Towards A Research Agenda for Urban Tourism. A synthesis

This chapter presents a plausible trajectory for future research into forms of urban tourism. This trajectory reflects the idea that tourism development might indeed be a powerful engine of development for cities and urban areas in general and art cities in particular if the right balance is struck between appreciating and promoting urban tourism, on the one hand, and conservation of the immaterial and material cultural goods uniquely possessed by them on the other. Only by embracing a development strategy that leads to sustainable urban tourism will the assets that form the foundations of urban tourism development be used optimally, and the various stakeholders, that is the local population, local entrepreneurs and visitors themselves, truly benefit from the opportunities that tourism offers them, also in the longer run. The COVID19 pandemic, an event without precedents in terms of extension and duration, has disrupted the tourism industry probably more than other sectors in the world economy, particularly in the bigger cities, and might very well provide the necessary momentum that will help to accelerate the process towards a new business model for urban tourism, in which quality is preferred to quality and the local population and local entrepreneurs play a central role. In this perspective, a new research agenda may very well lay a sound foundation for constructing such a new business model and supporting an innovative and visionary development strategy for urban tourism that might help eliminate a number of recurrent paradoxes in research and in policy. © Jan van der Borg 2022.