**4. Results**

One of the questions in the structured interview intended to find out if the existing residents of Alfama consider that tourism brings benefits to the neighborhood. Only 16% of the interviewees referred that tourism does not really bring them benefits. The answers obtained about the benefits that result from the existence of tourists in Alfama (What are the main benefits that tourists have contributed to the Alfama neighborhood?), were semantically analyzed through Leximancer, and the result can be found in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** Concept map for benefits.

The main benefits indicated are related to the fact that tourists (one of the most relevant themes) contribute to an increase (relevant theme) in the safety (relevant theme) of the neighborhood, contributing to a better quality of life, also associated with more street life and a cleaner neighborhood. They also state that tourism (one of the most relevant themes) has brought benefits to retail (emerging theme) and to the local accommodation business (relevant themes). Some respondents consider the local accommodation business has rehabilitated many buildings that were becoming uninhabitable, and many residents left the neighborhood because houses were too small for large families. Benefits related to local retailers and restaurants are emerging themes as they are the least relevant of the 50% most relevant (Leximancer concept maps are built on the 50% most relevant concepts). Local retail has been rehabilitated, while restaurants continue to bring many tourists to the neighborhood looking for traditional cuisine and fado music. As two interviewees stated,

*Tourism helps a lot to rehabilitate the commerce and to raise prices without interfering with the typical dishes because they like our gastronomy. More security, more police, cleaner areas.*(Source: female resident, Age: 61 years)

*The property owners started to do improvements, giving the people of the neighborhood good sales, which allowed them to inflate the prices and make more profit.*(Source: female resident, Age: 77)

Of all respondents only 12% stated that tourism does not bring any problems to the Alfama neighborhood. This indicates that 74% of the interviewees consider that tourism brings both benefits and problems. All problems (What are the main problems that tourists have brought to Alfama neighborhood?) described by 88% of respondents were semantically analyzed, and the results obtained are shown in Figure 3.

For the interviewees who indicated that the increase in tourism in Alfama neighborhood (the most relevant theme) is associated with problems, the most frequent ones are robberies and noise (both emergen<sup>t</sup> problems represented with a cold color). Noise is associated above all with local accommodation (relevant theme). The problems for inhabitants (low relevant theme) are related to the fact that tourism (low relevant theme) has brought an increase in prices (low relevant theme). The interviewees also identified problems related to the use of space (relevant theme), on the one hand related to prices (low relevant theme) and, on the other hand, to real estate speculation, which is an emerging problem. As two interviewees said,

*With the increase in tourism, everything is bad for the residents: rents, rubbish, noise.*(Source: female resident, Age: 78)

*Real estate sales estate has driven away the residents, the neighborhood now has nothing, even the neighborhood commerce is dead. Tourists also like to see the typical and less tourists.*(Source: male resident, Age: 65)

**Figure 3.** Concept map for problems.

The first testimony is an example of the few interviewees who hold a completely negative approach to touristification. The second one regrets the loss of authenticity and recalls a lost past. Concerning the question related to the preference for old Alfama or Alfama nowadays, 70% of the interviewees affirmed that they prefer old Alfama, 14% said they prefer Alfama in the present and 16% could not decide. Although it was a more direct question (Do you prefer the Alfama of nowadays or the old Alfama?) the interviewees engaged in a conversation about this duality. The results of the semantic analysis of their answers are represented Figure 4.

**Figure 4.** Concept map for the duality between old Alfama and Alfama nowadays.

For Figures 3–5, we enabled in the software the neighborhood theme (one of the most relevant themes) to remain as a possible output of the semantic analysis, to better understand how the different reasons were linked to the neighborhood concept. People's testimonies addressed the older (relevant theme) quarter as a place where neighbors used to talk (relevant theme), where children used to play (relevant theme) and that it was a place more traditional (relevant theme). The neighborhood is linked to tourism (one of the most relevant themes), which has brought a renewed (relevant theme) neighborhood. An emerging trend that is linked to the older Alfama is parishioner (low relevant theme) that is a spirit that is being lost. The concept of parishioner is related to the sense of belonging and unity. Residents feel that their past neighbors and friends are no longer part of the community, which reinforces the duality they feel when they agree with the changes but regre<sup>t</sup> what they have lost. As two interviewees pointed out:

*I miss the old Alfama, I miss people, I miss listening to them yelling in Portuguese, I miss the traditional commerce, the children playing football, I miss knowing the news of the neighborhood in everyday conversation.*(Source: female resident, Age: 60)

*Either of the two, previously more parishioner and now with more nationalities and cultures.*(Source: female resident, Age: 46)

**Figure 5.** Concept map for contributions from tourism to quality of life.

When semantically analyzing how respondents think tourism can contribute to an improvement in their quality of life (How can tourism improve the quality of life of Alfama's residents and what measures should be taken to make tourism more of a positive impact on the neighborhood?), the results can be seen in Figure 5.

