Malaga is the administrative capital of the Costa del Sol, however, it has remained out of the mass tourism until the last decade. Coinciding with the obsolescence of the port facilities, the city has found an opportunity in cruise tourism, becoming the second largest Spanish destination in this sector. The main attractive of Malaga is being the birthplace of one of the most revolutionary painters, Pablo Picasso; developing a large program for museums and hotels openings, cultural events and urban projects over the last few years in order to create an atmosphere suitable for all visitors’ tastes. On the other hand, this process is also creating monofunctional sectors, gentrification and theming of the principal Historic Site areas. This implies to focus on restoration plans and on projecting an image according to the one that tourists expect to see. In this context, several civil organizations have been formed to denounce heritage losses, social marginality and identity simplification through collaborative works that join web 2.0, participative cartography and academic research. We present a selection of these works.

1. MASS TOURISM IN HISTORIC CITIES. THE ROLE OF THE CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE CASE OF
MALAGA, SPAIN
Daniel BARRERA FERNANDEZ
High Technical School of Architecture, University of Seville, Spain
E-mail: barrera@arquired.es
ABSTRACT
Malaga is the administrative capital of the Costa del Sol, however, it has remained out of the mass tourism
until the last decade. Coinciding with the obsolescence of the port facilities, the city has found an
opportunity in cruise tourism, becoming the second largest Spanish destination in this sector. The main
attractive of Malaga is being the birthplace of one of the most revolutionary painters, Pablo Picasso;
developing a large program for museums and hotels openings, cultural events and urban projects over the
last few years in order to create an atmosphere suitable for all visitors’ tastes. On the other hand, this
process is also creating monofunctional sectors, gentrification and theming of the principal Historic Site
areas. This implies to focus on restoration plans and on projecting an image according to the one that
tourists expect to see. In this context, several civil organizations have been formed to denounce heritage
losses, social marginality and identity simplification through collaborative works that join web 2.0,
participative cartography and academic research. We present a selection of these works.
KEYWORDS
Tourism, heritage, participation.
INTRODUCTION. TOURIST ADEQUACY OF THE HISTORIC CITY, THE CASE OF MALAGA
Malaga is the administrative capital of the Costa del Sol, however, it have remained out of the mass
tourism until the last decade, when several actions have been taken to adapt its Historic Site Areas to an
urban tourism destination. This process considers interventions like numerous museums openings,
associate uses implantation, urban renewal for pedestrian visit, the port remodelling, interventions in built
heritage or the cultural policies that have focused on trying to achieve the title of The European Capital of
the Culture, among others. The present work studies the context that takes place, the reasons, the agents,
the different instruments that are applied, the functioning of the process and the consequences that
appear concerning the different aspects that affect the city, in this paper we focus on the social
implications and on the civil movements that are studying the process and proposing alternatives.
Malaga has consolidated as tthe main arrival gate in the Costa del Sol, specially thanks to the airport that
is immersed in an important extension. The city has turned into distribution center of the tourists towards
Andalusia thanks to the improvement of other means of transport, specially highways and trains, with
special attention to high speed trains. This fact supposes an opportunity for the city to catch the visitors'
important flow that comes and goes but till now the city could scarcely retain.
On the other hand, the presence of Sun and Sand tourism is very little in this city, due principally to the
complete urbanization of the shore. Coinciding with the obsolescence of the port facilities, the city has
found an opportunity in cruise tourism, becoming the second largest Spanish destination in this sector just
behind Barcelona. Cruise passengers are experiencing an important increase and have a different profile
than other visitors, their principal feature is to dedicate only a few hours to visiting their destination, so it
becomes necessary to concentrate the attractions and the auxiliary activities in a very limited tour.
Because of that, resources presented to the tourists are a few group of monuments and spaces
concerning Picasso's figure, establishing a thematic or proximity connecion.

2. Diverse agents, resources and policies are involved in developing the new urban tourism destination.
Among the agents we can find public administrations and private entities from different levels: municipal,
regional, state and European. The agents are in charge of the different plans, programs, projects, actions
and instruments that are globally included in policies. These include culture and heritage, tourism,
urbanism and regional planning. We are going to mention only the European policies directly related to the
transformations that have been carried out in the city.
