At the margins of urban tourism: the case of Danisinni, Palermo

Abstract

Recent urban scholarship on urban tourism in Southern Europe mainly revolves around consolidated tourist destinations, examining the disruptive effects of over-tourism on the social structure, residential housing, and commercial spaces. Based on multi-method mixed research, this paper investigates the development of tourism in the highly marginalized and not-(yet-)over-touristified neighborhood of Danisinni in Palermo (Italy). Due to its strategic location adjacent to a UNESCO World Heritage Serial Site, in recent years, Danisinni has increasingly become an alternative and creative tourist place, with meaningful repercussions for local people, cultures, and economies. In exploring the divided, shifting, and paradoxical geographies of tourism development in Danisinni, my main purpose is to more carefully trace how tourism can and does affect areas outside of traditional tourist circuits. Such a shift in perspective may offer new insights for dealing with the pressures generated by urban tourism in its more advanced stages.