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PART I
Contemporary issues, challenges and trends in urban tourism
This part provides a framework for the book by outlining some of the main challenges that tourism cities around the world face today. Although the list of topics is by no means exhaustive, it does cover challenges such as the development and management of sustainable tourism in urban environments, terrorism and its impact on the planning and image of tourism cities, the growing phenomena of overtourism and urbanisation, the proactive role of residents in visitor– host interactions that often add a key element of authenticity against a backdrop of progressive gentrification, and reflections on present and future challenges for tourism cities and urban tourism based on current trends.
Summary of chapters
Cristina Maxim begins this part by outlining the challenges faced by world tourism cities in their capacity as centres for business, cultural excellence, connectivity hubs, key players in the visitor economy of destinations, homes to world-class tourist attractions and key players in economic development at regional, national and global levels. She examines how, despite these advantages, or perhaps because of them, world tourism cities face a myriad of interconnected issues and trends, which are often intimately linked to the complex economic, social and political functions they exhibit, as well as the diversity of people they attract (e.g. long-term residents, immigrants, visitors). Based on an analysis of examples drawn from London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Singapore and Dubai, recommendations are made for policy makers in cities, including the need for a more integrated understanding of the factors shaping their development (e.g. sustainability, traffic congestion, pollution) combined with global trends (e.g. global tourism market competitiveness, conflict between visitors and residents) when planning and managing tourism in these destinations.
Cláudia Seabra and Odete Paiva consider the tragically growing threat of terrorism to tourism cities, and especially to those that host UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The authors do this by considering the impact of this growing phenomenon on residents and tourists as well as the global image of these destinations. Given that a key objective of terrorism today is to maximise the level of media coverage linked to major disruption to Western values, way of life and culture, World Heritage Sites have become prime targets in this context as cultural identity icons to their host cities and sources of authentic and unique experiences for tourists. This chapter provides evidence of this growing threat and discusses its implications for key decision makers in the planning and development of urban tourism destinations, as well as further academic research needed in this field.
Jonathon Day discusses the important intersection of urban tourism and sustainable development. A systems-thinking approach is applied to addressing the issues facing sustainable tourism in cities. The author begins by defining sustainability and sustainable tourism. Then, the author describes achieving sustainability in both cities and tourism systems as a “wicked problem”. System hierarchies, independent actors, feedback loops, adaptation, resilience and tipping points as characteristics of systems are reviewed in the context of urban tourism. The chapter concludes by stating that it is critical for researchers and practitioners to apply systems-thinking approaches to understanding how sustainability can become standard practice in urban tourism.
Amanda Belarmino examines the effects of the sharing economy on cities, particularly with respect to peer-to-peer accommodation and ridesharing. A timeline of the contemporary sharing economy is provided beginning with the introduction of eBay in 1995. The author provides three mini-case studies of the impact of the sharing economy on Seoul (South Korea), Las Vegas (USA), and Dubai (UAE). Emerging segments of the sharing economy are identified and discussed including crowdfunding, third-party food apps, craft beer exchanges, office space sharing and pay-by-the-month living accommodations. The chapter concludes by stating that the sharing economy is providing increased access to tourism and increasing income for city residents. The author proposes areas for future research on the sharing economy and urban tourism.
Jian Ming Luo and Chi Fung Lam consider the effects of urbanisation on the development and management of urban tourism destinations, especially in China. The authors focus specifically on the relationship between urbanisation and tourism development as well as the impacts of urbanisation on tourism with its implications for the sustainable development of city tourism in China. It is suggested that policy makers should adopt an integrated long-term outlook on urban planning, which ensures that urban development is carried out in line with the idiosyncrasy of each city.
Maria Gravari-Barbas and Sandra Guinand ponder the effects of gentrification processes on tourism cities, including their impacts on the socio-economic fabric of communities and local economies. Although a direct link between gentrification per se and tourism remains a contested debate among scholars, the authors argue that the first documented evidence of tourism-led gentrification dates to 2005 in the context of New Orleans’ French Quarter. This chapter provides a critical retrospective analysis of the historical and intellectual evidence of this debate in order to establish the boundaries of current knowledge on this topic – including links to overtourism in some urban tourism destinations – and outline an agenda for further research in a topic, which may be a manifestation of the growing vulnerabilities, frustrations and resistances developing in global cities, which tourism demand may tend to exacerbate further.
Gaitree (Vanessa) Gowreesunkar and Mahender Reddy Gavinolla, with Hyderabad, India as a case example, investigate the relationship between urbanism and overtourism. The chapter begins with a literature review on city tourism, urbanism and overtourism. Then, Hyderabad’s function as a tourism destination is described. The impacts and implications of urbanism and overtourism for the city are then identified. The authors conclude that urbanism and overtourism are inevitable in an era characterised by globalisation, sophistication and emancipation.
Craig Webster and Sotiris Hji-Avgoustis review the literature on political shocks and discuss how they impede the flow of tourists to cities. With a focus on the United States, typologies of shocks and how they differ in terms of impacting upon the decision to visit a particular city destination are defined. The authors discuss how political authorities and tourism managers can work to decrease the negative impacts of shocks on city tourism inflows. It is concluded that there is reason to believe that some shocks, but not all, may have negative impacts on cities’ tourism images in the minds of potential tourists.
