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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 November 2019

Elizabeth Ann Cooper

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of cultural centres to be spaces that foster interaction between tourists and locals, and thereby meet the demands of new…

1526

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of cultural centres to be spaces that foster interaction between tourists and locals, and thereby meet the demands of new cultural tourists. This is done through conducting a case study of Katuaq Cultural Centre in Nuuk, Greenland. Combining theories of cultural contact and placemaking, the paper analyses how locals and tourists make use of and experience the centre. The paper then goes on to conduct a broader discussion about how future placemaking in tourism can respond to the emerging demands of cultural Arctic tourists, and to suggest ways to encourage positive interaction on both a local community level and a resident-visitor level.

Design/methodology/approach

A series of anthropological research methods were used, including participant observation in the cultural centre itself, and informal and semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.

Findings

Concluding that, from multiple perspectives, Katuaq fails to perform as a “centre of culture”, the study offers innovative insights into how cultural centres can be operated more inclusively in the future, as spaces in which members of different cultural groups can achieve positive interaction. It is argued that the future of successful and fulfilling cultural tourism offerings in the Arctic lies at the intersection of tourism and leisure studies.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper lies first in its deepening of the academic discussion of cultural centres. Second, and on a broader level, the paper identifies an emerging trend of “community–tourism spaces” as cultural tourism offerings, and provides some insights into the conflicts experienced in these kinds of spaces, as well as some suggestions as to how further research on these spaces should continue.

Details

Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-5911

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 22 June 2015

Taketo Naoi, Shoji Iijima, Akira Soshiroda and Tetsuo Shimizu

This study aims to identify the elements that characterise spaces for tourists and those that characterise spaces for locals in a shopping district based on the perspectives of…

Abstract

This study aims to identify the elements that characterise spaces for tourists and those that characterise spaces for locals in a shopping district based on the perspectives of local students. Forty-five local undergraduates took photographs of settings that impressed them in the shopping district in Naha-shi, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and the reasons given by each respondent for photographing a particular setting were recorded. Frequently used nouns and adjectives were extracted for each category. The results suggest the importance of the types of commercial facilities and people on the perspectives of locals. Affordable and mundane products are associated with local spaces, while souvenirs may be regarded as symbols of touristic spaces. The absence of locals and the presence of tourists may be characteristics of touristic spaces whereas the potential attractiveness of encounters with locals for tourists is also implied.

Details

Marketing Places and Spaces
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-940-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2019

Aristeidis Gkoumas and Federico D’Orazio

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the art-based project of Full Llove Inn as a tactical urbanism intervention and urban tourist attraction. The project consisted of an…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the art-based project of Full Llove Inn as a tactical urbanism intervention and urban tourist attraction. The project consisted of an elevated room-car, displayed in the public space of Amsterdam from August 2006 to September 2007.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted between December 2017 and November 2018 in Amsterdam. The study applied the methodological tools of semi-structured interviews, textual analysis and participatory observation.

Findings

Full Llove Inn provided an extraordinary allure for visitors and residents. It created a sense of intra-personal and inter-personal existential authenticity for local and non-local guests, respectively, while introducing a pop-up hotel as a new form of tactical initiative.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the inability to contact non-local guests for interviews, the only source of data was based on tourist experiences about Full Llove Inn derived from the hotel guest book.

Practical implications

The research suggests that pop-up hotels may be used by Destination Management Organizations as a means of strengthening the brand image and creating a competitive edge for cities.

Social implications

The research indicates that art-inspired tactical interventions in the public space of civic environments could constitute a social capital while generating interactions between residents and visitors.

Originality/value

For the first time in the tourism literature, this study investigates the impact of tactical projects on destination branding from the perspective of both locals and visitors.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 June 2021

Lucia Tomassini, Leanne Schreurs and Elena Cavagnaro

The rapid growth of tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic prompts the need for critical reflection of tourism’s “local-global” responsibility in the wake of that pandemic…

1293

Abstract

Purpose

The rapid growth of tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic prompts the need for critical reflection of tourism’s “local-global” responsibility in the wake of that pandemic. Conceptually driven by the ancient Greek notion of hubris, this study reflects on the perception of tourists as actors disconnected from citizens’ necessities, safety and well-being. In so doing we develop further knowledge on the relationship between the spaces of tourism and citizenship and how this might build a sustainable future-proof tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected daily for two weeks via three Google Alert queries set to mine Italian online news media contents immediately after the Italian Government’s adoption of mobility restrictions due to COVID-19. This study uses a thematic narrative analysis to examine the contents related to tourists during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Findings

The exploratory findings reveal how tourists are largely presented as taking over the space of local residents and, by breaking the rules set by national and local authorities, as disregarding those residents’ safety and well-being. Hence, they appear disconnected from any sense of belonging to a local or global community, and from a space to which they owe a duty of care.

