Seeking pathways for sustainable urban tourism: a critical deconstruction of Berlin's approach for city-compatible tourism

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the current dynamics in the policy field of urban tourism and new approaches to sustainable urban tourism that have emerged after years of growing tensions and controversial debates in the pre-COVID 19 era. By using a critical interpretive approach of a discourse-based deconstruction, the case of Berlin and its novel approach of ‘city-compatible tourism’ are used to analyse how, in the context of a proclaimed policy change, an expansion of the understanding of urban tourism and its possible modes of regulation is taking place. It illustrates how different ideas and conceptions from different discursive knowledge formations converge, promising an innovative policy approach but with some inconsistencies, leading to a diffuse policy discourse on sustainable urban tourism. By underlining the generally complex nature of implementing the concept of sustainable tourism, the paper finally argues that a more profound negotiation of the essential goals and principles of sustainable tourism in an urban context is necessary to initiate a fundamental change in policy practice.