Assessing tourism impact on cultural landscapes using mobile phone data: the case of Las Médulas (Spain).

Mobile phone data emerges as a powerful tool for analyzing tourism impacts on cultural landscapes, offering unprecedented insights into visitor movements and infrastructure demands. A study of Las Médulas, Spain's Roman gold mine, demonstrates how anonymized cell tower metadata can systematically track tourism flows, addressing longstanding gaps left by traditional surveys. This approach reveals critical patterns in visitor behavior, aiding in more effective planning and management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. By leveraging big data from mobile networks, researchers provide a scalable model for assessing socio-economic impacts on fragile cultural landscapes.

Currás, B. X., Orejas, A., Hernando de Castro, A., Mateo, D., Sánchez Figueroa, J. C., Reher, G. S., García-Basanta, S., & Sánchez-Palencia, F. J. (2024). Assessing tourism impact on cultural landscapes using mobile phone data: the case of Las Médulas (Spain). Journal of Tourism Analysis Revista de Análisis Turístico (JTA), 31(1). https://doi.org/10.53596/pb7e1859