist rental (short-term rentals, Airbnb), congestion, overcrowding, oversaturation and overexploitation, environmental changes, pollution and waste generation, and tourists' improper and invasive behavior [7,99,107].

From this approach, Postma and Schmuecker [7] developed a conceptual model to define conflict drivers and irritation factors between residents and visitors. The framework's building blocks constitute visitors and their attributes, residents and their attributes, conflict mechanisms, areas of conflict between both parties, and indicators of quality and quantity of tourist facilities. A study of the accommodation situation in Hamburg against the overtourism background, identified the following two focal conflict mechanisms: (1) cultural distance (cultural differences between tourists and locals), and (2) spatial and temporal distribution (the number of tourists gathered in space or time, overcrowding occurring this way can cause irritation irrespective of "cultural distance"). However, the authors recommend conducting more in-depth research to refine the model.

The carrying capacity concept [91,111] is another method implemented to scrutinize the tourism-related conflicts at a destination. The carrying capacity term refers to a numerical threshold of visitors received in a particular area, the exceeding of which results in the social and cultural changes the local community no longer accepts [99,107]. On the one hand, Namberger and others [107] investigated Munich residents' opinions in terms of the social carrying capacity and the overcrowding in the city. The study revealed two triggers of local contentions ignited by tourism from the perspective of the inhabitants, "crowds of tourists" and "disturbances by smaller groups of tourists" (e.g., from different cultures). These findings converge partially with the research carried out by Postma and Schmuecker [7]. On the other hand, Cheung and Li [99] revised the physical carrying capacity in Hong Kong. The researchers incorporated the notion of hysteresis (the irreversible impact) in the tourism field. They proved that uncontrolled and immediate growth of the same-day visitors' number at a destination, in the long run, negatively and permanently impacts the visitor and resident relations, regardless of further introduction of crisis management or neutralization of the conflict's antecedents. Nevertheless, similar to the previous cases, further analyses are necessary to draw more general conditions in which the hysteresis can take place as a result of overtourism.

Overtourism-induced conflicts have also been studied through the lens of social power theory (Table 3, row 4) [12,106]. In this context, the relation between social policy and the tourism policy is considered, with reference to neoliberalism. Briefly, tourism is perceived as a tool of exerting power by the governmental bodies and the prime benefit to the quality of the residents' life [12]. Similar to the economic growth case, the range of social conflicts' antecedents include all of the nine identified triggers (see Tables 2 and 3). However, this issue emanates mainly through the "right to the city" discourse [112], where the social circles struggle to maintain or win back the public space and put the public value first, contrary to the market-oriented strategies [106]. Considering the city of Barcelona as an example, Milano [12] indicated the failure of the following methods applied by the local governments to alleviate these kinds of local disputes: de-seasonalization, decongestion, decentralization, diversification, and deluxe tourism. These strategies are based mainly on the quantitative adjustments, which do not address the qualitative drivers of overtourism (e.g., structural changes in local commerce and the urban network). However, there are also rare cases when city authorities intervened in the proliferation of private tourist rentals by introducing policy adjustments. In Palma de Mallorca, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Barcelona partial or total restrictions on the licensing of tourist accommodation were imposed [12]. The research also illustrated the extreme means of handling the public protests, such as in the case of Anti-Meeting Law in Sevilla, which violated fundamental laws to assembly and the freedom of speech. To maintain a tourism-friendly image and provide safety, the municipal government banned, among others, the social gatherings and the street art practices in the public spaces [106].

Finally, the conflict management (CM) emerging from the organizational conflict theory is the last concept applied for analyzing the social conflicts around excessive tourism in cities (Table 3, row 5). This approach proposes a tool for deconstructing such conflicts by recognizing their complex functional structures within urban conditions. It also allows us to determine what the conflict causes are, what activities form the process of the CM, and who should initiate and carry it out. Moreover, the tool is useful to identify the structure of conflicts at various stages of their development (including potential conflicts) and the level of overtourism development (including the pre-overtourism and the mature-overtourism stage).