Originality/value

By framing tourists as hubristic subjects ontologically belonging to a neoliberal leisure space disentangled from the citizenship space, this study establishes a novel theoretical grounding from which a sustainable future-proof tourism that is rooted in citizenship space can be rethought.

Details

Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-5911

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 November 2018

Leopold Lucas

Starting from the hypothesis of an ordinary/extraordinary tension that drives the link between tourist places and non-tourist places, this paper discusses the issue of tourist

Abstract

Purpose

Starting from the hypothesis of an ordinary/extraordinary tension that drives the link between tourist places and non-tourist places, this paper discusses the issue of tourist spatial delimitations. Rather than take such an issue for granted, the paper argues that the author needs to understand how the different actors within the tourism system create specific delimitations and how tourists deal with these delimitations. To pinpoint these tourist spatial delimitations, this paper considers three types of discourses: the discourse of local promoters, the discourse of guidebooks and the discourse of tourists. The purpose of this paper is to explain not only the tourist delimitations established by these actors but also the concordance between the guidebooks’ prescriptions, the public actors’ strategies and the tourists’ practices. In this empirical investigation, the author uses the case of Los Angeles and focuses more specifically on the two main tourist places within the agglomeration: Hollywood and Santa Monica. The argument supports the idea that political actors tend to develop what the author could consider a tourist secession, as the author tends to precisely delimit the designated area for the sake of efficiency. Guidebooks, which the author must consider because they are true and strong prescribers of tourist practices, draw their own tourist neighbourhoods. Finally, most tourists in Los Angeles conform to these delimitations and do not venture off the beaten track.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines three types of discourses: the discourse of local tourism promoters, the discourse of tourist guidebooks and the discourse of tourists. The purpose of the study is to explain not only the tourist delimitations established by these actors but also the concordance between the guidebooks’ prescriptions, the public actors’ strategies and the tourists’ practices. To conduct this analysis, this paper relied on an empirical survey (Lucas, 2014b) whose methodology used a range of different techniques. First, interviews with Convention and Visitors Bureau managers were performed to understand the delimitations established by the institutional actors directly in charge of the tourist development of those places. Second, the second kind of discourse considered here is that in guidebooks. Los Angeles is often included in guidebooks about California in general, albeit with a much shorter number of pages. Although all guidebooks were considered, the study mostly focused on those specifically dedicated to Los Angeles (Time Out, Rough Guide and Lonely Planet) to conduct a thick analysis of their discourses and to note the spatial delimitations that they established. The author must regard guidebooks as the prescribers of practices because they represent a source of information for tourists. The aim is to determine how tourists follow – or do not follow – the recommendations of guidebooks. Third, to understand these practices, the paper considers numerous interviews (approximately seventy) conducted with tourists.

Findings

Thus, in these two examples, the author has distinguished powerful delimitations of the tourist places created by promoters through their discourse, which provides information on how they promote the place through urban planning. This tourist staging, and all the specific processing of the place, contributes to a clear distinction between these places and the rest of the urban environment, allowing a very precise definition. The distinction is made from one street to another. However, these delimitations are mainly defined by the practices of the tourists: they have a very selective way of dealing with the public space of the two places concerned. They validate, update and thus make relevant the limits established by the institutional operators, sometimes performing even stricter operations of delimitation. This way of dealing with space is observed in the urban planning and in the discourses on the tourist places expressed in the guidebooks. There are no tactics to bypass, divert and subvert the spatial configuration settled by local authorities and guidebooks; tourists do not attempt to discover new places or to go off the beaten track (Maitland and Newman, 2009). Yet, this is not the only explanation for the way in which tourists occupy a place. Although the guidebooks perform the operations of delimitation and rank places (insisting on one place over another and highlighting what should be seen, where to go, etc.), they also exhaustively present the practices that one can perform, and how tourists deal with space either hints at their disregard of these tools or at individuals’ selection based on the information given. In Hollywood, as in Santa Monica, while the guidebooks exhaustively enumerate the numerous sites that might be interesting for tourist practices, the author observes a very important and discriminating concentration of these tourist practices within a precisely delimited perimeter, respectively, the Walk of Fame and the Ocean Front Walk: tourists walk from one street to another and from a full to an empty space. Thus, the author can support the idea that how tourists cope with space are temporary, delimited by highly targeted practices and restricted only to a few tourist places.

