Is That the Way? The Civic, Political and Social Consequences of Tourist Exposure

Tourist activity has increased in recent decades, exposing destinations to crowds of visitors. Although the literature has focused on the consequences of contact between groups coming from migration shocks, little is known about the social and political implications of tourist contact. I exploit a relatively exogenous shock, which caused an increase in exposure to the transient tourist population in some Spanish municipalities, that allows me to better approximate a casual effect derived from tourist exposure. I exploit the resurgence of the Way of Saint James that led to an increase in the transient population in the affected constituencies. To see whether this contact erodes communities' political networks, I use participation in major electoral contests and associational density as indicators of civic engagement, social capital and political participation. By developing a TWFE identification strategy, I show that exposed areas, compared to their counterparts, experienced an average drop of 2.5 and 2.04 percentage points in turnout in local and European elections, respectively, and a drop of 0.14 associations per 1,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, national elections are not affected. These effects are mainly driven by population density. Finally, I test for changes in vote share as tourist load increases. I argue that there is not a degradation effect expressed with resentment at the ballot box given the economic benefits.