Presentation short abstract

Planetary Touristification worked as a fix to the 2008 crisis, but COVID-19 exposed its vulnerabilities. Drawing on Moore, we argue capitalism faces an epochal crisis marked by the end of cheap nature—and cheap travel—, while the ruling classes shift toward promoting tourism for the rich.

Presentation long abstract

Since the 2008 crisis, the world-capitalist system has entered a prolonged period of turbulence. Despite the deployment of spatio-temporal fixes aimed at sustaining accumulation the crisis continues to deepen (Robinson, 2025a), being tourism became one of the key fixes (Fletcher, 2011). Although this phase has often been labelled “overtourism,” the term fails to capture the capitalist dynamics at play. We instead employ the concept of touristification to highlight tourism-based accumulation (Cañada et al., 2023a).

The COVID-19 crisis, the most severe in tourism’s history, revealed profound structural vulnerabilities (Cañada & Murray, 2021). In its aftermath, Tooze (2022) introduced the notion of polycrisis to describe interconnected global disruptions. Yet this framework does not fully capture what we understand as an epochal capitalist crisis—the Great Implosion (Moore, 2025; Robinson, 2025b). The capitalist world-system can no longer expand through the appropriation and exploitation of new commodity frontiers of cheap nature (Moore, 2015).

The end of Cheap Nature also signals the end of Cheap Travel. In a context of global crisis and resurgent fascisms, dominant classes are increasingly advancing a political project centred on “tourism for the rich.” This shift echoes what Ginzberg (2024) terms the “1933 syndrome,” in which exclusionary political and economic strategies gain ground.

This paper mobilises the idea of the end of cheap travel and the rise of “tourism for the rich” to open a necessary debate on how to reorganise popular tourism under conditions defined by the Great Implosion (Cañada et al., 2024).

Presentation short abstract

This paper explores how shorter work-time debates intersect with top-down tourism governance. It examines how expanded free time may empower citizens , challenge growth-oriented models, and enable non-extractive forms of travel grounded in cultural, ecological and personal flourishing.

Presentation long abstract

Since the 18th century, theorists including Adam Smith, Marx, Keynes, and Webb have argued that technological progress would eventually enable societies to reduce working hours. However, in most Western democracies, the 37–40-hour workweek has become an entrenched, rarely questioned standard. Although opposition to shorter working hours is frequently ascribed to economic concerns and fears of profitability, other tension exists: political unease about the potential for increased autonomy among populations arising from expanded free time.

Humanistic and psychological traditions, as articulated by Maslow and Fromm, conceptualize time free of duties time as essential for self-development and social flourishing. As Navarro Navarro (2018) notes, trade unions attempted to direct free time away from vice and toward education, nature, and collective organization, practices that align with Sen’s capability approach and Adela Cortina’s ethics of civic responsibility.

This paper situates these debates within the context of the political ecologies of tourism governance. Tourism represents a domain in which free time is commodified, directed, and regulated through policies that frequently perpetuate extractivist logics. If productive labor were restructured to prioritize social and ecological needs over consumerist imperatives, leisure and tourism could be fundamentally transformed. Such a shift might enable forms of mobility that promote personal and civic enrichment, reflecting the visions of William Morris and the practices advocated by John Ruskin.

By analysing the intersection of top-down tourism policies with prevailing temporal regimes, this paper explores how reduced working hours could facilitate non-extractive, autonomy-enhancing forms of travel and support more democratic, ecologically grounded leisure trajectories.

Presentation short abstract

This paper examines digitalisation as a form of top-down tourism governance. Drawing on early-stage PhD research in five Spanish cities and using Barcelona as an illustrative example, it analyses how AI-enabled hospitality systems reproduce power asymmetries and shape “green” tourism narratives.

