New Forms of Tourism and their Impact on Cities

This thesis charts the increasing volume and changing nature of tourism in Europe. It was allowed by the liberalization of air travel market (the emergence of Low-Cost Carriers), and by the emergence of sharing economy (Airbnb). Followed by these changes a new segment of tourists, who were described as independent travelers, emerged. The thesis focuses on the interaction of those three factors and their effect on urban space - thus on its socio- geographic, socio-economic and socio-cultural fabric. Because of Low-Cost Carriers, tourists and travelers are concentrated in several European cities - those which were able to accommodate its environment for these airlines. In the cities, tourism spread from the concentric zones of the city center to the zones of the inner city, where a new tourist industry was adjusted for independent travelers. This touristification deepens the process of gentrification and spatial inequalities. Because of Airbnb, the limited hotel supply in the city center was surpassed, and the accommodation sector was integrated into residential fabric of the inner city. Those touristified spaces of the city become socio-culturally heterogenic. However, with increasing costs of living in the inner city, this space is more and more socio- economically homogenous. Consequently,..