Lviv: light and shadows of urban tourismin conditions of overtourism

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Lviv: light and shadows of urban tourismin conditions of overtourism

Igor Smyrnov

Considered issues of overtourism and urban tourism from geologistical point of view in the aspect of tourism sustainable development. Substantiated problem of urban tourism geologistics as a way of solving the problem of overtourism in cities. Revealed essence of complex geologistic strategy of sustainable urban tourism development in the conditions of overtourism, which is based on four concepts: decentralization of tourism, reverse logistics, marketing impact on logistics and increased requirements to tourists safety problems. The first concept is based on the geologistical organization of the tourist area of the city. The second concept involves an integrated approach to the utilization of the total amount of municipal waste, including tourist one. The third concept reflects how to usemarketing to influence city tourist traffic. The fourth concept reflects the aggravation of the tourists safety problem in cities in the conditions of overtourism. In this context the experience of the Ukrainian city of Lviv has been explored.

Key words: overtourism, urban tourism, complex geologistic strategy, decentralization of tourism, reverse logistics.

Смирнов Ігор. Львів: світло та тіні урботуризму в умовах овертуризму. Розглянуто проблеми овертуризму та урботуризму з геологістичної точки зору в контексті сталого розвитку туризму. Обґрунтовано проблему геологістики урботуризму як шляху вирішення явища овертуризму в містах. Розкрито сутність комплексної геологістичної стратегії сталого розвитку міського туризму в умовах овертуризму, що має підставою чотири концепції: децентралізації туризму, зворотної логістики, маркетингового впливу на логістику та підвищення вимог до безпеки туристів. Перша концепція базується на геологістичній організації туристичного простору міста. Друга концепція передбачає комплексний підхід до переробки загального обсягу міських відходів, включаючи туристичні. Третя концепція відображає використання маркетингу для впливу на туристичний трафік у місті. Четверта концепція присвячена загостренню проблеми безпеки туристів у містах в умовах овертуризму. У цьому контексті досліджено досвід українського міста Львова.

Ключові слова: овертуризм, урботуризм, комплексна геологістична стратегія, децентралізація туризму, зворотна логістика.

Смирнов Игорь. Львов: свет и тени урботуризма в условиях овертуризма. Рассмотрено проблемы овертуризма и урботуризма с геологистической точки зрения в контексте стойкого развития туризма. Обобщено проблему геологистики урботуризма как пути решения явления овертуризма в городах. Расскрыто сущность комплексной геологистической стратегии стойкого развития городского туризма в условиях овертуризма, что имеет основание четырех концепций: децентрализации туризма, обратной логистики, маркетингового влияния на логистику и повышения требований к безопасности туристов. Первая концепция базируется на геологистической организации туристического пространства города. Вторая концепция предусматривает комплексный подход к переработке общего объема городских отходов, включая туристические. Третья концепция отражает использование маркетинга для влияния на туристический трафик в городе. Четвертая концепция посвящена обострению проблемы безопасности туристов в городах в условиях овертуризма. В этом контексте исследовано опыт украинского города Львова.

Ключевые слова: овертуризм, урботуризм, комплексная геологистическая стратегия, децентрализация туризма, обратная логистика.

Quite recently, namely in 2017, a new term appeared in the professional tourism vocabulary and it was «overtourism» [1]. This term reflects the challenges of managing the growing tourist flows in urban districts and the impact of urban tourism on cities and their inhabitants. Today, half of the world's population lives in urban areas, and it is estimated that by 2050 this figure will reach 70 %. The growing number of tourists increases the consumption of natural and tourist resources of cities, exerts sociocultural influence and growing pressure on urban infrastructure. Therefore, for urban tourism, the important task nowadays is to effectively manage the flows of tourists to ensure the positive effects of their visits to cities for both local residents and tourists themselves. Today tourism is one of the few sectors of the world economy, which is constantly growing, while ensuring socio-economic development, employment, infrastructure development and export (foreign exchange) incomes.

