Urban tourism as a special type of cultural tourism

Cultural Tourism is a key sector of the global tourism market, accounting for just under 40% of all international travel (UNWTO, 2018). Cities have played a central role in the recent development of the cultural tourism market, particularly as the focus of cultural consumption has shifted from high culture (Culture 1.0) to popular or everyday culture, and from tangible museums and monuments to intangible events and experiences, and from cultural tourism to creative tourism (Culture 4.0). The desire of tourists to experience the everyday life of the local has also driven a shift from distribution systems based on tour operations to collaborative economy platforms for accommodation and the curation of urban experiences. This has stimulated changes in urban space, with growing areas of cities being given over to mass cultural tourism practices. This has arguably led to touristification and gentrification effects, monocultural landscapes and growing penetration of cultural tourists into the interstitial spaces of everyday and private life. In some cities the perception of cultural tourism as a “good” form of tourism is beginning to be eroded by these changes.