„Syltifizierung“ – Die Verdrängung des Dauerwohnens und seine Folgen in kleinen Tourismusorten

Many small, peripheral rural tourist destinations face extremely tight housing markets, which makes it increasingly difficult for local residents and urgently needed seasonal workers to find reasonably priced accommodation. The North Sea island of Sylt is used here as the “most advanced observation post” to illustrate the breadth and depth of local problems attributed to the shortage of affordable, permanent housing. The case of Sylt shows how housing market dynamics threaten to undermine the economic, demographic, social, and infrastructural foundations of community life. The description of this phenomenon and the definition of the term and process of “syltification” is intended to make a complementary contribution to research on gentrification processes.