Abstract
Over the last decade, the debate on tourism has become remarkably polarised. For some, tourism represents the stalwart of neoliberal capitalism, nested in strongly skewed power relations, characterized by exclusionary and resource-degrading agency, which need taming. For others, it remains genuinely coherent with its original promise to be a ‘force for good’. This dichotomy is per se an eye-opener for critical reflections. Drawing on anthropology and critical geography literature and informed by longitudinal qualitative ethnographical research conducted in Barcelona between 2017 and 2024, this paper provides a set of critical reflections on the inconvenient truths about mass tourism, touristification and overtourism in the context of the current rising of anti-tourism activism in Southern European destinations. By offering a bird’s eye view on the well traversed debate, the purpose of this state of the art paper is to stimulate further critical considerations on the uneven dynamics of tourism capital accumulation, the deep-rooted inequalities associated with it and the effects of tourism excesses, with mass tourism being investigated as a phenomenon, touristification as a process and overtourism as a regime.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
