Tourism and the Metropolis

The growing role and relevance of tourism in cities – and of cities in tourism – has in recent decades emerged as a topic of great interest to scholars across many social sciences disciplines. Yet, while urban tourism research has flourished, various issues relating to tourism in metropolitan contexts are in need of greater scholarly engagement.

What forms does tourism take in today’s metropolises and metropolitan regions? How do these forms differ from tourism in other urban contexts? Are these differences significant enough to warrant the classification of ‘metropolitan tourism’ as a distinct type of urban tourism? What are their implications for policy and planning processes? How do policy and planning processes in different metropolises and metropolitan regions differ from each other, and what can they learn from each other? And finally, how could tourism in metropolises and metropolitan regions be made more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive?

Given the importance widely attributed to major metropolises and metropolitan regions as contemporary engines of economic development, innovation, and change, the widespread portrayal of tourism as a leading economic and social force of the 21st century, and the fact that the world’s large metropolitan areas are key recipients of tourism flows, it is surprising how little systematic attention is paid to tourism in metropolitan contexts. This book aims to fill these gaps.