Assessing and Advancing Research on Tourism Gentrification

Abstract

This article provides an overview and assessment of my concept of tourism gentrification. I describe my motivation for developing the concept and elaborate on the sources of inspiration for my theorizing of tourism as a major driver and outcome of gentrification trends. I next discuss the various scholarly reactions to my concept and delineate the ways in which researchers around the world have engaged my research to fashion new theories and understandings of the interconnection of tourism and gentrification. As a heuristic device, tourism gentrification focuses theoretical and analytical attention on how the interlocking nature of consumption-led economic growth, cultural identities linked to gentrifier status, and global circulations of real estate financing can produce unique local configurations of tourism and gentrification. As I point out, my concept of tourism gentrification is flexible and nimble enough to reveal the diverse ways in which tourism can be a driver of urbanization and neighborhood change, an effect of group conflict, and a site for localizing global flows of finance and culture.