In cultural matter stands out the European Capital of Cuture action. It has its origin in Mélina Mercouri's
initiative to the Council of the European Union in June 1985. The current phase is born of the
1419/1999/CE Decision of the European Parliament, modified by the 1622/2006/CE Decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union. A great number of cities aim to be named
European Capital of Culture due to its media repercussion, the development of culture and tourism and
the recognition on part of the inhabitants of the importance of the designation of their city. Malaga tried to
be designated in 2016, but finally it was rejected last September.
In urban development subject, the European Territorial Strategy refers to the cities attractive for tourism
development but it also warns of the danger that supposes mass tourism, cultural commercialization and
uniformity that destroy the individuality and the identity of cities, land speculation or oversized
infrastructures projects in relation to the environment.
From the analysis of the different policies we distinguish three common aspects, such as patrimonial
selection, the relation between urban local marketing and urban tourism and the widespread presence of
the Beaubourg effect, we are going to explain them briefly.
Regarding the patrimonial selection, the attention is focused in some objects and others are dismissed.
Thus, in the last five years period it has increased considerably the number of those elements that have
been given the maximum protection and the investments center principally in those who have been
declared Monument and that suppose a tourist attraction. On the other hand, substitution, degradation or
demolition are common in the rest of cultural heritage, even in the case of juridically protected ones: i.e.
interior emptying, plot addition, extension of the façadism phenomenon, complete historic streets and
blocks occupation, demolitions of protected buildings, construction of car parks in zones with great
presence of archaeological remains and insertion of volumes that break with the historic configuration of
the city.
Related to the urban local marketing, the presence of monumental heritage, to be an attractive toursit
destination and the cultural character are taken as an advantage and are promoted by the strategies of
urban marketing since they help to create a more competitive city in attracting investments. By these
means we explain the sense of a series of projects of great media impact that are not clearly tourist and
much less suppose a cultural improvement for the residents, though they are related to both. The symbolic
spaces of the historic city are used as advertising support of these expositions and shelter the
architectures, settings and events that can transmit this message in a clearer way.
And finally, the Beaubourg effect, called this way in reference to the impact that had the opening of the
Centre Pompidou in Paris Beaubourg's neighbourhood. In Spain it is known as Guggenheim effect due to
the similar scope that had the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It is common to call
internationally known architects for developing these projects and the result is usually an aesthetically
interesting intervention, often hiding the destroy of the patrimonial values that they involve. These projects
are justified in a supposed renewing capacity of degraded zones. The Beaboug effect has impregnated
the orientation of public policies and is visible in all areas like museums, hotels, public spaces, housing,
infrastructures and others.
Public policies and creation of tourist resources are leading to a series of consequences in the historic city
that we have included in theming, this could be related to heritage, residents, land-uses and cultural
integrity.

3. Patrimonial theming supposes fixing the attention in the objects that more enriche the tourist visit, normally
that of more eye-catching character like painted façades or archaeological remains. It has also an
omnipresent immaterial connotation, such as the association of Malaga with Picasso. Patrimonial theming
carries in some cases historic simplification because only a few periods are selected, it is common to
abuse of restorations or even recreations and other types of heritage tend to be excluded such as
industrial or port heritage. Moreover, an aesthetic standarized criterion is assumed in urban renovations,
known as beautification, that provokes urban spaces to be designed in order to please tourist
preconceptions instead of their adequacy to the city’s patrimonial values.
By residential theming we mean to the population emptying and its substitution for persons with major
revenue, known as gentrification. The economic capacity selection has joined one that focuses on the way
of life or profession. In this way, projects of public initiative destined to craftsmen and young cultural
workers are in course of approval.
Land-uses theming refers to activities substitution and to the creation of wide zones of tourist
monofunctionality, where intervenes the proliferation of primary resources, fundamentally museums and
associate activities. Outstanding is the implantation of great capacity hotels often without taking into
consideration the surroundings where they are located and restaurants and souvenirs shops that tend to
occupy all the commercial areas and even the public streetsRegarding museums, there are about to be 29
of them in the Historic Site. Two in special: the Picasso Museum and the Thyssen Museum, have created
authentic neighborhoods-museums on having included several buildings, blocks and streets.
