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Measuring Tourism Intensification in Urban Destinations: An Approach Based on Fractal Analysis

Abstract:

This article provides an approach to the geographic and quantitative interpretation of tourism intensification, drawing on the concepts of fractals, and fractal dimension (D). Exploring tourism intensification in Lisbon, we first present a geographic construct that represents the spatial layout of tourism based on crowd-contributed spatial signatures advocating a collective sense of the “tourist city.” Then, we assess the tourism-related intensification patterns, based on the estimation of D, for different years. Significant statistical associations can be found between D and tourism intensification across the urban space. Intensification on tourism cores is more homogeneously distributed, yet it evolves into a more compact form of spatial organization. On the other hand, there is a decline in the degree of homogeneity of tourism intensification from tourism cores to the periphery. This approach has also proved useful for exploring tourism intensification in destinations at different hierarchical levels, such as in Lisbon and Oporto metropolitan areas.