Touristocracy. When Tourism Rules the City

The suspension of global mobility caused by the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the tourist city. It has also allowed us to see with greater perspective the process that, in the last decade, has led to the explosion of phenomena such as overtourism, airbnbfication, tourist gentrification and a wave of protests and urban conflicts around the touristification of the city. The imaginary of the right to the city has served to organise normative demands against the tourist city, and in many cases has been successful enough to be translated into measures to contain (some type of) tourism. However, when analysing the ideal contours of a just city in the face of the tourist phenomenon, different challenges emerge along the axes of justice, democracy and sustainability. Together they point to the need to make explicit, critically analyse and destabilise the social contract implicit in the tourist city.