A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova: Tourism, overtourism, and gentrification on the Romagna Riviera (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Rimini, August 15, 1979. The beach covered with umbrellas | Credit: 
Davide Minghini Archive - Gambalunga Civic Library, Rimini ---- We 
believe it might be misleading to try to understand what has happened 
and what is happening in this region, the Romagna Riviera, regarding the 
tourism industry without introducing some additional analytical tools 
beyond those of gentrification and overtourism. We are referring to the 
overbuilding and the decline of labor relations, which are closely 
intertwined.
The tourism industry, diversely structured and fragmented in its 
offering of all kinds of services, has always produced a large amount of 
black money, unchecked by tax authorities. Until not many years ago, 
this money flowed into the compliant banks of small neighboring 
republics and often financed real estate speculation, which meant the 
overbuilding of the territory. Over time, so-called "real estate" 
investments have increasingly generated higher returns than those 
achieved by investing in tourism hospitality businesses and their 
related industries, a return that appreciates strongly over time.

This has led to a progressive disinvestment in tourism businesses, which 
have often remained at a level of quality that has stagnated since the 
1990s, if not earlier.

This disinvestment has also affected, and to a significant extent, the 
wages of workers and the maintenance of employment relationships.

The paternalistic model, typical of the Emilia-Romagna region's 
post-World War II production system, had characterized the relationships 
between tourism businesses and seasonal workers, guaranteeing barely 
decent wages and small annual raises that allowed many to survive during 
the winter months in exchange for labor and social peace. Rights 
stripped to the bone, no days off, pay often regularized for half the 
hours and sometimes not at all, "but if you need it, you can take time 
off, but not too often, and if you don't cause any problems, at the end 
of the season you'll get a bonus on the sidelines, obviously under the 
table. But here you're with family, there's watermelon on August 15th, 
pizza in September."

This model, already highly criticized, held firm for decades. It 
produced no professional development or growth, and salaries-despite the 
extra pay-were still not adequate for rising inflation. With the 
exception of a small elite of professionals employed in high-end hotels 
and restaurants, it mostly employed students who had to pay for their 
studies and housewives who gave up their livelihood for three or four 
months, sacrificing themselves to supplement the family budget. The 
consequences and sacrifices affected not only the seasonal workers, but 
also their families; Those not recruited into the various branches of 
the tourism industry, especially children, were parked for the tourist 
season with grandparents and relatives in the countryside, waiting for 
autumn and the return to a normal family life.

But once it was established that investing in construction and 
apartments was more cost-effective, since the 1990s, entrepreneurs have 
increasingly allocated resources to them, diverting them from 
renovations and modernization of facilities. Abandoning any ambition to 
offer a good standard of quality, the tourism production system has 
moved on to the dismantling of wages and the paltry rights of seasonal 
workers, until then guaranteed by an unwritten and therefore easily 
disregarded social pact.

The general decline of most tourism facilities has been accompanied by 
the deterioration of employment relationships with seasonal workers, who 
have been progressively replaced by workers from Eastern Europe and 
migrants in general, willing to work for paltry wages and extremely 
subject to blackmail.

The situation was and is thus: a downgraded tourist offer of services 
and facilities, renovations reduced to the bare minimum, and real estate 
speculation flourishing.

The status of a successful entrepreneur entitles each child to at least 
one apartment, though they will never live there because they've moved 
to the US or Great Britain to study or work. Meanwhile, they find 
themselves with an apartment registered as their resident, thus avoiding 
taxes on a second or third home. If necessary, grandparents and in-laws 
can also be enlisted, thus increasing the potential number of 
apartments. This construction frenzy also produces other effects beyond 
land predation. Non-tourism building renovation projects, for example, 
often result in increases in cubic capacity, and where two families once 
lived, six or more will eventually move in. This results in traffic 
congestion and a lack of parking, particularly in cities like Rimini, a 
city founded by Rome and certainly not designed for cars, where every 
square meter of the seaside area has been occupied by construction.

Successful public administrations have been careful not to challenge 
this speculative decline, instead undertaking attempts to modernize 
infrastructure where private investors have rejected this function (in 
these parts, they say "tie the pig").

These efforts, however, are paid for by the community, and it should be 
noted that a significant portion of tourism entrepreneurs declare 
incomes below the poverty line, thus contributing very little to the 
common good. These investments by local governments then divert 
resources from public housing and welfare services, in a city where 
finding a home for those with few resources is impossible.

There are certainly companies that invest in their facilities and 
enforce labor contracts, but their number is certainly not significant 
enough to establish a system.

The dominant trend continues to be a general decline, characterized by 
improvised tourism-preying enterprises and an ever-increasing share of 
apartments for short-term rentals, while others remain empty, destined 
for dormant investment. This has resulted in a bloated real estate 
market, which has now reached such high per-square-meter prices that it 
is inaccessible to most.

As for workers, the long-standing pact that had characterized their 
relationships with tourism entrepreneurs has now been definitively torn 
apart by the latter, often adventurers from far and wide who have never 
even heard of the aforementioned. Those who are not subjected to 
exploitative conditions can settle at the exit; others will take their 
place, and they won't even find a basement space to rent because every 
square meter is rented at astronomical prices.

Nothing new? Nothing new.

Once again, all that glitters is theirs.

Libertarian Cultural Circle of Rimini

https://umanitanova.org/intorno-a-turismo-overtourism-e-gentrificazione-sulla-riviera-romagnola/
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