Tourism, Urban Culture and Local Development

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid and sustained growth of tourism has had an uneven impact on cities, countries, and regions around the world, but there are today few places left on the planet that are not subject to what the sociologist John Urry refers to as the "tourist gaze." Photo-clicking tourists can now be found just about everywhere, including in war zones, the most remote rainforests, far beneath the surface of the Earth's oceans and seas, and even in outer space. Indeed, given the development and growth of space tourism, the tourism industry can now be said to have transcended the moniker of a global industry. The globe no longer contains it.

Two characteristics are perhaps most important to any understanding of the disparate impacts of tourism on culture and local economic development. The first is the fact that most international tourists originate in the so-called Global North, or the relatively high-income countries of North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The second is that even though tourism is an export industry, it is an industry in which the export, the good or service produced for tourists, is consumed at the point of production. This second characteristic is what makes the tourism industry so transformative in the places where it has become an important part of the local economy, and it also underscores the industry's cultural impacts. Because of its highly dynamic place-based nature, the tourism industry has completely refigured entire regions such as the Costa Brava, the Sunshine Coast, and the Yucatán; metropolitan areas such as Prague, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Cancún; and urban districts such as Times Square in New York and Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Even indigenous communities in places like the Amazon or the Arctic are now increasingly, if in some cases begrudgingly, turning to tourism or ecotourism as an economic development strategy, with clear transformative effects directly traceable to the tourist trade.

The export-oriented nature of tourism (local, regional, or international) is what makes the industry important to those concerned with economic development, especially in an age of neoliberalism characterized by less redistribution of resources from wealthier to less prosperous regions. As an export or basic industry, tourism has the potential to leverage new investment, revenue, and employment through a multiplier effect as spending by tourists and tourism-related firms works its way through a local or regional economy. It is for this reason that those concerned with the economic development of neighborhoods, cities, regions, and even entire countries have increasingly turned to tourism as an economic development strategy. But the very same characteristic that makes tourism so alluring to local politicians, planners, and business owners may also make it problematic for local residents, particularly in places where residents lack the ability to influence development or signal their concerns about how the industry is regulated. While a reliance on tourism may lead to increases in local tax revenue and the creation of profits for local firms, as well as jobs and increased income for local residents, many of the gains generated locally may flow to the global corporations that dominate the industry. The growth of tourism in specific places is also notorious for undermining or commodifying local culture, creating seasonal low-paid employment for residents, and promoting unwelcome practices such as the trafficking of women and children and environmental destruction, among other untoward practices. Clearly, tourism is a double-edged sword.

For this special edition of Societies, the editors are seeking theoretically informed articles that highlight the many links among tourism, culture, and local economic development. Individual case studies of specific neighborhoods, cities, regions, or countries are welcome, as are those that underline the dilemmas local officials may face as they attempt to harness the benefits of tourism while minimizing the industry's more problematic effects.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper, or review) of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Dr. David Gladstone
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• tourism
• culture
• local economic development
• regional development
• social policy