Presentation long abstract

Digitalisation has become a key instrument through which tourism destinations pursue “green”, “smart”, and “inclusive” growth. This paper conceptualises AI-enabled hospitality services as political technologies that reorganise power and govern tourism from above. Drawing on early-stage doctoral research comparing five Spanish cities undergoing digital transitions, the paper analyses how digital infrastructures and AI-driven sustainability tools generate new hierarchies within the hospitality sector.

Large hotel chains possess the financial resources, technical expertise, and institutional networks necessary to integrate AI for energy optimisation, sustainability reporting, and guest management. Their technological capacity enables close alignment with smart and green tourism discourses and allows them to shape emerging governance frameworks. In contrast, SME hotels face structural barriers—economic, technical, and organisational—that constrain their ability to participate in digital transitions. As a result, digitalisation becomes a distinct axis of inequality, determining who can access sustainability programmes, gain visibility, or influence policy priorities.

Barcelona serves as an illustrative case, where smart tourism strategies and intensified touristification have made AI-based governance tools particularly influential in shaping urban tourism futures. While such interventions are promoted as solutions to overcrowding and environmental pressure, they also reinforce uneven relations of power by privileging actors already embedded within dominant technological and institutional arrangements.

By framing digitalisation as governance-from-above, the paper contributes to growth-critical political ecology debates. It highlights how technological transitions may reproduce or deepen uneven sustainability transitions and offers a conceptual framework for understanding AI-enabled hospitality as a site where power, knowledge, and environmental governance intersect.

Presentation short abstract

Quality tourism in the Balearic Islands frames degrowth as fewer, higher-spending visitors, reinforcing exclusion. Analysis of Excess Tourism Zones shows that upgrading cannot spur just tourism degrowth and calls to study classed narratives that sustains low-spending tourism with uncivil behaviour.

Presentation long abstract

The promotion of quality tourism in touristified spaces such as the Balearic Islands functions as a discourse that frames degrowth as a reduction in visitor numbers achieved by attracting tourists that spend more. Rather than a transformative project this approach represents a mechanism to reduce tourism through socioeconomic exclusion. Consequently, it diverges from theorists which ground degrowth in socioenvironmental justice. Moreover, the strategy has proven ineffective as tourist arrivals has increased despite years of quality-tourism promotion. Sustained public and private investment in tourism infrastructures is accompanied by regulatory frameworks designed to facilitate their upgrading.

This contribution analyses the Decree-Law 1/2020 which designates three “Excess Tourism Zones” in the Balearic Islands. These Zones are associated with “booze tourism,” where public discourse relates uncivil behaviour to low-income tourists, positioning them as incompatible with the quality-tourism agenda focused on attracting affluent visitors. Cadastral data were analysed to map the tourist urban landscape, complemented by participant observation with in-situ mapping.

The analysis reveals that upgrading in these Zones is concentrated in accommodation categories and waterfronts. Despite such interventions, no substantial change in the tourist offer or dominant practices could be observed. A final reflection is vital, as focussing on areas labelled “booze tourism” carries its own complexities. Measures, such as the Decree-Law 1/2020, against objectification, hypersexualisation, balconing or excessive drinking are crucial, yet the association of such practices with low-spending tourism remains problematic. This highlights the need to examine “uncivil behaviour” of high-spending tourism to go beyond the classed narratives that sustains such associations.

Presentation short abstract

Touristification at Cova Tallada (Montgó Natural Park, Spain) led to access regulation after visitor booms and local tensions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this communication examines governance dynamics, key actors, and socio‑ecological impacts, focusing on conservation and local economies

Presentation long abstract

The widespread increase in socio-ecological conflicts in territories subjected to intensified touristification has prompted a range of regulatory and intervention initiatives from diverse public authorities. The transformation of natural areas and the displacement of local communities through their conversion into tourist spaces often generate sustainability-related tensions and local resistances, which in turn place growing pressure on public administrations to intervene.

