Tourism Through the 15-Minute Lens: A Case Study of Porto

Abstract

The 15-minute city concept has become a cornerstone of modern urban planning. Despite its worldwide
application, research has mostly focused on accessibility to essential services, while accessibility to tourism remains less
explored. Tourism, key to urban identity, livability, and visitor management, needs to be considered within proximity
planning. In this context, analysing travel times and accessibility to tourist locations across different travel modes represents
a key opportunity to gain insight into how these shape cities. This study applies the 15-minute city framework to tourism,
characterizing accessibility from a visitor’s perspective. Porto, Portugal, a city facing the impacts of massive tourism, is used
as a pilot area to measure access to touristic amenities. Using the Porto open data portal, we compiled 290 points of interest
across eight tourism categories. For every Base Reference Geographical Information (BGRI) cell, the Portuguese census tracts,
we computed the centroid and generated network-based travel times to each amenity for walking, cycling, and driving. From
the origin-destination matrices, we derived a set of 15-minute city indicators, namely minimum travel time required to reach
the amenities and counts and percentage of amenities reachable within 5/10/15 minutes. Results show how accessibility
patterns vary by parishes and travel mode and offer a reproducible base for urban planning and destination management.
The outcomes reveal that accessibility to tourism is strongly centre-weighted: the historic centre offers short walking times
and high amenity variety, while the eastern and northern edges face slower access and fewer choices. Trips starting from
two central parishes reach 43% of amenities within a 15-minute walk, while trips originating in peripheral parishes typically
reach only 5% to 9%. Cycling enhances accessibility by making accessible a variety of amenities across most parishes within
10 minutes and nearly citywide by 15 minutes. This work reframes 15-minute accessibility around tourism, providing a
multimodal transportation assessment, translating analytics into actionable indicators. The framework supports policymaker
in diversifying attraction availability in underserved areas, distributing visitor flows, and aligning cultural-access goals with
livability agendas, promoting smart cities' development.