Tourism in Asian Cities

Saurabh Kumar Dixit

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780429559822
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This timely and significant book explores the characteristics and complexities of Asian urban tourism, considering the extent to which Western paradigms can be transferred to Asian settings and the striking contrasts that exist within the region.

In an era of unprecedented urban expansion in Asian cities, this book comes at a time of great urgency, illuminating the possible problems and opportunities that arise when a destination emerges as a tourism hotspot. Split into three parts; introducing Asian urban tourism and urbanization, the management and marketing of Asian cities, and emerging trends and issues associated with Asian urban tourism, the book offers a range of varying and vibrant perspectives from international and interdisciplinary experts in the field. Chapters include studies on a wide range of destinations such as Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Phuket, Kolkata, Busan, Delhi, and Sri Lanka among many others, and explore crucial contemporary themes such as overtourism, urbanization and administrative challenges, world heritage, smart cities and the use of technologies such as VR in urban tourism experience creation.

It will be a vital resource for upper-level students, researchers, and academics in tourism, city tourism, Asian studies, development studies, cultural studies, and sustainability, as well as professionals in the field of tourism management.

Part I

Urban tourism precincts in Asia

An introduction

1 Tourism in cities

Asian perspectives

Saurabh Kumar Dixit and Abijith Abraham

Introduction

Cities have always been of interest to both visitors and local inhabitants. In recent years, urban and city tourism has become an essential driver for the rejuvenation of economies globally. Presently, more than half of the world’s occupants reside in the global cities, and by 2030 it is appraised that five billion persons will live in urban places (Bock 2015). Cities that are most efficacious to offer both consumption and production, heritage, contemporary culture, and cosmopolitanism cannot easily be replicated or imported (Evans 2007). The tourism appeal of global cities is continuously rising and offering central pull to visitors through its diverse nature of tourism experiences. Contemporary cities, because of their material, social, and political characteristics, provide a complex cultural product to the travelers. The cities are, therefore, considered a vital place to sense the culture, history, and traditions of a society. The cities are thus adapting themselves as per the community, residents, and visitors, which is making them an attractive destination for future visitors. Cities represent some of the world’s most fabulous tourism destinations in terms of both tourist arrivals and impact on gross domestic product (WTTC 2019).

The phrase “urban tourism” is used interchangeably with “city tourism” or “metropolitan tourism” in academic literature to bring together the social, political, cultural, and consumption domains of a place. Urban tourism has played a crucial role in the development and in popularizing urban resources in modern cities. Urban tourism refers to varied tourist pursuits in which the city is the leading destination and place of interest. Urban tourism is comprised of trips undertaken by tourists to cities or towns. These trips are usually short – up to three days – hence, urban tourism is closely linked to the short break market (UNWTO 2001). The steady process of evolution has further led to different innovations that may have had an impact on the shaping of contemporary cities. Urban tourism encompasses the people, places, societies, cultures, consumption patterns, technological applications, behavioral habits, and perceptions/expectations about landscape or place of habitation. Urban tourism analyzes both sociological and cultural changes arising in urban management and the planning of the cities.

In Asia, the concept of urban tourism took a fair amount of time to catch up to either European or American standards. The travel markets in the Asian continent remained relatively undeveloped, and the concept of low-cost carriers did not hit the mainstream until the turn of the century. In Europe (as well as in the United States of America), the spiked travel demand in the last 30 years has seen city tourism achieve the title of the fastest-growing segment (if not one of them) of the market. Over the years, the increased competition among low-cost carriers, together with the rapidly rising middle class, has played a role in the remarkable growth in Asian market city tourism.

According to the Euromonitor International’s 2019 Top 100 Tourism Cities ranking, Asia continues to outperform other continents, accounting for 43 of the top 100 cities. This number has gradually increased from 34 cities in 2013. Hong Kong retains the edge in the city tourists globally, notwithstanding the political turbulence and protests, which led to a sharp decline in the number of visitor arrivals in 2019. Hong Kong and Bangkok continue to be the top two cities globally, while Macau, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur continue to feature in the global top ten. Five of the top ten leading cities are from Asia. India is one of the most robust emerging destinations in Asia (see also Chapter 12) due to its substantial cultural resources, diversity of experiences, and price competitiveness, with seven of its cities making it to the Top 100 City Destinations ranking in 2019 (Euromonitor International 2019).

The high ranks of the Asian cities illustrate their popularity among Chinese travelers as well as to their respective roles as significant hubs of the air network (World Tourism Organization and Global Tourism Economy Research Centre 2014). The upsurge of affluence in many economically emerging Asian countries such as China and India has also provided cumulative numbers of persons with the means and leisure to participate regularly in city tourism activities.

