Tourism Urbanisation in Metropolitan Fringe: Insights from the Tourist City of Lavasa in Pune, India

Abstract

This paper examines the processes surrounding tourism-led urbanisation in the periphery of a metropolitan region using the case of Pune—a metropolitan city in India. Pune houses five million people and its hinterlands were amalgamated in 2016 into the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) administered by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority. We used a geographical perspective of core-periphery focusing on “destination-bound” and “citybound” angles for conceptualising tourism in PMR. We draw attention to the significance of “destination-bound” flows from the core to the periphery using a detailed study of Lavasa city—a tourism destination located 60 km southwest of Pune. A morphological study of the Lavasa tourism sub-region was conducted using temporal mapping and direct observations at two scales: within the Lavasa city, and along the road connecting Lavasa with Pune city. The findings show how a “tourism corridor” is created when the destination at the periphery is a tourist attraction. The corridor is characterised by informal tourism activities that are outside the reach of the tourism policy. We argue that tourism sub-regions generate settlements and landscapes in the peripheries of metropolitan regions, particularly around natural resources. These leisure spaces in the periphery and hinterlands contribute to the distinct territoriality of metropolitan regions.