An integrative framework for urban tourism research

Abstract

This paper outlines an integrative framework for urban tourism and illustrates applications with reference to selected aspects of the literature. The framework emphasizes the identification of subject cells within a matrix defined in terms of scale (site, district, city-wide, regional, national, and international) and themes (demand, supply, development, and impacts). It stresses the need to examine the relationships between these, both vertically and horizontally. This is offered as a means of providing a more systematic and coherent perspective on urban tourism, as a way of integrating a steadily growing but as yet largely fragmented body of research and providing structure for future efforts in this field, both conceptually and empirically.