Originality/value

What about the ordinary/extraordinary dialectic? Most tourists do not look for something ordinary; yet, the entirety of what could be considered as “extraordinary” in one metropolis is not included in its tourism space. On the contrary, tourist places can also be seen as “ordinary.” Nevertheless, there is clearly a distinction observed through the discourses, but also in the practices, between an “inside” and an “outside” and between something extraordinary and one’s ordinary environment. One can interpret this result as an actual confirmation of the classic combination (tourist/sight/marker) that constitutes a “tourist attraction” (MacCannell, 1976, p. 44), which concerns a very specific way of dealing with space in Los Angeles. Tourists do not practice Los Angeles as the author might assume that they would typically practice other metropolises, e.g. strolling down the streets randomly. The two places examined in this paper are open to that kind of practice. One can consider that these places have a higher degree of urbanity than the average area of Los Angeles precisely because there are tourists. The density in terms of buildings is (relatively) more important and accompanied by a narrative construction of the urban space (the historic dimension of the buildings), and the public space has undergone specific urban planning and given special consideration, at least greater consideration than elsewhere. In these places, the author finds a concentration of population – the metropolitan crowd – that is otherwise very rare in Los Angeles. However, the tourists seem to have a limited interest in these attractions. These classic characteristics of urbanity do not seem to be regarded positively by a certain number of tourists and are not taken into consideration by tourists. This observation contrasts somewhat with the idea that dwelling touristically in a metropolis primarily entails the discovery of its urbanity (Equipe MIT, 2005). Discovering Los Angeles does not consist of experiencing the local society and of exploring the urban space but, rather, of performing specific practices in Los Angeles (seeing the Hollywood sign and the Stars and walking along the famous beaches). Two approaches can help us understand this gap: considering Los Angeles as a specific case or considering that the spatial configuration of Los Angeles enables us to bring out the logic at work in other metropolises but that would be too complex to distinguish here. Perhaps, the author finds both elements, and this reflection must invite the author to continue the discussion on the logic of tourists’ practice of metropolises: are they really looking for a maximal urbanity during their metropolitan experiences?

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 June 2021

Diogo Filipe Moleiro, Maria João Carneiro and Zélia Breda

This paper aims to provide an empirical analysis of residents’ perceptions and attitudes in the city of Aveiro, Portugal, regarding the appropriation of public spaces by tourists

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide an empirical analysis of residents’ perceptions and attitudes in the city of Aveiro, Portugal, regarding the appropriation of public spaces by tourists. An analysis of how the perceptions of this appropriation influence residents’ attitudes (RA) towards tourists, and even restructuring of space considering RA, is also presented. It is intended to do this based on a theoretical framework where tourism socio-cultural impacts on urban destinations are analysed with a focus on appropriation processes. Attitudes of residents are also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey (N = 301) was carried out with residents of the city of Aveiro, using a cluster sampling approach. The aim of the empirical study is to use multiple linear regression analyses to assess the extent to which the residents’ perceptions of tourists’ appropriation of public spaces influence the attitudes of the former towards the latter.

Findings

The results show that, overall, the residents consider that tourism has more positive than negative impacts. However, it can be observed that residents already perceive some negative impacts of tourism regarding the appropriation of space. Concerning RA, these tend to be more positive than negative. It can also be observed that various perceptions of appropriation of space significantly influence these attitudes. The paper ends with some guidelines for designing policies and strategies for tourism development that promote better use of public spaces by tourists.

Originality/value

Considering the limited empirical research on perceptions of appropriation of tourism space, the study carried out in this paper analyses the impact of a comprehensive set of residents’ perceptions regarding the appropriation of public space by tourists on various types of attitudes of residents towards tourists.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Pieter Terhorst and Hilal Erkuş-Öztürk

This paper aims to show that the field of restaurants in Amsterdam, a tourist-historic city par excellence where tourism and daily life of locals are spatially intimately…

1701

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to show that the field of restaurants in Amsterdam, a tourist-historic city par excellence where tourism and daily life of locals are spatially intimately intertwined, is nevertheless segmented according to types of restaurants and their micro-geography (passers-by streets versus side streets and “hidden places” in the city). The kernel of the authors’ argument is that on the restaurant market, just as on markets of other cultural products, there is a lot of quality uncertainty because the standards of valuation are contested, differ between classes and lifestyle groups and vary in space and time.

Design/methodology/approach

Case study is based on face-to-face interviews with tourists and restaurants in the summer of 2013 in Amsterdam. The restaurants to be interviewed were selected on the basis of a stratified sample of new start-ups, covering different neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. The interviews with restaurants and tourists were done on the basis of some open-ended and some semi-structured questions. Simple cross-tabulation tables with shares, Herfindahl index measures and a chi-square analysis were employed to make the analysis.

