Historic urban centres have important heritage values that justify their inclusion in various legal protection systems. Urban planning instruments allow the preservation of formal aspects (buildings, urban layout…) but are not effective when it comes to preserving intangible heritage values (including uses and functions). In a context of strong growth in tourism (overtourism), the talk presents the situation of the historic centres of Spanish cities (tourism trends and new tourist uses of heritage) and reflects on the scope of overtourism control measures from the field of urban policy and tourism policy.