Cultural integrity theming is related to the exaltation of some cultural manifestations in the historic city and
the creation of a great amount of new ones. Among them stands the Spanish Cinema Festival due to its
media impact. This process also implies actors creation as an extra attraction, some of them are based on
traditional professions such as biznagueros and almonds sellers.
MAPPING THE PROCESS. CARTAC
The Cartac (Tactical Cartographies) group has been analyzing different situations and consequences
during several years thanks to participative cartographies. The group has been working in the world of
maps and in the field of social investigation. We pursue to take advantage from the possibility that maps
have to transmit social denounce and the oportunity that they offer to reveal situations of social injustice.
Thus, makers are shown and Internet users are turned into cartographers. We want to explore in a non-
hierarchical way the possibilities that cartographies offer as a transfroming tool of the territory where we
live.
We understand cartography as the science that studies the procedures in obtaining information on the
tracing of the territory, for its later technical and artistic representation, and maps, as one of the
predominant systems of communication of territory. Cartac considers territory not only as a geographical
space but also as a habitat composed by multiple lyers (social, cultural, economic, artistic, ecological,
political...)
Thanks to the rapid extension of the means and tools that are destined to the communication, the relation
between the spoken and written language and the images has become closer. It is taking place a
revolution of great interest for our own cartographic practices. Information management becomes
accessible to a great number of persons and phenomena that before were non-existent or of small scale
take place thanks to web 2.0.
Cartography is understood not only as a representation technology, but also in a way that anyone could be
a cartographer and so take part actively in the construction of their territory. We propose an instrument to
the service of the citizenship to visualize conflicts and to generate changes which improve all the
denounced situations.

4. WORKING PHASES
Social cartography is a new and alternative methodology that allows communities to know and to develop
an integral knowledge of their territory in order to choose a better way of living it. Among the diversity of
maps that can be produced, conflict maps represent (through images, icons, texts, etcetera) problematic
situations that are normally hidden on purpose. The steps that we follow to design a conflict map are:
- Diagnosis phase: information extraction (through drifts, workshops, interviews, discussion groups,
observations, documents analysis).
- Cartographic production phase: transmission of information to a map in digital format, paper, video,
etcetera (throuh icons, colors, legends...).
- Return phase: acknowledgement of conflicts studying their iterconnections (through debates and
workshops).
In the capture of information phase we use drifts, it is a concept principally proposed by the situationists,
which means to have a walk without specific aim, usually in a city, which follows casual inspiration. Drifts
are like exploration walks that can be done individually or in groups and that are opposite to the tourists’
way of proceeding. Tourists travel to a destination without caring on how they come to place, they are
mostly interested in velocity and comfort, they must cover a fixed tour according to a strict temporary
planning. On the other hand, for drifters the essential part is precisely the tour, the point of destination has
no importance, just living, enjoying and taking advantage of the walk. For this goal it is necessary to reject
certain habits and get carried away by the circumstances, deciding what direction or what activity is better
every moment.
Before making a drift it is interesting to think on the subjects to explore, the mean of transport and the
zones to visit, since the most interesting places are those not prepared as tourists’ scenes. An interesting
option is to drift in small groups (no more than five persons) distributing tasks, using the same group to
discuss the different situations. Besides, it is useful to take photo or video cameras, tape recorders, maps,
and notebooks to write down and do some sketches and a bag to keep some objects in, etcetera. One
person can act as a journalist, an anthropologist, a town planner, an archeologist, a geographer or a
sociologist too.
EXAMPLE 1. WORKSHOP: WHAT MAPS DON’T TELL
Following the mentioned methodology, we organised the workshop "what maps don’t tell. Construction of
participative cartographies with wikimaps", in collaboration with the International University of Andalusia.
For this purpose, participants walked along the streets of the Historic Site of Malaga with a descriptive
and analytical view, to document through photography, video and texts the different situations lately
reflected in the wikimap created during the workshop.
