Improving the adaptive capacity of historic urban neighbourhoods with, despite of or at the expense of tourists

Cultural heritage, not only makes places attractive to tourism, but is a significant contributor to urban identity and place attachment for residents. Older neighbourhoods, through their walkable scale, diversity of uses and tenures support better community relationships and contribute to urban resilience. Tourism, while an important economic contributor, places pressure not only on cultural heritage but also on urban and community infrastructure. Moreover, conditions of overtourism, threaten to disrupt established networks and engender conditions of temporality and fragmentation for the local population, thus reducing the capacity for resilience. Often emerging as small scale stressors, disruptions triggered by tourism can slowly shift conditions over thresholds that adversely impact local wellbeing and equitable access to resources. This paper argues that the tourism industry and its multiple players, cultural heritage management and urban resilience planning need to become better integrated, so as to safeguard heritage, support local communities and to improve the capacity of historic neighbourhoods to adapt to ongoing changes caused by or linked to climate change