Platformised Performances: Free Walking Tours and the Informal Sharing Economy

This article examines platform-mediated free walking tours as an informal and performative manifestation of the platform economy in tourism. Drawing on multi-sited urban ethnography (participant observation of 20 free walking tours and 18 semi-structured interviews with guides across Barcelona, Lisbon and Naples, May–September 2024), the article shows how algorithmic reputation systems structure narrative choices and incomes; how affective/performance labour is calibrated to ratings and tipping; and how spatial concentration produces congestion and informal territorialisation of public space. Conceptually, the article advances debates on platformised informality by bridging performative tourism, gig-work governance and urban justice, and outlines policy avenues (light-touch licensing, route decentralisation, and minimum labour standards). Implications are discussed for tourism policy, urban planning, and the theorisation of informal economies in platform-mediated contexts. Overall, the study advances understanding of how platformised informality reconfigures cultural labour and urban governance, extending debates beyond emblematic cases such as accommodation and ride-hailing.