City Spaces Tourist Places

Over the last decade, commentaries and research on urban tourism precincts have predominantly focused on: their role in the tourism attractions mix; their physical and functional forms; their economic significance; their role as a catalyst for urban renewal; their evolution and associated development processes; and, perhaps more broadly, their role, locality and function within the context of urban planning. City Spaces – Tourist Places both consolidates and develops the extant knowledge of urban tourism precincts into a coherent research driven contemporary work. It revisits and examines the foundational literature but, more importantly, engages with aspects of precinct development that have previously been either underdeveloped or received only limited consideration, such as the psychological and socio-cultural dimensions of the precinct experience. Written by an international team of contributors it provides the reader with: * A comprehensive analysis of foundational theory and cutting-edge advances in the knowledge of the precinct phenomenon * An examination of previously underdeveloped topics and themes based on contemporary and ground-breaking research * Typological and theoretical frameworks in which to locate precinct form, function and experience Brilliantly edited to ensure theoretical continuity and coherence City Spaces – Tourist Places is vital reading for anyone involved in the study or planning of urban tourism precincts.

Tourism in European Cities explores the relationship between tourist activity and the architecture and built environment within which it takes place. This is the first book to consider urban tourism with a particular focus on European cities. Tourism in European Cities considers the tourist experience and the various elements that shape it. In many cities, the historic core plays a crucial role in tourism either as the location of the more important attractions, or as an attraction in its own right. The book dedicates a chapter to urban heritage and its relationship to tourism, including urban conservation and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Another chapter considers contemporary architecture and debates some cities’ efforts to use iconic architecture, in particular, to enhance their attractiveness in the context of increased competition between cities. In the context of competition, many cities are resorting to events as a strategy to reposition and differentiate themselves from other cities. Major events are accompanied by major investment in event venues and in urban infrastructure. The city often serves as a backdrop to the urban festival as activities and performances are staged in the city’s urban spaces. This book is essential reading for students of tourism and urban geography. It is also of interest to students of urban planning and architecture, and anyone keen to learn more about tourism and European cities.

An investigation of tourism and its transforming impact on cities, by urban experts from a variety of disciplines. They examine such tourist meccas as Las Vegas, Orlando and Boston, and take up themes such as the marketing of cities and how tourists perceive places.

This book critically explores the interconnections between tourism and the contemporary city from a policy-oriented standpoint, combining tourism perspectives with discussion of urban models, issues, and challenges. Research-based analyses addressing managerial issues and evaluating policy implications are described, and a comprehensive set of case studies is presented to demonstrate practices and policies in various urban contexts. A key message is that tourism policies should be conceived as integrated urban policies that promote tourism performance as a means of fostering urban quality and the well-being of local communities, e.g., in terms of quality spaces, employment, accessibility, innovation, and learning opportunities. In addition to highlighting the significance of urban tourism in relation to key urban challenges, the book reflects on the risks and tensions associated with its development, including the rise of anti-tourism movements as a reaction to touristification, cultural commodification, and gentrification. Attention is drawn to asymmetries in the costs and benefits of the city tourism phenomenon, and the supposedly unavoidable trade-off between the interests of residents and tourists is critically questioned.

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Cities presents an up-to-date, critical and comprehensive overview of established and emerging themes in urban tourism and tourist cities. Offering socio-cultural perspectives and multidisciplinary insights from leading scholars, the book explores contemporary issues, challenges and trends. Organised into four parts, the handbook begins with an introductory section that explores contemporary issues, challenges and trends that tourism cities face today. A range of topics are explored, including sustainable urban tourism, overtourism and urbanisation, the impact of terrorism, visitor–host interactions, as well as reflections on present and future challenges for tourism cities. In Part II the marketing, branding and markets for tourism cities are considered, exploring topics such as destination marketing and branding, business travellers and exhibition hosting. This section combines academic scholarship with real-life practice and case studies from cities. Part III discusses product and technology developments for tourism cities, examining their supply and impact on different travellers, from open-air markets to creative waterfronts, from social media to smart cities. The final Part offers examples of how urban tourism is developing in different parts of the world and how worldwide tourism cities are adapting to the challenges ahead. It also explores emerging forms of specialist tourism, including geology and ecology-based tourism, socialist heritage and post-communist destination tourism. This handbook fills a notable gap by offering a critical and detailed understanding of the diverse elements of the tourist experience today. It contains useful suggestions for practitioners, as well as examples for theoretical frameworks to students in the fields of urban tourism and tourism cities. The handbook will be of interest to scholars and students working in urban tourism, heritage studies, human geography, urban studies and urban planning, sociology, psychology and business studies.

This book presents new research on the capacity of big cities to generate new tourism areas as visitors discover and help create new urban experiences off the beaten track. It examines similarities and differences in these processes in a group of established world cities located in the global circuits of tourism. The cities featured are Berlin, New York, London, Paris, and Sydney. In these cities experienced city visitors are contributing to the ‘discovery’ of new places to visit. Many neighbourhoods close to the historic centre and to traditional attractions offer the mix of cultural difference and consumption opportunities that can create new experiences for distinctive groups of city users. Each of the cities included in the book offers rich experiences of the re-imagining and re-branding of neighbourhoods off the beaten track, and informative stories of the complex relationships between visitors, residents and others and of the ambitions of public policy to reproduce these new tourism experiences in other parts of the city. World Tourism Cities brings together current research in each of the cities and relates the often separate field of tourism research to some of the mainstream themes of debate in urban studies addressing topics such as consumption, markets and spaces. Drawing on original research in this important group of cities this book has significant messages for public policy. In addition the book engages directly with a range of important current academic debates – about world cities, about cities as sites of consumption and about the smaller scales at which urban neighbourhoods are being transformed. The range of cities and the messages about the making of attractive places provides a timely resource for those focused in this area and the book will also have an appeal among those experienced and sophisticated city users that it focuses on.