Scaffolding the Tourist City. Informal Practices and the Making of Tourism in Porto

This article examines the everyday dynamics of informal activities in touristified ur-ban environments through a qualitative case study of Porto, Portugal. It analyses how individuals providing tourism-related services perceive their role within informality, how they articulate their agency, This article examines the everyday dynamics of informal activities in touristified ur-ban environments through a qualitative case study of Porto, Portugal. It analyses how individuals providing tourism-related services perceive their role within informality, how they articulate their agency, and how their practices contribute to the everyday production of the tourist experience. The study shows that engagement in informal tourism work is shaped by intersecting legal, economic and organisational constraints that channel professional trajectories into unregulated or semi-recognised forms of la-bour. Individuals display significant agency through adaptive strategies, craft-based skills and relational networks that enable them to navigate surveillance, seasonality and spatial exclusion. In a context of rapid tourism expansion and still-evolving gov-ernance frameworks, we argue that these practices operate as a form of urban tourism scaffolding. Although situated in precarity and vulnerability, it produces structural ef-fects on the urban tourism offer by filling gaps, organizing encounters and animating public space. By conceptualising informal tourism work as a processual and relational support structure rather than as marginal spontaneity or residual activity, the article highlights the need to reconsider informal labour as a constitutive element of the tour-ist city.and how their practices contribute to the everyday production of the tourist experience. The study shows that engagement in informal tourism work is shaped by intersecting legal, economic and organisational constraints that channel professional trajectories into unregulated or semi-recognised forms of la-bour. Individuals display significant agency through adaptive strategies, craft-based skills and relational networks that enable them to navigate surveillance, seasonality and spatial exclusion. In a context of rapid tourism expansion and still-evolving gov-ernance frameworks, we argue that these practices operate as a form of urban tourism scaffolding. Although situated in precarity and vulnerability, it produces structural ef-fects on the urban tourism offer by filling gaps, organizing encounters and animating public space. By conceptualising informal tourism work as a processual and relational support structure rather than as marginal spontaneity or residual activity, the article highlights the need to reconsider informal labour as a constitutive element of the tourist city.