This communication examines one such case to illuminate governance responses. We centre on Cova Tallada, a marine–terrestrial coastal cave located within the Montgó Natural Park (Alacant, Spain), one of the most touristified territories in the country. During the 2010s, the cave saw an exponential rise in visitors, driven by growing ecotourism demand and social media amplification, establishing it as one of the area's main tourist landmarks. In response, the Valencian Regional Government adopted a specific regulation in 2019, limiting access to the cave and the conditions under which ecotourism companies may operate there. This regulatory measure was justified by factors such as the increase in accidents, overcrowding, and the degradation of natural resources.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews with key agents such as state agencies, tourism operators and local residents, in this communication we develop an ethnographic analysis of the governance process that led to the regulation of Cova Tallada. We focus on the main actors formally and informally involved in this process and examine both the rationale and the principal socio-ecological consequences of the resulting regulatory framework, encompassing access equity, biodiversity conservation, and socioeconomic effects.

Presentation short abstract

Paradise island Balabac's intensified tourism industry has had fragmented consequences for its stakeholders. This study uses stakeholder analysis to narrate their lived experiences and humanizes the political ecology of their involvement in the industry.

Presentation long abstract

Infrastructure development in the paradisiacal island of Balabac, Palawan has accelerated in response to the island's growing tourism industry, supported by local government efforts and private investments towards inclusive and green growth. However, these developments have created tensions between the island's economic expansion and socioecological burdens, the brunt of which are borne by its eclectic communities made up of migrant settlers and indigenous ethnic groups. These tensions culminated in human rights abuses against these communities, particularly in Sitio Mariahangin where the San Miguel Corporation's ecotourism developments reportedly led to violent land dispossession. This case study utilizes stakeholder analysis, in conjunction with phenomenological and ethnographic data gathering methods, to identify tourism stakeholders on the island, to determine the local government’s future directions for the industry, and to narrate the impacts and implications of the industry on the lived experiences of these stakeholders. The case study demonstrates that the island’s tourism stakeholders have fragmented levels of power and control over economic benefits and ecological agency, with the highest belonging to the State and private investors. This also reveals the uneven geographies of Balabac; where economic benefits are concentrated in the municipal center, financially excluding Molbog communities outside of it, reducing their agency over their ancestral land and waters. With the state moving towards enhancing the industry, it practices inclusive growth through hiring the “marginalized” as short-term laborers. This band-aid inclusivity exacerbates the uneven social consequences of Balabac’s tourism that is resisted by Molbog communities actively calling for a community-based ecotourism program.

Presentation short abstract

This cross-sectoral case study of Catalan protected areas argues that regenerative tourism can contest growth-led models. It examines how actors co-create non-extractive, grassroots futures by identifying the barriers and enablers that shape ongoing transformations in the region’s tourism system.

Presentation long abstract

Regenerative tourism is regarded as an alternative to the environmental, social and economic issues arising from traditional tourism activities and extractive approaches to local territories. However, this emerging research domain lacks practical applications of its theoretical concepts. Despite the evolution of epistemological approaches and frameworks, there is no consensus on the characteristics of tourism regenerative actors. This paper aims to shed light on the barriers and enablers shaping regenerative, place-based dynamics through tourism, as well as possible policy implications deriving from them. We adopt a cross-sectional case study based on 15 semi-structured interviews to pertinent stakeholders associated with Catalan protected areas. They were drawn from the database of companies and protected areas accredited under the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Catalonia. The interviews have been coded through the GIOIA methodology to identify barriers and enablers reported by the actors and determine how these shape their interactions. The research indicates that actors congregate around shared values, like stewarding the natural places in which they operate and community-based ownership of projects. Furthermore, barriers and enablers lie in the relational dynamics between actors due to time and organisational constraints, revealing a potential lack of an organisational network. The study is limited by the lack of a more comprehensive database on regenerative tourism, and further interviews with different types of actors could be conducted. Notwithstanding, this paper constitutes an attempt to study regenerative tourism in Catalan protected areas, highlighting what policies and organisational structures could better serve the ongoing regeneration process in Catalonia.

