Art tourism: A new field for tourist studies

Abstract

This article argues the case for art tourism as a new field of tourist studies. At present, art tourism is currently obscured under cultural tourism’s voluminous bounds – which are as inappropriate as they are unwieldy and overloaded. More specifically, it cannot adequately contain art tourism’s distinctive origins, forms of experience and articulation between art worlds, cities and regions and tourism industries. In part, a more dedicated research field is also needed to keep track of its rapid growth and development as a primary driver of regional and urban regeneration and for the much expanded exhibitionary complex it encompasses. As a place-changing vehicle for city life, art tourism also needs separate forms of data collection to assist in its effective planning and design. Museums that have historically catered for local art publics now need to relate increasingly to growing touring art publics. The article sets out the historical and contemporary significance of art tourism in order to identify the breadth of a new tourism agenda, as well as its connections to other disciplines including art, architecture, social anthropology, cultural economy, urban studies, museology, aesthetics and the sociology and geography of art.