In the transfer of information phase we had the help of an open code IT tool called Meipi. We can define a
meipi as a participative space where users can put information on a map, this can refer to a place or to a
topic. The maps so created can be useful for collaborative dynamics, workshops, associations,
companies, groups of friends and artistic actions since users can directly link multimedia files
(photography, video or sound with an exact place of the city, share the personal impressions, the stories
and the landscapes perceived by the different users.
All meipis possess a title and an own Internet address and begin with a description. The meipi is ordered
by categories and inside them different entries are created. Each one refers to a place in the space, has a
textual description and photographs or other multimedia files. A great advantage of meipi is that all
authorized persons can edit the entries and any user can leave a comment. The running is similar to a
blog. Entries are provided with tags, that allow a faster search when the complexity increases and the
establishment of horizontal groups between entries of different categories.

5. The results of the investigation can be given to the participants back in a graphical way. Meipi uses the
base of Google Maps, but there is a current effort to start using Open Street Maps. All the information
contained in a meipi can be visualized in four different views: map, list, categories, mosaic.
- Map: the uploaded entries are shown with a geographical reference.
- List: the entries are ordered by the date when they were created. They can also be ordered by votes.
- Categories: the last entries from each category are shown by columns.
- Mosaic: the uploaded images are organized by the user, creating mosaics that can be saved.
In the meipi that was developed in the workshop we took into account aspects like tourism, commerce,
housing, mobility, economy, land revenue and real-estate operations, building conservation, urban
spaces, infrastructures and senses, among others. The map created was used to show the great contrast
between the lack of public spaces in Malaga city center and the great quantity of houses in ruins and
voids.
EXAMPLE 2. MÁLAGATURISMO
Another relevant work done by us in collaboration with the University of Seville is gping to be explained.
The purpose was to identify those elements that show the functional transformations of the historic city to
adapt it to a urban tourism destination.
The working process was divided in preparatory phase, capture of information, transfer of information,
presentation and extraction of conclusions. In the phase of capture of information we made a tour across
the streets and public spaces and we wrote down every element’s location, name, references and we
took some photographs. We distinguished activities carried out in protected patrimonial buildings and
spaces.
In this case, we created four categories, and each of the elements was registered as an entry. Capture of
information and transfer of information process have been systematized and entries have always the
same structure, tags are used as a descriptor of entries from different categories. 404 entries were made
in total, constituting the second work of this type for number of elements, after the one from the students
of the School of Architecture of the University of Granada.
Entries work like files and follow the following structure:
- Name of the element.
- Category. Basic classification.
- Tag. It is useful to create subgroups and distinguish common features of elements belonging to
different categories.
- Photography of the element.
- Small description.
- Urban protection (if there is any). If the plot is included in the Historic Site limits or in the area of the City
Center’s Protection Plan.
- Conservation Area. If the plot is located in a protected surrounding of a Site included in the Andalusian
Heritage Inventory.
- Architectural protection. It specifies the typology and the architectural degree of protection (if there is
any), according to the Local Heritage Inventory or the Andalusian one.
- Other comments. Particular features related to the conservation, author, etcetera
In the phase of presentation of information we have designed different plans depending on the different
elements and conclusions. The resultant information has been divided into hotels, shops and restaurants,
mobility, information in pedestrian routes, urban scene, safety, waste management and Picasso
references.
A) Hotels. Classified into three groups depending on their category. A total of 42 establishments have
been studied in the Historic Site. We have distinguished the ones that take part of buildings with legal

6. protection. Hotels’ establishment, specially for great capacity ones, is usually being carried without
respecting the architectural or urban values of the spaces where they are built. One of the most dramatic
case is the hotel projected for the area known as Hoyo de Esparteros, where they are trying to occupy a
historic street, to add several plots and blocks, to demolish a protected building, to double the maximum
height of the zone and to build an underground four storey-car park in an area with a huge presence of
archaeological remains.
B) Shops and restaurants. Divided into three groups: gifts shops, tourist restaurants and traditional shops
adapted to the tourist use. The third group is the one for neighbourhood establishments that offer
products consumed by the local population as well as products mainly for visitors. This category gives us
an idea of the expansion zones which implies the tourist movement. In case of the hotels, we have
distinguished those buildings that have any type of patrimonial protection. We have analyzed 120 places
in total in the Historic Site. Tourist shops and restaurants tend to concentrate in limited areas and give us
an approximate idea of the historic sector mostly used by visitors. They converge in axes and nodes and
create whole monofunctional sectors, this is more evident in the case of gifts shops.
