Abstract
The rapid proliferation of peer-to-peer digital platforms has fundamentally restructured the destination service landscape, shifting local guiding services from traditional employment structures to platform-mediated gig work. While platforms promise unparalleled entrepreneurial autonomy, they simultaneously subject independent tour guides to opaque mechanisms of algorithmic management, leading to a state of structural vulnerability termed 'algorithmic precarity.' This study explores the lived experiences of gig-economy tour guides in Barcelona, Spain, a destination characterized by high tourism density and intense platform competition. Adopting an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) framework, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 18 freelance tour guides operating on major digital intermediaries. The findings reveal that guides experience algorithmic precarity through severe rating anxiety, search visibility volatility, and extreme emotional labor commodification. To navigate these pressures, guides deploy a sophisticated taxonomy of coping strategies: 'algorithmic hacking' (tactical manipulation of platform systems), 'multi-homing' (platform diversification), and the establishment of informal, localized mutual-aid networks. The paper discusses these coping mechanisms as forms of tactical agency that challenge the asymmetric power dynamics of platform capitalism, offering critical implications for sustainable destination management and labor policy in the digital tourism era.