Findings

Quality uncertainty in the restaurant market is higher for tourists than for locals. Restaurants that are strongly oriented to the tourism market are more found in the lower-middle segments of the market, are more located in passers-by streets, participate less in local networks and monitor other restaurants less than restaurants that are predominantly dependent on locals.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the lack of interest of making interviews from tourists, the authors could only apply interviews to queuing tourists who have time to reply questions. The long queue was mainly in front of Van Gogh Museum. Madame Taussauds Museum and the boat tours queue was tried a lot but no success achieved for making interviews. The authors’ empirical research is based on interviews with tourists only, whereas gentrifiers are not interviewed at all.

Practical implications

This paper enriches knowledge on food tourism on the one hand and the relation between urban tourism and gentrification on the other. Streets with a variety of different restaurants and shops are attractive to both locals and tourists. But the more attractive those streets become, the more property prices increase as a result of which their diversity and attractiveness particularly to locals declines.

Social implications

This paper argues that mainstream economics does go very far in analysing the restaurant market. The authors argue that Bourdieu’s impressive works bring us further. That is why the authors prefer the concept of field to market because the concept of field implies power relations largely neglected in mainstream economic analysis. However, Bourdieu hardly pays attention to geographical space (only social space). By bringing geography in to the field of restaurants, the authors get a better grip on the geography of social construction of quality and why tourists have a peripheral position in the field vis-à-vis gentrifiers (or locals).

Originality/value

Most of the literature on food tourism is strongly focussed on the demand side and neglects the supply side and is very empiristic, ignoring the analysis of how the restaurant market really works; it never wonders how it is possible that the restaurant market works, given the problem of quality uncertainty. This paper aims to link production and consumption in the restaurant market under conditions of quality uncertainty. The paper enlarges knowledge on the relation between urban tourism and gentrification in tourist-historic cities. Although both are spatially intertwined in those cities, the authors argue that there is a tendency to segmentation in the restaurant market.

Details

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6182

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Creative Tourist: A Eudaimonic Perspective
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-404-3

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Sara María Torres Outón

The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the analysis case, how the revitalization of a historic centre has been carried out and the role of tourism in this process.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the analysis case, how the revitalization of a historic centre has been carried out and the role of tourism in this process.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study area is well-documented as there has been extensive fieldwork on the transformation of the commercial sector in the Monumental Zone of Pontevedra in the last three decades. In order to prepare this paper, a bibliographic review, in-depth interviews, premises registration data and population data have been used.

Findings

The findings show that the processes of change and revitalization do not conform to a single reality common to all historical centres, although similar strategies are developed, the role of the participating actors and, especially, the idiosyncrasy of these spaces change the outcomes. On the one hand, gentrification does not occur and the increase of residential uses is still a goal. On the other hand, the tourism strategy brings more visitors and complements the commerce activity and attraction.

Social implications

The new challenge of these spaces, and the urban contribution from this research, is that in the appropriation of space by citizens, tourism may be a complement for commerce, and shops and hospitality (facilities) make these spaces more livable. Although tourism does not necessarily increase the number of residents, the revenue from tourism may prevent the reoccurrence of abandonment.

Originality/value

The paper focusses on both gentrification and touristification; processes that have led to the substitution of residents and activities and the conflict with the local population and the normalization of urban life. This case has been selected because despite a seemingly successful revitalization process, recently some old threats seem to be returning.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2021

Daniel Imbert-Bouchard Ribera

This paper aims to expose the evolution in the use of the so-called reception tools and tourist information that are present at the time of consumption of a trip towards an…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to expose the evolution in the use of the so-called reception tools and tourist information that are present at the time of consumption of a trip towards an interest in and a willingness to link local residents and tourists in a friendly, inclusive and conciliatory way. This is the case of territorial signage designed for pedestrians, a growing protagonist of the urban landscape of many cities, which has found in its formulation the appropriate response to unify the messages and criteria that are addressed to all audiences and people with all types of sensitivities.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an extensive fieldwork study conducted in 2013 and 2017 in the 62 most populated cities of Catalonia, different variables related to the shape of the signage and the content presented in them were analysed. To this end, a specific pattern of ad-hoc observation and structured interviews were applied to determine the social transition of the content and approaches used in the signage.

Findings

While signage is initially considered to be a basic solution with purely informative content, poor in qualitative aspects and often neglected by those responsible for its management, over time it has emerged as a tool that serves to unify the interests of the citizens who share the same space for mutual interaction. It is characterised by providing open and transversal information for all citizens without focussing on or thematising tourism in an exclusive and segregated way, separating it from the rest of the aspects that make up the nature of the urban landscape.

Originality/value

This paper confirms that these tangible instruments of support for tourists, beyond seeking a harmonic fit in the urban planning of today's cities, are also complicit in seeking social cohesion in the present-day paradigm of the conflicts created by urban tourism.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

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