Historical perspectives of urban tourism

Urban tourism has been in existence, in one form or another, since Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilizations, known for the genesis of urbanization in the society. The cities and towns were the prominent centers to experience the culture, art, music, literature, architecture, and urban design. The accessibility, multiplicity, and worth of these activities and attributes shaped their attraction and placed these cities on the tourism map (Karski 1990: 15).

Urban tourism is a vibrant theme of tourism studies, although there is a long tradition of people visiting different cities. Cities are always considered as places of tourist’s interest and to gain enduring leisure experiences (Dixit 2020a). The first evidence of modern city tourism may be traced in the Grand Tour of the British upper class to ancient cities from the 15th through the 18th centuries. The configuration of the Grand Tour was mostly covering the culturally significant cities (such as Paris, Geneva, Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples) of Europe (Towner 1996). The conceptualization of urban tourism is said to have taken place in the mid-1700s when the European aristocrats and nobility started touring other European cities (Colantonio and Potter 2006). The development of urban tourism is further evident from the growth of spa tourism in the 16th century, and the popularity of resort-based seaside and mass tourism in the 18th century. In the initial period of 20th-century developments such as expansions in transportation networks, the rise of commercial amusement places such as social clubs, construction of hotels and resorts, public parks, theaters, and cinemas gave a lift to global city tourism. The rise in disposable income increased levels of education, and the integration and influence of media and advertising also contributed mainly to evolve the consumer culture to grow opportunities for tourism in cities.

Vandermey (1984) and Ashworth’s (1989) are credited for the groundbreaking scholarly work on urban tourism research. It was followed by the addition of numerous book chapters and research papers by several other authors, considerably enriching the body of knowledge of urban tourism (e.g., Karski 1990; Law 1993; Van Den Berg et al. 1995; Pearce 2001; Kolb 2006; Griffin et al. 2008; Ashworth and Page 2011; Šegota et al. 2019; Adamo et al. 2019). Despite the then-contemporary scholarly works, Christaller (1966) had a pioneering proposal regarding the new spatial model, which associated tourism as a function of the urban peripheries rather than the urban centers (Christaller 1966) (Ashworth and Page 2011). The fact that most of the tourism-related researches was being carried out by the geographers of the last century (the early 1900s) also did not help the case of scarcity in scholarly works on urban tourism (Pearce 2001). However, since the late 1990s, urban tourism has reemerged as one of the significant forms of tourism activity (Law 1993) (Colantonio and Potter 2006). The later part of the 20th century has seen developments in urban areas and the importance of tourism due to its economic benefits (Paskaleva-Shapira 2007).

The advancement in technology during the mid-20th century saw the emergence of the coastal, mountain, and rural tourism as alternatives for urban tourism (Colantonio and Potter 2006). A peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal of Tourism Cities, was launched by the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA) in 2015 to the international forum to offer publication outlets to the critical studies of urban tourism and tourism cities. In order to offer a platform to discuss the key issues shaping the future of urban tourism in the context of the 2030 Urban Agenda, UNWTO organized eight global summits on city tourism/urban tourism at Istanbul (Turkey), Moscow (Russia), Barcelona (Spain), Marrakesh (Morocco), Luxor (Egypt), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Seoul (Republic of Korea), and Astana (Kazakhstan) from 2012 to 2019.

There are many reasons posed by researchers given to express that hindrance to advancement in tourism research over the years. The prominent reason is said to be the fact that tourism was historically never studied as a subject on its own. The mid-1900s saw tourism reviewed under the discipline of other social sciences. This phenomenon is said to have inhibited the expansion of tourism research. The necessity to accept new perspectives and approaches has become abundantly clear for the tourism researchers to take the progressive steps in the right direction. Sustainability is such a concept, which challenges the tourism cities to take up a multidisciplinary approach toward addressing the issues of urban tourism (Šegota et al. 2019).

The attraction of an urban center lies in the

the wide variety of things to see and do in a reasonably compact, interesting, and attractive environment, rather than in any one component. It is usually the totality and the quality of the overall tourism and town center product that is important.

(Karski 1990: 16)

Urban tourism is, therefore, thought to possess a multifaceted phenomenon and multipurpose orientation. A variety of tourists visit a city for different purposes and face several encounters with the hosts and with the attractions and infrastructures of the city to avail of different forms of tourism. Therefore, a wide-rangin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Urban tourism precincts in Asia: an introduction
• Part II Management and marketing of Asian cities
• Part III Emerging paradigms of Asian city tourism
• Index