Street‐naming, tourism development and cultural conflict: the case of the Old City of Acre/Akko/Akka

Place-naming in the Old City of Acre, Israel, serves as both a tool for tourism development and a catalyst for cultural conflict. The study reveals that official street names, often chosen by development agencies like the Acre Development Company, clash with the oral naming systems used by local Arab residents, leading to symbolic struggles over the city's identity. While prior research focused on prestige or profit motivations in place-naming, this work uniquely examines tourism-driven naming and its societal implications, including resident reactions and contested identities. The analysis combines historical context with qualitative methods to uncover how naming processes reflect broader tensions between heritage preservation, commercialization, and local agency.

Shoval, N. (2013). Street‐naming, tourism development and cultural conflict: the case of the Old City of Acre/Akko/Akka. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4), 612–626. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12003