Can culture save us? Rethinking culture-led touristification from Palermo (Italy)

Abstract

In recent years, the historic centers of many South European cities have undergone profound transformations in which creative production and tourist flows have played a leading role, converting entire neighborhoods into enclaves where touristification processes, sometimes associated with gentrification, have upheaved social composition, housing dynamics, and commercial fabric. In this article, we try to rearticulate the nexus between culture-led regeneration and touristification by considering events that have occurred in Palermo (Italy), a Southern European urban context that has recently experienced an unprecedented wave of tourism pressure. The article offers a critical overview of the material and discursive changes undergone by the Kalsa neighborhood between 1993 and 2023, with reference to processes of what we call “culture-led touristification” and its controversial implications. Our analysis, employing an assemblage of qualitative and quantitative methods, offers some remarks on our case study and how it could provide a basis for reflecting on the concept of culture-led touristification in Southern European cities by taking the viewpoint of an under-explored and not-(yet)-overtouristified urban context.