Urban Tourism

This is a recent challenge for many cities as not it is no longer the case that only the capitals of countries are worth the attention of visitors. At this point also second- or even third cities (often post-industrial) are experiencing an increase in their tourism numbers. With the example of tourist cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona or Venice in mind, those cities are on the lookout for more sustainable tourism models. Currently there are little to no suitable governance models that deal with the issues the tourist city brings. Additionally there is only a limited scholarly body on more sustainable urban tourism models. This research project thus explores potential sustainable urban tourism models taking into account recent trends in tourism such as the growth of the sharing economy, creative tourism and new urban tourism and the ‘live-like-a-local experience’. The consequences (both positive and negative) of these trends are assessed as well as their potential related governance models.

This research makes use of two case studies being Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Valencia, Spain. Both cities have been experiencing rapid growth in tourism over the past years and are developing their tourism strategy with sustainability and the threat of becoming a tourist city in mind. Making use of mostly qualitative methods, the aim of this project is to have more insight on the consequences of recent trends in tourism and to explore how cities can better adapt to those trends in terms of governance.

This project is part of the Erasmus Initiative ‘Vital Cities and Citizens’ which has the objective to improve quality of life in cities by involving researchers from different disciplines working closely together to tackle current day issues in cities. By stimulating collaboration with societal partners, Vital Cities and Citizens aims to demonstrate that scientific knowledge and societal relevance can go hand in hand.