The two most relevant themes resulting from the semantic analysis of the answers are tourism and the neighborhood, as expected. We choose to keep these themes to analyze the connection between the solutions and the interpretations given for this last question. It can thus be seen that the quality of life in the neighborhood has improved regarding safety (emerging theme) and that the businesses (emerging theme) in the neighborhood can contribute to a neighborhood with more life for the inhabitants (relevant theme) as well. Tourism adds life to the area, which promotes interculturality. Residents who work or own businesses in the quarter also benefit financially, but more rules should be established to protect inhabitants' interests.

The results obtained through the interviews with the residents can be compared with the answers given by the representatives of four organizations in Alfama we contacted; these organizations are: Santa Maria Maior Parish Council, Alfama Heritage and People's Association, Alfama Merchant's Association and Cultural Centre Magalh<sup>ã</sup>es Lima.

All the representatives of the organizations affirm that tourists bring benefits to commerce and to the local accommodation businesses. The changes for the neighborhood include job creation, business valorization, urban requalification, increased security, and the valorization of cultural expressions, from the point of view of the Parish Council. The fact that there are an increasing number of tourists has also increased municipal support for some cultural activities according to the representative of the Cultural Centre. For the Merchants' Association and for Heritage and People's Association there should be policies to protect the rights of residents. A representative of the last one also states that tour operators should involve the community and know more about the history.

Almost all organizations, through their representatives, indicate that noise is one of the main problems of the increase in the number of tourists in Alfama. The representative of the Parish Council also mentions the lack of parking and traffic problems and the increase of domestic waste production. Real estate speculation is mentioned by the representatives of two of the four organizations. Exploitation of tourism-related activities, greed, rising prices, and excess of local accommodation are other problems identified. Heritage and People's Association representative indicates that there is an increase in problems related to drugs and prostitution and a disinvestment at social level, while there is a degradation of the public space, facts that were not mentioned by the residents. The loss of identity of Alfama is mentioned by two of the organizations (Merchant's Association and Cultural Centre).

For the Parish Council representative, a balance between the local resident population and long-term rentals should be promoted in Alfama nowadays, making essential services available for families to settle in the neighborhood. Urban regeneration and an increase in the dynamism of the neighborhood are positive factors in the current Alfama. On the other hand, the representative of the Heritage and People's Association does not like current Alfama, stating that after an initial boost, the neighborhood has declined again. For the representative of the Merchant's Association, tourism should involve residents, and public spaces should be rehabilitated, since tourists are welcome. The Cultural Centre also prefers old Alfama and states that nowadays residents have many bad habits.

For the representative of the Heritage and People's Association, tourism does not contribute in any way to the quality of life of residents. For the other organizations, through their representatives, tourism can contribute to their quality of life if it is regulated and does not push residents away. It creates jobs, boosts the economy, and can result in greater investment in public space. It brings a lot of life to the neighborhood.

#### **5. Discussion and Conclusions**

For the limitations of the single case-study approach we used, we claim the data and knowledge obtained in this project is highly relevant to this local territory (Alfama neighborhood, in Lisbon, Portugal), not necessarily leading to generalized conclusions. Aspects as specific as residents' feelings on increased security, greater liveliness and liveliness in the streets depend on governmen<sup>t</sup> policies that vary in different touristic cities. Although in Alfama, tourism brought more noise at night, the streets are cleaner now and there has been an improvement in the quality of life. We learned that many residents left the neighborhood because houses were too small for families, which could be related to increasing housing costs and minimized affordable places. The neighborhood has lost population and the neighborhood historical social attachments have faded away, with noticeable grievance by those who remained in the area. Previous studies [55] also reported residents' complaints about noise, which is in line with our results, but complaints related to a more general feeling of insecurity do not coincide with the testimonies of Alfama residents we collected here.