Presentation short abstract

Analyzing French mountain transitions, we show how tourism diversification fuels gentrification via high-end strategies and second-home expansion. These policies redistribute socio-ecological benefits to the elite, leaving the costs to local populations.

Presentation long abstract

In France, mountain tourism policies initially aimed at economic revitalization for the benefit of local populations. These top-down policies also aimed to democratise access to nature. However, these high-minded ideals have given way to market-driven logics (Bourdeau, 2009), thereby generating environmental inequalities (Taylor, 2024). Today, climate change is destabilising this economic model, which is now compelled to undergo an ecological transition (Hatt et Claeys, 2024).

This paper analyses the socio-environmental effects of top-down transition policies based on tourism diversification (Degache et al., 2024). The analysis draws on two case studies: the development of a cycling route in the Hautes-Alpes and the repurposing of a ski resort in the Pyrénées (Puigmal). Based on fieldwork (79 interviews and 2 questionnaires, n = 1 225), we demonstrate that these policies reinforce pre-existing environmental inequalities and create new ones. These policies induce rural gentrification (Richard & Tommasi, 2025) for two reasons. First, through the development of socially selective tourism with a high ecological impact—tourism, particularly cycling, being indeed considered a "high-end" product (Coll Ramis et al., 2022). Second, through the proliferation of second homes and the capture of housing stock for tourist rentals (Yrigoy et al., 2022). The socio-ecological costs and benefits of these policies are unevenly distributed, benefiting the urban upper classes at the expense of lower-income local populations. These constitute two deadlocks previously identified by political ecology, hindering the implementation of a transition toward tourism degrowth (Murray et al., 2025).

Presentation short abstract

Drawing from a feminist political ecology lens, this study examines the subjective experiences of tribal and non-tribal women within state-mediated conservation policies in a location that has experienced prolonged socio-political upheavals.

Presentation long abstract

The community-led ecotourism projects primarily characterise inclusive participation of the vulnerable communities, specifically targeting areas of indigenous and environmentally sensitive zones. Literature demonstrates that while such inclusiveness provides communities with an option to participate in these projects, institutional entrenchment remains visible where the gendered hierarchies are foregrounded. Drawing from a tribal region of Odisha and using a feminist political ecology lens, this study explores how women’s subjectivity is shaped by state-mediated conservation policies. The field site has undergone long-standing socio-political and ecological transformations, shaped by colonial dominance, communal violence, and land conflicts between tribal and non-tribal communities. This invites a deeper inquiry into how women members from different ethnic communities come together to work on an ecotourism project, considering their existing dynamics, and whether it empowers them in reality or creates a layered hierarchy among them. To understand this, we conducted in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and oral histories with the participants. Our analysis shows that there is a clear reflection of communal differences where the women of non-tribal communities believe that tribal women enjoy more opportunities from the developmental programmes, whereas the tribal women themselves believe that, even though the ecotourism policy provides them with a sense of empowerment, however, due to their historical marginalisation, they remain unable to recognise themselves as stakeholders in this process.

Keywords: Ecotourism, Governance, Feminist Political Ecology, Women

Presentation short abstract

This research shows that by mobilising internal and external solidarity, a local cave tourism community members manage to embed market mechanisms the Indonesian government disposes to them through community-based devolution.

Presentation long abstract

The Indonesian government proposed Gunungsewu, a karst landscape in Java, for UNESCO Global Geopark status and obtained it, using this as a geological conservation strategy to market the landscape and attract international tourists. Since then, the government has promoted community-based tourism at many Gunungsewu geotourism sites, including the Kalisuci Cave Tubing community, to generate regional income. This research uses the devolution framework as a neoliberal tactic, examining how the government, guided by market mechanisms, shifts socio-economic and ecological responsibility to communities and non-state actors. The primary research question is: In what specific ways do Kalisuci Cave Tubing members mobilise their sense of community to respond to the tourism market brought to them? Through participant observation and interviews with cave guides and managers, I find that the community has embedded the global tourism market with local solidarity in several ways. First, through self-organisation, the community structures labour divisions and delivers tourism services well. Second, they have built a vast network with other caving and speleological communities to update technical skills and knowledge on cave conservation and karst geology. Lastly, they have formed a strong solidarity to object to mass-tourism development plans from the government that could threaten the cave. This research suggests rethinking the necessary roles of state actors in community-based tourism: to what extent do we need the government to protect the landscape and community from market mechanisms?

