Residents, overtourism and tourism phobia: a psychological perspective

Abstract Overtourism is a phenomenon that is affecting various tourist destinations: until a few years ago, attention was focused on the possible environmental damage that it could cause, also in light of the growing sensitivity to the issue of sustainability. In more recent years, the excessive presence of tourists has fueled the development of spontaneous movements of rejection of the tourist presence that have clearly manifested what Delgado (2008) has indicated as tourism phobia. Tourism phobes attribute this attitude to the changed living conditions of residents due to the increase in the cost of living, the reduction of social spaces totally occupied by tourists and the changed real estate market with an artificial increase in prices and a substantial reduction in rental homes, all factors that are not compensated by the presumed economic advantages deriving from tourism, advantages that fall only minimally on residents. Without wanting to underestimate the purely economic aspects, at the basis of tourism phobia there are subtle psychological aspects that this article intends to explore in the belief that any actions to contain the anthropic impact of overtourism will not be sufficient to reduce tourism phobia without a combined action that addresses the identity system and the need for belonging of residents.