Awareness of the threats of overtourism has led the local governments of some destinations to agree to promote and share best practices in dealing with this ubiquitous phenomenon, where the central role of tourism in the development pathways of destinations was recognized and the need to address the challenges posed by the ongoing growth of tourism on urban livability was underlined [56]. There is general agreemen<sup>t</sup> on the increasing material benefits for local businesses. Local commerce has been rehabilitated and traditional cuisine restaurants are attracting more tourists; however, residents report that it has increased prices in general and, particularly, estate prices due to local accommodation and commerce alike. The local business network may have the capacity to link residents to the revitalization process, sharing the benefits of economic development, for example by creating new culture-based employment opportunities for residents by participating, after on-going training, in the tourism industry as tour guides in the historic neighborhood [57]. These results are considerably related to generalized narratives of gentrification [25].

As immaterial or symbolic aspects of gentrification seen [10,37,38], in a grea<sup>t</sup> deal, our interviewees miss the old quarter because of the neighborhood spirit, childhood friends and community experiences, which was the basis of a sense of belonging. This nostalgia is expressed through the memories, the sound of children playing, the conversations between neighbors, the festivities of the popular saints, the games at the weekend, the festivities, knowing each other as if they were one big family. Resident participation and involvement are essential to the success of any regeneration program, and their roles and activities must be compatible with the historic neighborhood's distinctiveness [58]; a remaining question is how to achieve this goal. Local tourist policies seem not addressing these people's feelings, it seems that economic development has been greatly prioritized. The valorization of cultural expressions should be made involving the community and leading it to know better its history.

Most of answers indicated by our respondents are confirmed by the organization representatives we further interviewed, as a form of triangulation. Still, organization representatives hold perceptions which are different to residents', as they not only perceive but also defend political or commercial agendas, and we consider this could be a bias and a pitfall in our results. Anyway, the idea of creating a sense of belonging and pride in the local community seems to generate consensus among almost all our respondents to counteract the negative effects of gentrification and a strategy to democratize the neighborhood governance [59].

The fact that elderly inhabitants feel nostalgia while they also recognize that Alfama is now more secure, cleaner and has a lot of liveliness, and also reflects a sense of belonging and connection recognized by older people in previous studies [60] that they still wish to contribute to the community as a whole, which plays a holistic experience that is intended to be transmitted to future generations and conveys a sense of affiliation and connection to the place, which can only benefit this type of neighborhood.

This study has sought contributing to ongoing discussions on the complexities on tourist-led gentrification. While most studies on the theme focus strongly on the negative aspects of Alfama's gentrification, we believe that studying the contradictions between positive and negative experiences by the residents shed lights on a still apparently unrecognized aspect of the matter: those who remain living in the neighborhood, after gentrification has displaced population in grea<sup>t</sup> deal, prove being more economically resilient and struggled by the changes. The way overtourism manifests itself depends critically on the city context, and solutions must be adjusted to the local environment, involving all stakeholders to reach inclusive solutions [55]. We realize that our sample is biased towards those who remained living in Alfama for having higher economic capital, as this sample does not include those who have already left the area and might have a divergent approach towards economic benefits, as they lost the strong social capital that once existed in this area [10,37], a capital that was not strong enough to counteract people's direct displacement. We understand this bias as a limitation of our methodological approach.

Our results concur with other studies [61] regarding how tourist-led gentrification can have positive aspects and not only negative ones. Building rehabilitation, increased security, job creation and neighborhood life are all factors that have been identified in our research. As an earlier work by Gago [3] mentioned Alfama's displacement of former residents as its central point, this issue was not mentioned by our respondents. According to Benis [6] a socially sustainable revitalization includes both a conservation and development dimension and takes the form of strategies and actions that improve the lives of residents and their perception of the neighborhood, attract tourists, new residents and investors. The interviewees have some perception about their lives' improvement related to tourism, so we believe that a process of revitalization of Alfama is in progress that can approach a sustainable development in the future. According to Hall [62], to address the challenges of overtourism, local interventions of attractiveness, destinations and tourism travel stages have to go hand in hand with multilateral initiatives on a global scale.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.M., T.P. and E.L.-M.; methods, A.S.M.; software, A.S.M.; validation, A.M., T.P. and E.L.-M.; formal analysis, A.M., T.P. and E.L.-M.; resources, A.M. and T.P.; writing—original draft preparation, A.S.M.; writing—review and editing, A.S.M. and E.L.-M.; funding acquisition, A.M. and A.S.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by TRIE—Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar para o Empreendedorismo & Inovação Ecossistémica; FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, IP, within the scope of the reference project UIDB/04470/2020; Chile's Research Agency—Fondap Project Number #15130009.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Ethical review and approval of this study was waived due to the fact that the participants were informed of the study objectives and freely consented to participate.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