C) Mobility. We have analyzed the different means of transports that are used by tourists, locals or both,
their stops and the routes across the Historic Site.
D) Information in pedestrian routes. Registration of the location of the tourist street signs that indicate the
resources, street plans and tourist information points. We have identified 127 elements in total. Their
location give us an aproximate idea of the pedestrian routes that are currently in use and of those that
are wanted to be used by the local government. It also stands out the variety of designs and their
concentration around a zone or a resource. These factors cause visitors’ confussion instead of helping
them to orientate.
E) Urban scene. This categoy is divided into stage and actors. In the first group we have studied the
pedestrianized areas and the reurbanized ones, beautification initiatives like wall poems, contemporary
sculptures, singular furniture, artistic lighting. We have also analyzed initiatives that show or even rebuild
some patrimonial elements like painted façades and the muslim wall. As actors we have studied the
location of almond sellers and street artists. The concentration of these persons coincides with the zones
with a major tourist activities density.
F) Safety. We have analyzed the CCTV surveyed area. This coincides with the broader streets of the
Historic Site which are once more the most significant tourist route.
G) Waste management. Study of the location of 38 underground waste containers. These elements have
been chosen because their implantation was made in the period of the tourist transformation of the
Historic Site. They are fixed in a place and show which areas are wanted to be more attractive. Their
distribution coincides with the highest density of tourist activities and the new tourist zones. There is a
huge contrast between the improvement of waste management in these areas and the one observed in
the degraded boundaries.
H) Picasso references. As we were advancing in the capture of information, we have stated that the figure
of the painter occupies a preferential place in tourist guides, plans, routes and policies of all kinds. We
wanted to verify if Picasso's prominence in these means was reflected in the lived cityso we analyzed a
total amount of 24 indications. On the whole, these references have a reclaim function for visitors,
opposite to the lack of signs that we can find in the spaces mainly frequented by the local population.

7. CONCLUSIONS
Working with participative cartographies allowed us to have a simultaneous vision of the location,
description and image of each one of the elements. It was possible to establish connections between the
different aspects and we could include changes as the work was developing and circumstances changed,
since the study of the tourist activity in the city is a process always in transformation.
The spatial concentration of visitors and tourist activities reflects the selection process that supposes the
urban tourism phenomenon around a small area of the Historic Site and a few patrimonial elements. This
selective process demonstrates the different application of the cultural, urban and tourist policies in the
different neighbourhoods, depending on their interest as a touristical resource.
In addition, the selective process gives place to a series of consequences concerning different aspects of
the the city that we have included in theming, which affect to the management of architectural and urban
heritage, the residents, land uses and cultural integrity of the city.
Participative cartography allows citizens to elaborate maps related to their worries. In them they can
transfer all the material and immaterial factors that they observe without intermediaries. This methodology
allows to take decisions on the basic of a geograpical distribuiton of the different situations, that leads to a
more efficient way of proposing solutions. It is specially interesting in the field of urbanism, both for Plans
development and management because it allows a direct way of opinion and civil participation in the
taking of decisions and it is useful at the moment of establishing priorities and arrange a schedule. It is
also helps to create urban design far from the classic isolation of our discipline in favour of non
hierarchical and transdisciplinar methods at the moment of facing the project phase.
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WEB REFERENCES
Espacio Red de Práctica y Culturas Digitales (UNIA): http://practicasdigitales.unia.es/
Cartac (Cartografías Tácticas): https://n-1.cc/pg/groups/2601/cartac/
Trayectos.org [laboratorio de comunicación]: http://www.trayectos.org/
Meipi 1: Lo que Málaga no cuenta. http://www.meipi.org/loquemalaganocuenta
Meipi 2: Málagaturismo. http://www.meipi.org/malagaturismo
Vídeo resumen del taller “Lo que los mapas no cuentan”: http://vimeo.com/16885244
Vídeo tutorial de uso de meipi: http://vimeo.com/16922028