Mass tourism, heritage, music, and debt: the curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence

A busy street in Florence, Italy. Crowds of tourists are on the street.

How can we successfully acknowledge the challenges of protecting cultural heritage while also balancing the economic realities of a flourishing city?

Building on the themes of our Research Digest, which explores the relationship between cultural heritage, environments, and place, researchers Alice Borchi (University of Leeds) and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi (University of Reading) examine recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

Florence, a city of 365,000 residents, has become a symbol of the challenges mass tourism presents to heritage conservation and urban planning. In 2019, Florence recorded over 15 million tourist overnight stays, a number that, despite post-pandemic declines, continues to reshape the city’s social and architectural landscape. Residents are increasingly priced out of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed historic centre as properties are converted into short-term rentals and local businesses are transformed to meet the needs of the growing number of tourists. This shift has sparked a tension between preserving cultural heritage and catering to the needs of tourism.

Redevelopment at the expense of heritage

To combat the negative impact of mass tourism in Florence, the City Council introduced a ban on short-term rentals in 2023, only for the decision to be overturned in court. Florence’s “Invest in Florence” campaign has drawn scrutiny for promoting the sale and repurposing of historic sites, including monasteries and industrial landmarks, into hospitality venues. Public spaces like Ponte Vecchio and Piazza Borgo Ognissanti have been hired for private events, raising questions about the city’s commitment to preserving its cultural identity.

Even venues with explicit historical mandates have faced pressure. The former Ospedale San Giovanni di Dio, bequeathed by the Vespucci family for medical purposes, has been targeted for conversion into a hotel. While officials claim such changes bring “positive social impact,” the controversial transformation of these culturally significant buildings highlights the tension between economic gain and heritage preservation.

Florence’s opera crisis

Florence’s ongoing challenges are reflected in those equally faced by the city’s arts and cultural sector. The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a cultural pillar of the city, has faced financial and governance challenges and consequently faces an uncertain future.

The construction of the new €260 million Teatro del Maggio, designed to replace the historic Teatro Comunale, which was itself dismantled to make way for luxury apartments, exemplifies this dilemma. Despite being inaugurated in 2011, the venue was only fully complete in 2021, and its expensive construction has left the company with substantial debt. Unsurprisingly, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino remains one of Italy’s most indebted opera institutions, relying on considerable contributions from both the state and local authorities to avoid bankruptcy.

The new venue, intended to enhance Florence’s global cultural appeal, has failed to deliver a clear vision for its use. Its purpose remains unclear, with underutilised spaces and a lack of cohesive programming. Moreover, the city’s historic Teatro Goldoni, once home to smaller productions, is now at risk of being sold off to accommodate more lucrative hotel developments.

Contradictions in cultural policy

This urban and cultural paradox—a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity—is not unique to Florence. It reflects broader global concerns about the sustainability of heritage and arts institutions in tourist-heavy cities.

Florence’s challenges are particularly relevant to the Centre for Cultural Value’s work on understanding the complex relationship between culture, place, and community. The Centre’s recent research digest, Environmental Heritage and Place, explores similar issues, particularly the impact of environmental and heritage practices on local communities. The digest highlights emerging fields such as cultural ecosystem services and green heritage, emphasising the need for policies supporting cultural and environmental well-being. By fostering research that reflects on the role of cultural heritage in place-shaping and community development, the Centre aims to guide discussions on how to strike a balance between preservation and economic development.

Florence’s ongoing struggles with urban planning, tourism, and cultural heritage highlight the importance of long-term, sustainable strategies that value local communities, support cultural institutions and preserve heritage. The Centre for Cultural Value’s research emphasises the need for evidence-based policies that address these complex intersections, ensuring that culture is valued and protected in a rapidly changing world.

Florence’s dilemma—a city steeped in cultural history yet caught in the pressures of tourism and financial instability—raises crucial questions about the future of cities. How can we protect cultural assets while also accommodating the economic realities of mass tourism?

Alice Borchi is a Lecturer in Creative Industries at the University of Leeds. Her research interests include the study of cultural commons and cultural value, with a particular focus on participatory practices and shared governance in cultural policy and management. A list of her publications can be found here.

Carlo Alberto Petruzzi (PhD) is an independent scholar. His research interests include Italian and French literature, opera, and arts management. He translated into Italian works by Guillaume Apollinaire and the Goncourt brothers and founded Italian Opera Librettos with Precise Word-by-Word Translation, the first book series of opera librettos translated in Chinese. His writing has appeared in California Italian Studies, Italica, Mimesis Journal and Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies.

To find out more about how the Centre for Cultural Value’s work provides insights into these challenges, take a look at these resources: