Urban mobility of tourism home guests: analysis of the rental homes location and their accessibility to the transport urban system

Abstract

The implementation of the collaborative economy or also called “platform economy” in the tourist sector has led to a relocation of traditional accommodation centres (hotels and resorts), which were previously concentrated in specific areas of the city, thus facilitating the organization of public space and the provision of urban transport. The rental of tourist homes in countries whose national economy is highly dependent on the tourism sector (such as Spain) places a “floating tourist” in the city, who travels through it generating impacts on the local activity centers (restaurants, shops, museums, etc.) and on the public space and mobility. These new tourists will define new frequent street itineraries around the city, access public transport in a more relocated way and probably visit different activity centers than if they were staying in a traditional hotel. This new scenario poses a series of challenges to our knowledge of the effects on both the tourism sector itself and on the urban environment that serves as physical, social, economic and cultural support. Where do these tourists stay? What areas, monuments, public amenities or public spaces do they visit? What kind of shops do they frequent? And how do they move around our cities? The location of tourism homes within city districts is particularly relevant to study this mobility and, until now, few studies in the literature use this approach to assess the behavior of this type of tourist and his impact on local economies. This study is part of the first stage of the project MOVI-GUEST (PID2021-124428OB-100), financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, whose main objective is to analyze the behavior of travelers and, specifically, their mobility patterns: the location of tourism homes, modes of urban transport used during the stay and itineraries selected, main amenities and public spaces visited and so on. In this paper we advance the general results offered by Fevitur (Spanish Federation of Holiday Rental Association) for the main important touristic cities in Spain and introduce the case study of Malaga, Madrid and Alicante, where the detailed study will be carried out. The results of this research can help policy makers to better understand the mobility flows of tourist home guests and its impact on the transport system and public space.