Touristische Aktionsräume und die Wahrnehmung von Crowding. Das Beispiel Tagestourismus in Hamburg.

What is it about?

In the course of the manifold discussions on tourist induced overuse of city destinations, there still is a lack of studies on same-day visitors. Additionally, in contrast to studies on the encounters between tourists and urban residents, so far there are only few empirical findings on intra-destination tourist movement patterns and the associated perception of urban crowds. Against this backdrop, this paper analyzes the spatio-temporal behavior and the perception of crowding of same-day visitors in Hamburg. The data collection process involves GPS tracking and a survey for estimating the perception of crowding.

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Why is it important?

The results show a tourist space-time consumption that is clearly concentrated in Hamburg’s Central Business District. Although other city users are perceived, they have hardly any influence on the time-space patterns. Furthermore, positive crowding clearly predominates. Combining the GPS based measured itineraries and the perception of crowding, two core zones in Hamburg are identified which should be given preferential treatment within the framework of sustainable tourism and urban development.