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Abstract
Historic centres are highly regarded destinations for watching and even participating in diverse and unique forms of cultural expression. Cultural tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is an important and consolidated tourism sector and its strong growth is expected to continue over the coming years. Tourism, the much dreamt of redeemer for historic centres, also represents one of the main threats to heritage conservation: visitors can dynamize an economy, yet the rapid growth of tourism often has negative effects on both built heritage and the lives of local inhabitants. Knowledge of occupancy levels and flows of visiting tourists is key to the efficient management of tourism; the new technologies—the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and geographic information systems (GIS)—when combined in interconnected networks represent a qualitative leap forward, compared to traditional methods of estimating locations and flows. A methodology is described in this paper for the management of tourism flows that is designed to promote sustainable tourism in historic centres through intelligent support mechanisms. As part of the Smart Heritage City (SHCITY) project, a collection system for visitors is developed. Following data collection via monitoring equipment, the analysis of a set of quantitative indicators yields information that can then be used to analyse visitor flows; enabling city managers to make management decisions when the tourism-carrying capacity is exceeded and gives way to overtourism.
Highlights
Hosting, maintaining, and distributing visitors is a key aspect for managers of overcrowded public spaces
Ávila city managers and policy makers are more aware of the visitor flows in its historic centre throughout the year
City managers can obtain data from several sources, among which are: on-site monitoring via GPS, digital panels, and other dynamic systems, mobile phone positioning, Google, etc
Summary
Hosting, maintaining, and distributing visitors is a key aspect for managers of overcrowded public spaces. During the second half of the 20th century, a previously unknown problem started to affect historic centres: tourism growth gradually began to convert itself into a threat, leading to aggressive urbanistic interventions, and a gradual loss of identity. This paper refers to the historic centre as the primary inhabited settlement of a town or city that forms part of the broader UNESCO definition of historic urban areas [1,2]. These areas are defined by a confined space which has undergone few interventions, is of recognizable origin, and is inhabited and alive in its cultural nucleus. At the same time, unplanned peripheral districts—mostly strip development in the form of residential neighbourhoods along the main access routes—have emphasized the need to conserve historic centres as the unique repositories of both the material and the immaterial heritage value of our cities
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