Examining the impact of the platform economy on Spain’s cultural destinations through the lens of free tours

Purpose Free guided walking tours are one of the most successful tourism segments in the digital platform economy. It is beginning to be associated with negative impacts in some of the destinations where it is spreading rapidly. Although the platform economy is generating increasing academic interest, the free tour model remains largely unexplored area in the literature. This study aims to examine how such activity affects cultural destinations. Design/methodology/approach Focussing on the largest Free Tours platform operating in Spain, GuruWalk, the methodology used analyses its impact in six cultural destinations on two of the sustainability dimensions: the territorial dimension and the governance, through an exploratory study. Findings The findings help to understand the differences that such activity generates in each destination depending on the phase of its life cycle, and to implement, if necessary, corrective measures. The research confirms that the impacts differ according to the tourist destination’s maturity, concluding that such activity contributes to the increase of tourist agglomerations and the overcrowding of cultural destinations in their middle and mature life cycles. The findings highlighted the importance of the role of local governance on free tour activity. Originality/value The main contribution is the association of the impacts they produce (especially in terms of massification) with destination life cycle phases. There were no similar precedents with a spatial or territorial analysis to reliably demonstrate not only that this activity has an impact on the territory but also what type of impact is produced.