Since urban space is represented as an assemblage of important sights, buzzing atmospheres, distinctive local cultures and (imagined) ways of life attached to it, tourists are visiting cities in growing numbers. Recently, advertising slogans such as “live like a local” and the notion of staying in “homes” rather than in hotel rooms or holiday apartments have increasingly shifted the attention of urban tourists from sightseeing to life-seeing and life-sharing. The marketing campaigns transport the idea of embedding oneself in a residential neighborhood in order to at least temporarily attain the status of a local while traveling.

This New Urban Tourism (Maitland 2007) – a new variant of tourism that turns residential neighborhoods into tourist destinations – furthers the need of inhabitants to deal with these ever new, transient neighbors and raises questions of how to integrate them into their own notions of locals, non-locals and tourists. It also challenges the everyday life in urban neighborhoods as the routines of locals and tourists and their respective usage of public and private spaces might differ, if not clash. Touristification of everyday life, evolving usage practices of urban spaces, changing lifestyles and altering inhabitants may blur the line between distinguishable groups of users of certain spaces and expedite changes in neighborhoods and cities.

This book seeks to bring together theoretical and empirical research from different disciplines on how (and which) representations of people and places attract tourists to residential neighborhoods. How do local communities contest both these powerful representations, as well as the impact of New Urban Tourism on their neighborhoods? How is the housing market and the use of space influenced by new tourist demands?

We hope to advance the discussion on power relations, discourse and market domination in housing and tourism, contested meaning-making, urban and touristic practices, and the politics of representation in the internationally rising research field of New Urban Tourism. We look for contributions that address but are not limited to one of the following themes:

Theories of New Urban Tourism

  • Theoretic reflections and discourses on New Urban Tourism
  • Relations between New Urban Tourism and other forms of mobilities
  • Postcolonial perspectives on New Urban Tourism

New Urban Tourism and Housing Market

  • Effects on rental and real estate markets and business models
  • Economic impact of peer-to-peer platforms such as Airbnb
  • Effects on traditional tourism markets and tourism infrastructures
  • Quality of life and quality of housing in urban tourist destinations
  • Its impact on work and service industries

New Urban Tourism and Contestations

  • Power relations that New Urban Tourism challenges or entails
  • Conflicts between tourists and residents in residential neighborhoods
  • ‘Touristification’ of everyday life in cities and tourist practices
  • Xenophobia and protests against tourists

Representations of New Urban Tourism

  • New Urban Tourists, their lifestyles and their travel preferences
  • Media representations of residential neighborhoods for and by travelers
  • Representations of tourists and the construction of the local
  • Identity constructions and mechanisms of (in)and (ex)clusion
  • Representations of New Urban Tourism as vehicle for cosmopolitanism

Target Audience: The book will be of interest to academic audiences seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the social, economic, political and cultural effects of New Urban Tourism on cities and on urban quality of life in different regions of the world. It will also be useful to professionals involved in governing, planning, designing and transforming (new) urban tourism. The book will also be relevant for undergraduate, Masters and PhD students engaging in analyses of contemporary tourism.

Type of Contributions and Submission Procedure: As we aim for an interdisciplinary understanding of complex developments around New Urban Tourism, we welcome chapter proposals from different disciplines. These may be urban studies, architecture, urban planning, ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, human geography, economics, history, political sciences, and others. We look both for empirical and theoretical chapters and especially seek for contributions those reflecting on cases of New Urban Tourism in cities of South America, Arabia, Africa, Asia and Australia. We nonetheless welcome chapters on New Urban Tourism in European and North American cities.

Please send your abstract of no more than 300 words to Anna Laura Raschke ([email protected]) by December 1, 2019.

Reference

  • Maitland, Robert (2007): Tourists, the creative class and distinctive areas in major cities. The roles of visitors and residents in developing new tourism areas. In: Greg Richards, Julie Wilson (Eds.): Tourism, creativity and development. London: Routledge (Contemporary geographies of leisure, tourism, and mobility), pp. 73–86.