The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Jan Henrik Nilsson.

Jan-Henrik Nilsson

Senior lecturer, associate professor

Jan Henrik Nilsson.

Urban Tourism

Author

  • Jan Henrik Nilsson

Summary, in English

Despite the rapid development of urban tourism, it was for a long time seen as a neglected field in tourism studies, which tended to focus on resorts and rural destinations. Cities were generally viewed as the generating, not receiving, parts of the tourist system. This lack of interest was matched by a similar disinterest of tourism in urban studies. One reason for this was the difficulty to define urban tourism, as urban attractions, transport, restaurants, and other facilities are used both by tourists and non-tourists. This has changed, there has been a considerable increase in research on urban tourism in recent years. This likely reflects both the growth of urban tourism, its economic significance, and its consequences for local environments and livelihoods. At the same time, tourism has become an important topic in urban studies and urban sociology, due to tourism's increasingly forceful impact on urban transformation. Contemporary issues such as urban gentrification and urban sustainability are closely connected to tourism growth, to ‘overtourism’. This chapter provides an account of the main supply side categories of urban tourism, based on a historical perspective on the development of tourist cities. This perspective is developed further in the second half of the chapter that focuses on contemporary developments in urban tourism, often termed new urban tourism . The main emphases are on the driving forces of new urban tourism, ontological changes of who the tourists are, cultural changes in urban tourism experiences, and urban spatial change as a result of tourism development. The chapter concludes by discussing some contemporary challenges for urban tourism.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

428-443

Publication/Series

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism, Second Edition

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Wiley

Topic

  • Human Geography

Status

Published

Project

  • Service Studies Tourism

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 9781119753797
  • ISBN: 9781119753742