AbstractLavapiés is part of Embajadores in the heart of Madrid’s central areas. It is famous as an international, open-minded, and inclusive space where locals, immigrants, and expatriates live together — and where cultures and individuality are expressed in the streets.
As Muñozcano’s pocket guide puts it, the neighbourhood’s unique qualities come from its historical past and, above all, from its incredible variety of residents: Bangladeshi fruit shops, Spain’s first LGBT centre, barbers, Moroccans, native madrileños, intellectuals, and Senegalese musicians. That cultural variety and accessibility attract tourists, and many residents rent apartments on Airbnb.
Although the neighbourhood has a reputation for openness to foreign cultures, interviews with locals and community posters show that short-stay visitors may not feel — or be — particularly welcome. The issue is not tourism itself, but touristification: unmanaged short stays, rising rents, and services reshaped for travellers at the expense of long-term residents.
Keywords: Lavapiés; touristification; creative tourism; sustainable tourism; Airbnb; Madrid.
1. The Problem of Touristification
Residents caring for communal spaces such as “Esta es una plaza” describe tourists as passive and insufficiently attentive to local culture — expecting visitors to consume what the local market provides, while international fast-food chains undermine neighbourhood businesses.
A residents’ association representative argues that excessive Airbnb rentals are eroding identity, with more than 900 short-stay apartments making Lavapiés feel like an enormous hotel range. Services such as 24-hour supermarket hours are cited as adapted for travellers rather than long-term residents. The message is clear: the neighbourhood is not against tourism, but against touristification — “We don’t want to be converted into a commercial centre or a theme park. Lavapiés has become another Magaluf!”
Community posters invite residents to discuss Airbnb conflicts, high rents, and expulsion risks, and to seek respectful solutions. With additional hotels planned near an already hotel-dense Atocha area, the association has sought political support for caps such as no more than 50% tourist apartments in central zones. Policies need regulation and a reorientation toward mindful visitors.
2. What Is Sustainable Tourism?
UNWTO definitions emphasise respect for host socio-cultural authenticity and heritage, alongside viable long-term economic operations that distribute benefits fairly to stakeholders and host communities. Ahn et al. and Cater alike stress two sides of the same coin: improving quality of life for hosts and achieving visitor satisfaction.
Yet tourism often remains product-centred and profit-driven rather than people-centred. In Lavapiés, the Airbnb product should be adapted so residents have more voice in policy — benefiting company and visitor interests only when the local community also gains.
3. Suggestion 1: Taxes and Airbnb Profits for Neighbourhood Maintenance
Part of short-stay income — Airbnb rents, VAT, or tourist taxes — should fund neighbourhood maintenance: thermal and acoustic insulation, lock renovations, and building upkeep that poorly maintained tourist apartments often lack.
Every short-stay apartment should display an informational board explaining that a share of revenue supports barrio development. Knowing that tourism funds local well-being can attract more cautious, respectful visitors.
Residents can also negotiate with Airbnb for stricter safety and home-sharing rules. International precedents exist: Berlin’s home-sharing limits and Airbnb’s tax-collection partnerships with hundreds of jurisdictions show that fairer agreements between platforms and communities are possible.
4. What Is Creative Tourism?
Some visitors already come to Lavapiés to appreciate street musicians, actors, designers, and graffiti artists. UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network defines creative tourism as travel toward engaged, authentic experience with participative learning in arts, heritage, or place character — connecting visitors with those who create living culture.
Richards and Raymond emphasise active participation in courses and learning experiences characteristic of the destination. Successful models include Edventures in Fredericton and creative tourism practices in Austria, Paris, and Barcelona.
5. Suggestion 2: Rebrand Lavapiés as a Creative Tourism Area
One distinctive madrileño asset is the cantautores tradition — singer-songwriters whose critical, poetic compositions have a particularly strong Madrid scene. Artists nurtured since the 1990s around café Libertad (Chueca) remain a hidden gem of Spanish tourism.
Cantautores could be invited to give concerts, courses, seminars, and Spanish/English music workshops for locals and international visitors — for example at La Tabacalera, including renovating unused basement space. Inclusiveness, educational workshops, and interactive activities for professionals, amateurs, and children (freeing parents to explore the city) are known success factors for creative tourism projects.
Targeting travellers seeking enriching artistic and educational experiences can build respectful host–guest connections, popularise a uniquely Madrid art form, and open new career pathways for artists.
6. Suggestion 3: A Lavapiés Arts and Culture App
Existing pocket guides cover multicultural life and year-round events but miss some festivals, lack day-by-day programmes for short visits, and rarely explain how tourists can benefit the neighbourhood.
A multilingual Lavapiés Arts and Culture app — available across devices, in Spanish plus at least one foreign language — could publish weekly programmes: cantautores events, exhibition hours and prices, theatre, local food, arts-and-crafts workshops, historical notes, and mapped places of interest.
A dedicated section should suggest how visitors can support the barrio: buying local food, joining workshops, attending local festivals. The 2016 Tapapiés app proved demand, but was limited to Spanish and iOS; a broader tool would serve residents and international audiences alike.
7. Conclusion
This proposal aims to benefit both visitors and residents of Lavapiés. Redirected tourism revenues, creative rebranding around cantautores and local arts, and an accessible multilingual events app can shift the neighbourhood from unmanaged touristification toward sustainable creative tourism.
With assistance from associations such as La Corrala, these ideas can be negotiated with political parties and tourism organisations and developed into attainable solutions for mindful, culture-oriented visitors.
- Regulate short stays — do not reject tourism wholesale
- Reinvest Airbnb/tax income in barrio maintenance and transparency
- Rebrand around creative participation (cantautores, workshops, local arts)
- Build a multilingual weekly Arts & Culture app that also shows how visitors can give back