The changing nature of city tourism and its possib

Authors: Kerstin Bock

Publish Date: 2015/12/12

Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 20-

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Abstract

City tourism is one of the fastest growing travel segments worldwide 18 and the changing nature of city tourism becomes increasingly apparent in many cities Facilitated by mobile access to information tourists are increasingly seeking finding and consuming ‘local experiences’ and the boundaries between tourists and residents become increasingly blurred While the impact of the proliferation of information and communication technologies ICTs on the travel industry as well as on tourist behaviour and the travel experience has been widely acknowledged Egger J Hosp Tour Technol 42 119–133 2013 McCabe et al Tour Manage Perspect 4 36–44 2012 Stamboulis and Skayannis Tour Manage 24 35–43 2003 35 40 Ye et al Comput Hum Behav 27 634–639 2011 the implications of this new type of tourism for future urban development have received little attention Füller and Michel Int J Urban Regional 384 1304–1318 2014 This paper aims to better understand the underlying causes of the changing nature of city tourism and how this change could impact the future development of cities It is argued that in addition to the proliferation of ICTs the phenomena of experiential travel and social acceleration have contributed to the rise in popularity of city tourism as well as to a change in tourist behaviour Possible implications for the future development of cities resulting from this new type of tourism as well as approaches to solving those challenges are discussed It becomes clear that an interdisciplinary approach will be required in order to fully understand the challenges posed by city tourism as well as to develop and implement strategies for a successful integration of tourism into future urban developmentAlthough cities and their development have without doubt been increasingly shaped by tourism in the past decades discussions of the links between city tourism and its impact on a city’s development remain scarce City tourism is one of the fastest growing travel segments worldwide 18 and the impacts of the changing nature of city tourism become increasingly apparent in many cities The proliferation of information and communication technologies ICTs has had a significant impact on the travel industry as well as on tourist behaviour and is also transforming the nature of travel and the actual tourist experience 9 22While the general impact of ICTs on the travel industry and tourist behaviour has been widely acknowledged 9 19 30 35 40 41 an understanding of the impact of ICTs on the nature of city tourism and consequently on urban transformation and the future development of cities has received little attention 13 As travel experiences become increasingly dominated by ICTs a change in travel behaviour can be observed in cities around the world Therefore the aim of this paper is to examine the changing nature of city tourism as well as the underlying causes of this change by means of a literature review Moreover possible consequences of this phenomenon for the future development of cities will be delineatedThe first part of this paper provides a brief overview of the growth of city tourism and discusses possible reasons for the popularity of this type of tourism Then the changing nature of city tourism will be explored by focusing on the effects of the proliferation of ICTs on travel behaviour as well as on the phenomena of experiential travel and social acceleration Based on these considerations some of the challenges that city tourism and the changing tourist behaviour pose to the future of cities and possible implications will be discussed This is followed by an outlook for the future of city tourism as well as by exploring possible approaches to solving challenges resulting from this new type of tourismMore than half of the world’s population lives in cities today and by 2030 an estimated five billion people will live in urban areas As vibrant epicentres of culture and commerce some of the world’s greatest tourism destinations are cities attracting a growing number of visitors every year 37 According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization UNWTO city tourism also referred to as urban tourism is considered as “trips taken by travellers to cities or places of high population density The duration of these trips is usually short one to 3 days…” UNWTO 2012 cited in 36836While total international tourist arrivals are increasing year on year different trends regarding different segments and types of trips can be observed According to Euromonitor International 12 international tourist arrivals have increased by 48  in 2013 while the world’s 100 leading cities in terms of international tourist arrivals have experienced a growth of 54  in the same year Although these growth figures include different trip purposes including business trips a rise in city tourism can also be observed when looking at holiday segments While sun beach holidays have grown by 31  over the last 5 year period representing 29  of all holiday trips the segment of touring holidays has grown by 28  to reach a 23  share The city trips segment however has increased by 72  during the past 5 years to reach a share of 21  18 In some countries city trips have already overtaken sun beach holidays as the most popular type of holidays For example 42  of British people took a city break holiday in 2014 compared to 38  who went on a sun beach holiday in the same year 1In order to understand the implications for the future of cities it is important to also look at the development of city trips from a city’s perspective Using Barcelona and Berlin as examples the enormous growth some cities have experienced in terms of tourist arrivals since 1990 can be illustrated Arrivals in hotels and similar accommodation establishments in the city area of Barcelona have grown from 17 million in 1990 to 75 million in 2013 In the city area of Berlin arrivals in all paid forms of accommodation establishments have increased from 28 million in 1990 to 113 million in 2013 32 What implications this growth already has on cities today and what they might be in the future will be discussed in more detail later In the following section some of the reasons for the popularity of city tourism will be exploredWhat makes city tourism distinct from other types of tourism is that cities have a high density of diverse cultural offerings in a relatively small area attracting different types of tourists Moreover most attractions and amenities tourists are drawn to have not been primarily intended for tourists which often leads to an interaction between tourists and locals As these characteristics of city tourism are not new the question that arises is why the popularity of city tourism has drastically increased in recent years

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