TOURISM AND URBAN DYNAMICS: REFLECTIONS ON THE USE OF TOURISM AS AN URBAN ENTERPRISE STRATEGY

Abstract

Since the 1970's, there is a process of restructuring urban management due to difficulties of the capitalist economy. Deindustrialization, unemployment and fiscal austerity lead governments to view the city as a business to be managed. This is what Harvey (1996) calls "urban entrepreneurship", a form of urban management in which local public authorities incorporates a business stance in attracting new forms of accumulation. In a scenario marked by the competition between cities for the attraction of new forms of capital accumulation, this "Business-State" starts to seek ways of diversifying productive activities. This article focuses on how tourism takes place in this process and thus interferes with urban dynamics. Based on empirical observations of what has happened to some of the most emblematic examples of urban entrepreneurship in Europe, the possibility that arises is that tourism, with its promise of economic development, has contributed to legitimize the actions of the entrepreneurial State.