TOURISTS GO HOME! EXAMINING ANTITOURISM IN BARCELONA FROM AN EMOTIONS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

In many instances, tourism has begun to be perceived by touristic cities’ residents as an important problem. We examine the phenomenon of antitourism and, in particular, the discourses of rejection and resistance against tourism in the city of Barcelona. Previous research has examined residents’ attitudes and behaviors towards tourism development from both a cognitive and emotional aspect, but we still lack a more qualitative, in-depth understanding of residents’ emotion discourses. Furthermore, for this research, a novel type of dataset has been analyzed—that is, discourses constructed in online media. In particular, the study was based on the analysis of the comment threads of news articles about the touristic impact on Barcelona. In total, 6,916 comments posted in online news articles were examined. This analysis also permitted to observe the interaction between two different actors, the media and the residents, and to see how residents respond to the media’s framings about tourism in Barcelona.