Sustainable Tourism Law

442 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW Studies in the area of geography and urbanism have proposed the classic gentrification concept to define “the process by which the working class residential neighbourhoods are rehabilitated by middle class homebuyers, landlords and professional developers” 13 . This definition of gentrification has changed along with the phenomenon itself 14 , as gentrification has expanded beyond the big cities 15 and extended to new contexts like touristic areas 16 . We follow the definition of touristic gentrification proposed by Lees et al. 17 as a “Process of capital investment in the built environment that caters to the demand of affluent users and, along the way, displaces indigenous population” . According to Cócola Gant 18 one example of tourism gentrification is the growth of vacation rentals, which fuels housing rehabilitation and increases the conversion of housing to accommodation for visitors, entailing different forms of displacement. The central idea of gentrification is the displacement concept which, according to George and Eunice Grier, occurs when any household is forced to move from its residence by conditions that affect the dwelling or its immediate surroundings, and that: 1) are beyond the household’s reasonable ability to control or prevent; 2) occur despite the household’s having met all previously imposed conditions of occupancy; and 3) make continued occupancy by that household impossible, hazardous, or unaffordable 19 . Following other authors 20 , Cócola Gant 21 has defined three forms of displacement: 13 Smith, N, “Gentrification and Uneven Development”, Economic Geography, Vol.8, n.º2, april, 1982, pp.139-155, which adopts the gentrification concept proposed by Glass R. (1964), Davidson, M, Lees, L., “New-Build Gentrification’ and London’s Riverside Renaissance”, Environment and Planning A 2005, volume 37, p.p 1165 – 1190. 14 Gotham, K, “Tourism Gentrification: The Case of New Orleans’ Vieux Carre (French Quarter)”, Urban Studies , Vol. 42, No. 7, June 2005, p.p 1099–1121. 15 Davidson, M, Loretta, L., Ob. Cit. 16 Gotham, K, Ob. Cit; Cócola Gant, A., “Holiday Rentals: The New Gentrification Battlefront”, Sociological Research Online , 21 (3), 10, 2016. 17 Lees, L., Shin, H, López-Morales, H,) “Conclusion: global gentrifications” In: Lees, Loretta, Shin, Hyun Bang and López-Morales, Ernesto, (eds.) Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement . Policy Press, 2015, pp. 441-452; Cócola Gant, Ob.Cit. 18 Cócola Gant, Ob.Cit. 19 Grier, G, Grier, E, “Urban Displacement: A Reconnaissance”, United States, Department of Housing and Urban Development. Office of the Secretary , Grier Partnership, 1978. 20 Marcuse, P., “Gentrification, Abandonment, and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City”, Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law, Vol. 28, p.195-240; Newman, K. Wyly, E. “The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to Displacement in New York City”, Urban Studies , Vol. 43, No. 1, 23 – 57, January 2006; Slater, T. “The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , Volume 30.4 December 2006, 737–57 21 Cócola Gant, Ob. Cit.