Short literature summary. Therefore, it is important, even critical, to ensure the coordination of the development of urban tourism with the development of cities in the world agenda. This is reminiscent of the «New UN Development Program», which points to 17 goals for sustainable development, with particular reference to Goal 11 «Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable» [2]. The analysis of recent researches and publications on the subject of the article revealed that in Ukraine this topic is practically unknown. Instead, the work of the author is devoted to the problem of sustainable development of urban tourism, in particular [4; 5; 6]. The relevance of the topic, that is considered in the article, is evidenced by a study that was performed at the request of UNWTO in 2017, «Overtourism? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions» [2].

Main text. The growth of urban tourism leads to the emergence of diverse challenges for sustainable development and practices that minimize the negative impact of tourism in cities, in particular on the use of natural resources, socio-cultural impact, increasing infrastructure load and tourists mobility and concentration management. In recent years, these challenges have also been accompanied by an increase in the offer of accommodation for tourists in cities through the new virtual platforms of tourist service. As a result, the number of tourists in cities has grown to such an extent that there were cases of negative attitude of the local population towards tourists, in particular due to the phenomena of their excessive concentration, especially in the central districts of cities, excessive noise and waste, as well as other inconveniences related to tourists . The case even came to the protests of the local population against tourists in some cities and emergence of terms like «overtourism» and «tourismophobia» and their use in the media.

What does it mean under the name of overtourism and when did this term appear? In 2016, it was first introduced by the consulting company Skift, Inc. and patented by it. This company provides information and marketing services to the global tourism and hospitality industry and works from 2012. The company immediately guided this term to urban tourism under the slogan: «Future of the world - cities. The future of tourism is in cities. The future of tourism - smart cities that are convenient for both tourists and locals. The development of smart cities leads to an era of tourist smart mobility» [3]. There are several definitions of this term. For example, universities - participants of the international project «Overtourism? Understanding and managing the development of urban tourism growth beyond perception» defined overtourism as «the negative impact of tourism on destination or its part that excessively affects perceived standard of living of citizens and tourists (due to deterioration in quality of tourism products provided)» [2].

Tourism is one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy of regions and cities. The urgent problems in this regard are the task of ensuring the sustainable development of urban tourism. This is especially true for the most popular destinations among tourists, including metropolitan and historic cities, which attract significant tourist flows. The latter means increase of tourist loading on cities tourism resource base, as well as on the entire urban economy, population, development and nature. In this context, solving problem of urban tourism sustainable development requires efforts consolidation of various scientific and practical branches, among which important place belongs to tourism logistics, studying the flow phenomena in tourism industry, highlighting tourist traffic as the main stream, and financial, informational, commodity, personnel, material flows as service ones (additional). The objective of tourism logistics in context of tourism industry sustainable development is to regulate the main flow (tourist traffic), that will ensure the conservation of tourism resource base in cities. This problem is now quite noticeable not only in cities - the world largest tourist centers, but also in many cities in Ukraine. This applies, for example, to Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa etc. The problem of tourist overloading in Lviv has especially been well known and that was reflected in author's publications [5; 6]. Therefore, in our opinion, the development of a complex geologistic strategy for the sustainable development of urban tourism in the conditions of overtourism is necessary. This strategy, developed by the author, is based on four concepts. First one is concept of tourism decentralization, second one is concept of reverse logistics, third - concept of marketing impact on logistics, and fourth - concept of increasing safety requirements for tourists (fig. 1). The first concept - concept of tourism decentralization - implies the need for an efficient geologistic organization of the city tourist area (GLO CTA). The main components of GLO CTA are: 1) geologistical identification of tourism resource base; 2) geologistic planning of tourist flows; 3) geologistic design of tourist infrastructure; 4) geologistic design of supply chains for tourism infrastructure objects. The first component covers the geographical and logistical identification of city tourist resources. The second component is based on determining the size and structure of tourist flows and their respective needs. The third component involves the logistic design of tourist infrastructure networks to meet the needs of tourists. The fourth component involves the logistic design of supply chains to meet the needs of tourist infrastructure networks with logistics and transport components in their composition.

