Abstract

SAFARA, João  and  BRITO-HENRIQUES, Eduardo. The Santiago de Alfama Hotel as an allegory of the recent urban regeneration policy. Finisterra [online]. 2017, n.106, pp.65-84. ISSN 0430-5027.  https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis12010.

This paper aims to discuss the process of urban touristification, and its relationship with neoliberal urbanism and urban restructuring in the era of global capitalism. In particular, the paper examines the role played by the Jessica initiative, as an instrument of neoliberal policy for the urban regeneration, in the touristification of the Lisbon city. This paper is based on a micro-geographical investigation, in which a detailed case study was conducted to reconstitute the biography of a building that has recently been converted into a luxury hotel using Jessica financing. The study shows that under this functional change there was an elitization of the locale and that touristification filled the void left after a long period of disinvestment and a gradual abandonment of the building. The study concludes that touristification should be seen as a consequence and a reflection of globalizing processes underlying the transformation of the city. The Jessica Fund did not guide but merely assist the investment intention that was already latent

Keywords : Touristification; urban regeneration; JESSICA initiative; house biographies.

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