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1
CHALLENGES OF WORLD TOURISM CITIES
London, Singapore and Dubai
Cristina Maxim
Introduction
The number of people living in cities increases from year to year, with the latest figures produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2018) showing that 55% of the world’s total population can now be found in urban areas. This percentage is expected to continue to rise and is projected to reach 68% by 2050, meaning that an additional 2.5 billion people will live in towns and cities. The most urbanised regions are North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe, where at least three-quarters of the total population lives in cities, while Asia and Africa are the two regions with a relatively lower level of urbanisation. This move from rural to urban environments has contributed, together with other factors, to the increasing importance of the phenomenon of urban tourism.
Urban tourism is considered to be one of the earliest forms of tourism that re-emerged in the 1980s as a result of an increasing interest from tourists in heritage and cultural activities found in cities (European Communities 2000, Maxim 2016). Yet, it has started to be recognised as a separate area of study only recently, with a number of authors pointing out the limited research available on the topic (Edwards et al. 2008, Maxim 2013). One of the most influential studies worth noting is the work produced by Ashworth (1989), titled “Urban Tourism: An Imbalance in Attention”, which ignited the interest in urban tourism. In this paper the author highlighted a double neglect of the topic – tourism studies neglected large cities, while scholars who studied large cities overlooked the important role played by the tourism industry in their economy. Since then, however, more progress has been made in discussing urban tourism and the different aspects related to tourism development in cities (Pearce 2001, Sharpley and Roberts 2005, Edwards et al. 2008, Maitland and Newman 2009, Ashworth and Page 2011, Maitland 2012, 2013, Miller et al. 2015, Maxim 2016, 2019). Moreover, in 2015 a new multidisciplinary journal has emerged that focuses on tourism within urban areas – the International Journal of Tourism Cities.
A selection of studies, together with their theoretical and conceptual contribution in the field of urban tourism, and their implications for cities, is included in Table 1.1. This shows how the focus of researchers has changed over time, from understanding the phenomenon of urban tourism and its importance, towards the current debates such as sustainability, smart destinations, augmented reality and overtourism.
Table 1.1 Theoretical and conceptual contributions to the study of urban tourism (selection)
| Author(s) | Year | Contribution |
| Jansen-Verbeke | 1986 | Elements of tourism |
| Ashworth | 1989, 2003 | Urban tourism: imbalance in attention |
| Ashworth and Tunbridge | 1990 | The tourist-historic city |
| Burtenshaw et al. | 1991 | Users of the city |
| Garreau | 1991 | Edge city as centres for services consumption |
| Mullins | 1991, 1994 | Tourism urbanization |
| Law | 1992, 2002 | Urban tourism and economic regeneration; Urban tourism synthesis |
| Getz | 1993 | The tourism business district |
| Page | 1995 | Urban tourism as a system |
| Castells | 1996 | The rise of the network city |
| Zukin | 1996 | The culture of cities and post-modern environment |
| Thrift | 1997 | Cities without modernity, cities with magic |
| Mazanec and Wober | 1997, 2009 | Management of cities for tourism |
| Hannigan | 1998 | Fantasy city |
| Dear and Flusty | 1999 | Engaging post-modern urbanism |
| Page and Hall | 2002 | Modelling tourism in the post-modern city |
| Pearce | 2002 | Integrated framework for urban tourism research |
| Mommaas | 2004 | Cultural clusters and the post-industrial city |
| Beedie | 2005 | The adventure of urban tourism |
| Pearce | 2007 | Capital city tourism |
| Mordue | 2007 | Tourism, urban governance and public space |
| Edwards et al. | 2008 | Research agenda for Australian urban tourism |
| McNeill | 2008 | The hotel and the city |
| Maitland and Ritchie | 2009 | National capital tourism (expanding the knowledge) |
| Maitland and Newman | 2009 | World tourism cities |
| Ashworth and Page | 2011 | Urban tourism research progress and paradoxes |
| Richards | 2014 | Creativity and tourism in the city |
| Maxim | 2015, 2016 | Sustainable tourism implementation in urban areas |
| Gretzel et al. | 2015 | Smart tourism ecosystems, smart cities |
| Gutiérrez et al. | 2017 | Airbnb in tourist cities |
| Su et al. | 2018 | Urban heritage tourism (expanding the knowledge) |
| tom Dieck and Jung | 2018 | Mobile augmented reality in urban tourism |
| Koens et al. | 2018 | Overtourism and impact of tourism in cities |
| Maxim | 2019 | World tourism cities (expanding the knowledge) |
| Cohen and Hopkins | 2019 | Autonomous vehicles and urban tourism |
Source: Based on the work of Ashworth and Page (2011, p. 12).
Still, not much has so far been written on world tourism cities, environments that attract a large number of visitors. Some of the latest works on the subject are Maxim (2019), who identifies a number of challenges faced by policy makers in London; Maitland (2016), who looks at how tourists experience world tourism cities; and Simpson (2016), who discusses “tourist utopia” in three post-world cities – Las Vegas, Dubai and Macau. Worth noting is that half of the top 20 most visited cities in the world are now located in Asia (Mastercard 2019), which has led to an increase in studies that focus on different aspects related to tourism development in Asian and Middle Eastern cities. These include Gong, Detchkhajornjaroensri and Knight (2019), who discuss responsible tourism in Bangkok; Kotsi, Pike and Gottlieb (2018), who look...
