Where might tourism-residence conflict emerge? A spatial-analysis-based research framework for overtourism management

With steep increases in the number of tourists, the term ‘overtourism’ has emerged to describe the direct negative impact of tourism on the lives of residents in popular destinations. To address these challenges, it is necessary to undertake precise spatial assessments to formulate effective management strategies. Accordingly, this study presents a novel spatial analysis-based research framework for overtourism management, focusing on Bukchon, Seoul, South Korea. This framework investigates spatial conflicts to identify urban areas in need of overtourism management strategies. By utilizing various open-source datasets with fine-grained resolution, we apply a stepwise spatial analysis to delineate tourism-residence conflict zones. Through contextual exploration, we identify common attributes among the five detected potential conflict zones, shedding light on the following two predominant street types: vibrant commercial districts and quaint alleys emblematic of the tourist destination. These findings provide a nuanced understanding of the street environments contributing to overtourism, thus offering an objective assessment of how overtourism spatially unfolds in urban settings.