Fig. 1. Conceptual basis of complex geologistic strategy of urban tourism sustainable development in conditions of overtourism (author's development according to [4; 5; 6; 7])

overtourism economical marketing

There are many problems in city of Lviv, connected with overtourism, among them - task of garbage removal from city's streets. In summer of 2016, after fire at Gribovychi landfill, Lviv did not know where to take out its waste, the volume of which naturally grew with tourists number increasing. Not surprisingly, the tourist record of Lviv (2.6 million tourists in 2017 - the first place among the cities of Ukraine) coincided with the «rubbish crisis» in this city. Thus, the use of the second concept, that is, concept of reverse logistics, aims to ensure the complete recycling of the total amount of urban waste. Meanwhile the daily volume of waste in Lviv is 600 tons. Problem of urban waste in this city can be solved on the basis of two approaches - transport and logistical. Until recently, the first approach prevailed. And only recently city leadership turned to the logistical approach, that is, to the use of «reverse» logistics.

The third concept - concept of marketing impact on logistics - reflects one more problematic aspect of overtourism, which is related to a sharp increase in the number of tourists in Lviv, which was warned by American experts who helped to develop «Tourist concept of Lviv»: as soon as tourism begins to develop dynamically, among the guests of the city there will be those who come for intim services. The popular Italian edition «La Repubblica» has dedicated special article to contemporary sexual destinations of the world, among which along with Thailand, Brazil, Cambodia, Cuba, Bangladesh, Colombia and Bulgaria, Ukraine is also mentioned. Until recently, according to «La Repubblica», to cities of Ukraine, where there was intimate tourism, belonged Odesa, Kyiv and Kharkiv. Lviv has recently joined them, although before the World War II it was a service city with numerous hotels, restaurants, and casinos. One can ask, what's the connection with logistics here? The answer is the following: the purpose of logistics is to study the flows processes in the economy in order to optimize them. Economic flows (including flows of tourists) link together such components of the market as demand and supply. Production (supply) applies varied marketing and advertising technologies to attract consumers with their demand. On the other hand, as we know, if there will be demand appropriate proposal will be as well. But if there is no supply and its marketing support, then demand will be reduced greatly or disappear altogether. Applying these considerations to the situation with intimate tourism in Lviv, one can predict that if there is no active advertising and promotions of proposals from relevant infrastructure institutions (like night clubs, gentleman clubs, strip-bars etc.), then tourists-consumers flows of this «tour-product» will decrease significantly.

Finally, the fourth concept - increasing requirements for tourists safety reflects the need to apply increased tourists safety requirements in conditions of overtourism. The main provisions of this concept include: a) the development of increased requirements for tourists safety in the conditions of overtourism, in particular in spheres of their residence and meal; b) permanent and strict security control of tourist accommodation, especially in private apartments; c) the same safety control of tourist food - consuming processes with special attention to street food organization and equipment in the most popular among tourists cities locations. Examples of ignoring the above provisions with the following tragic consequences, unfortunately, happened in Lviv in early 2019. So, in January a gas-cylinder in shaurma booth exploded because of improper exploitation (at Svoboda Avenue near the famous Lviv Opera House (one person died - the employee of the kiosk, but a lot of people were frightened, including some tourists). The next tragic event, in January too, which led to the death of two Ukrainian tourists (from Kiev) from carbon monoxide, was connected with the hiring by them a private apartment with bad state of gas heating.

Conclusions. The dynamic development of urban tourism in the conditions of overtourism, which is currently observed in Lviv, causes a number of problems, including the tourist overloading, especially in their central and historical parts; the destruction of many historical and architectural objects and monuments; increase in the amount of urban waste, including tourist one; cases of intimate tourism; ignorance of the safety rules for tourists in areas of their residence and food with tragic consequences etc. The solution to most of these problems is possible while based on application of complex geologistics strategy, proposed by author. So the logistic approach, applied in «Concept of Tourism Decentralization in Lviv», should be extended to all other aspects of the city's tourism industry, including waste management, the use of advanced technologies and the attraction of national and international investments. These recommendations apply not only to Lviv but also to other major tourist centers of Ukraine - Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa etc.

References

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Література

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