The regulation of platform-mediated touristification: a comparison of European cities

The development of online digital platforms represented an influence urban phenomenon impacting on traditional hotel industry and on housing exacerbating the overtourism that characterizes the contemporary environments on cities. This sector produced several negative and positive externalities. however, that issue acquired a notable influence in the public and political arena. The new modalities of economical intermediation promoted by digital platforms, among the most relevant is Airbnb, bypassed the norms that regulate the tourism accommodations. Furthermore, in the last few years, the major tourists’ European cities implemented regulations in order to mitigate the negative effects produced by the platform-mediated touristification. The regulatory approaches developed by several cities are different for the aims that they want to achieve and for the stringency that they put in place. Consequently, the paper wants to clarify the normative patters that characterize some among the major European tourist cities, classifying the approaches from the most lenient to the strongest. The methods used to analyse that phase of research are the study of policy documents produced by local authorities. The further aim proposed by that paper is the assessment of the impact produced by different approaches. The method used to achieve that result is a counterfactual analysis that compare the cities that were subject to the regulations and the cities that didn’t were subject to the regulations. A general aim will be outlining the political responses of European urban administrations and offer some suggestions in order to better regulate this issue.