Presentation short abstract

The paper analyses the Yayla Tourism Corridor in Turkey, arguing that despite sustainability claims, it commodifies mountain environments, enables a rentier eco-tourism entrepreneur class, and disrupts long-standing pasture practices, producing new tensions in the Eastern Black Sea highlands.

Presentation long abstract

Shaped by mountainous rural geography, the Eastern Black Sea Region had historically occupied a peripheral position within Turkey’s tourism economy, with its yaylas (highland pastures) serving primarily as seasonal grazing grounds for pastoral communities. However, as Turkey has sought to diversify its tourism portfolio beyond mass coastal tourism in the Mediterranean region and started to promote ‘alternative’ products with the growing influence of sustainable development discourses since the early 2000s, the region has become a prime site for state-led nature-based tourism initiatives. Within this context, it has been reimagined by the state as a ‘green’ frontier to be opened up for tourism growth; consequently, the Yayla Tourism Corridor project has been initiated as a top-down intervention aimed at integrating ‘idle’ highland pastures and protected mountain areas into tourism market. This paper problematises the corridor project in terms of its stated rationales and its uneven socio-economic impacts. Drawing on fieldwork findings and policy analysis, it argues, first, that although official narratives present the project as a sustainable and revitalising intervention, in essence, it advances a pro-market response to the region’s long-standing peripheralisation in Turkey’s development by commodifying nonhuman natures and opening new spaces for capital accumulation. Second, the paper demonstrates that while the project enables the emergence of a new class of rentier eco-tourism entrepreneurs, who capture revenues through land ownership and close ties with the government, tourism-oriented land uses and rising visitor pressures increasingly unsettle established patterns of pasture use, creating new intra-community tensions over access, mobility, and competing expectations.

Presentation short abstract

In Chilean Patagonia, scientific infrastructures and nature-based tourism constitute a top-down green governance regime that transform the region into both a natural laboratory and a tourist showcase, generating unequal socio-environmental effects and new forms of eco-extractivism.

Presentation long abstract

In a global context where sustainability operates both as an ethical principle and as a horizon for green growth, Chilean Patagonia is increasingly shaped by environmental policies that intertwine scientific infrastructures and nature-based tourism. At the territorial scale, this alignment contributes to framing Patagonia as a new frontier of green development at the “end of the world”, sustaining a bubble of scientific and tourist investments and reconfiguring territorial uses and values. This configuration becomes particularly tangible in Torres del Paine, an emblematic site where conservation frameworks, environmental expertise and premium tourism intersect.

The proliferation of scientific outposts (Dumoulin et al., 2023) generates diagnostics, vulnerability assessments and instruments that reinforce the portrayal of a singular and fragile ecosystem requiring expert supervision and managed access. These knowledge practices circulate through certification schemes, promotional framework and visitor facilities, underpinning upscale ecotourism exemplified by the park’s luxury lodges. Such dynamics contribute to symbolic eco-extractivism (Aliste et al., 2024), whereby nature is objectified and valorised.

Supported by state agencies, NGOs and international conservation philanthropies, this top-down governance redistributes benefits in uneven ways. Drawing on my doctoral research, the analysis of Torres del Paine highlights rising land values, restrictive access regulations, and structural dependence on seasonal tourism as pressures that significantly reshape the lived conditions of local communities. Situated within the broader Patagonian model, this case offers critical insight into the contradictions of green capitalism (Nunez et al., 2023) and the uneven socio-environmental geographies produced by contemporary frameworks for governing tourism from above.