Encouraging and curbing the complex forces of tourism-led gentrification: the case of Bukchon in Seoul

This research examines tourism-led gentrification processes, their impacts and attempts to control them through a longitudinal case study of Bukchon. Bukchon is a neighbourhood located in the centre of Seoul that includes a sizable cluster of Korean traditional houses. Since the 2000s, Bukchon has undergone waves of gentrification. At the same time, local government has introduced various policies that have either been designed to curb tourism-led gentrification or have resulted in encouraging the process by promoting landscape conservation measures. This study of Bukchon examines the impact of government policies and the often countervailing pressures on the local community engendered by tourism, the penetration into the neighbourhood by retail outlets owned by famous brands at the expense of local stores and the complexities that colour attempts to resist neighbourhood change. This research contributes to existing understandings of tourism-led gentrification that charts the impact over time of actions by the state, business corporations and wealthy property owners and their effect on the lives of lower-income users. Beyond that, it sets the case of Bukchon within the wider parameters of urban change in Seoul, which it sees primarily in terms of growth through speculative investment by individuals and expansionary government policies in close consort with conglomerates.
This thesis argues that: (i) tourism-led gentrification does not simply lead to a rise in rents and direct displacement but provokes wide and fundamental neighbourhood change including residents’ loss of a sense of place, damage to the interdependence between the residential and retail sectors and mutual reinforcement of displacement pressures between both sectors; (ii) government policies were the result of a complex interplay among stakeholders within the urban context; (iii) policies were partially effective in conserving the urban landscape with a consequent rise in property values and influx of tourists but had limited effect when it came to mitigating gentrification under the speculative urban context; (iv) tourism-led gentrification cannot be simply curbed by decreasing tourist numbers because fundamental neighbourhood changes are caused early on in the process. The thesis serves as a corrective to those who believe that government policies can provide a quick answer or who seek other linear pathways to the easing of gentrification pressures.