A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #23/25 - All that glitters. The Romagna Riviera: overtourism and gentrification (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

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 
overbuilding and the decline of labor relations, which are closely 
linked. The tourism hospitality 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 
recently, this money flowed into the compliant banks of small 
neighboring republics and often financed real estate speculation, which 
meant overbuilding the territory. So-called "real estate" investments 
have over time begun to generate increasingly higher returns than those 
that could be 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 stagnant 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 since the 
Second World War, had characterized the relationship 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 were stripped to 
the bare minimum, with no days off, and pay often regularized for half 
the hours, 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 can expect a bonus on the sidelines, obviously under 
the table. But here you're with family; there's watermelon in August, 
pizza in September."

This model, already highly criticized, has held up for decades. It 
didn't generate any 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 employed mostly students who had 
to pay for their studies and housewives who gave up their livelihoods 
for three or four months, sacrificing themselves to supplement the 
family budget. The consequences and sacrifices affected not only 
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 given 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. Having abandoned any ambition to offer a 
high standard of quality, the tourism production system has shifted 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 tourist 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 
vulnerable to blackmail.

The resulting disaster was and is: a downgraded tourist offering of 
services and facilities, renovations reduced to the bare minimum, and a 
flourishing of real estate speculation.

The status of a successful entrepreneur entitles each child to at least 
one apartment, which they will never live in because they have moved to 
the US or Great Britain to study or work. Meanwhile, they find 
themselves with an apartment registered as their resident, thus avoiding 
paying 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 exploitation. Non-tourist renovation projects, for example, often 
result in increases in cubic meters, 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 in Rome and certainly not designed for cars, where every square 
meter of the seaside area has been occupied by construction. Successive 
public administrations have been careful not to challenge this 
speculative involution, instead undertaking attempts to modernize 
infrastructure where the private sector has 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 businesses that invest in their facilities and 
enforce employment contracts, but their number is certainly not 
significant enough to determine a system.

The dominant trend continues to be a general decline, characterized by 
improvised tourism-related exploits and an ever-increasing number of 
apartments earmarked for short-term rentals, while others remain empty, 
destined for dormant investment. This has inflated the 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 
up 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 down 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.

Rimini Libertario Cultural Circle

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