Le tourisme de mémoire au prisme du « big data ». Cartographier les circulations touristiques pour observer les pratiques mémorielles Memory and battlefield tourism through the lens of big data. Mapping tourist flows to observe memory practices Sébastien Jacquot, Gaël Chareyron et Saskia Cousin Le tourisme de mémoire au prisme du « big data ». Cartographier les circulati...
The end of tourism?In 2017, the Copenhagen Tourism Bureau declared the "End of Tourism!", adding "as we know it[1]". If, after more than two centuries of steady development, the "end of Tourism as we know it" is finally upon us, the main stage where its demise is being acted out is in our cities. Our cities were the backdrop to the first organized mass anti-tourism demonstrations (Colomb and Novy, 2017). They have been the primary victims of "overtourism", a subject extensively discussed in the tourism literature in recent years (Popp, 2012;Seraphin et al., 2018). City tourism has also been used as a lever for opening the debate on more global urban problems, such as insufficient affordable housing, galloping gentrification in central neighbourhoods (Gravari-Barbas and Guinand, 2017) and changes in the urban fabric of local communities brought about by corporate development (Sdino and Magoni, 2018;Sonntag et al., 2018).However, research has recently begun to look at cities not just as the main setting for the "end of From tourism's "velvet revolution" to urban tourism disruptions A "velvet revolution" in tourism began to emerge at the end of the twentieth century. This was due, on the one hand, to the desires and expectations of "mature" tourists and, on the other, to the responsiveness of local tourism systems. These "mature" tourists, whose tourism
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms involved in the progressive integration of marginal and peripheral urban areas, located close to established tourist destinations, into the visited tourism perimeter, and the interplay of the supporting public and private actors. It focusses on the intertwining processes of commercial gentrification, heritagization and aestheticization of former “ordinary” or marginal areas as tools for and indications of their tourism development. It explores how the metropolitan tourism geography is progressively redesigned.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a comprehensive literature analysis, the Saint-Ouen flea market was selected as the object of study. The methodology is based on extensive in situ observations, a systematic analysis of the press and a corpus of tourist guides and several in-depth interviews with local public and private stakeholders.
Findings
This paper shows that combined public (Parisian urban and tourism stakeholders) and private interests led to the integration in the tourism perimeter of a space that was once on the margins of the tourism and metropolitan area. It highlights the mechanisms of this integration and the link between touristification, gentrification, aestheticization and artification. It was found that private investors and political decision makers regard Saint-Ouen flea market as a major opportunity for tourism and real estate development, which leads to some contradictions regarding heritage protection. Finally, it shows that market traders opposed the evolution of a commercial place into a place of symbolic consumption. At another level, it shows the stakes of tourism diversification in a metropolitan tourism destination that is characterized by overtourism.
Research limitations/implications
More studies are needed to identify not only the potential of flea markets to diversify tourist areas and practices, but also any potential resistance. The consequences on metropolitan tourism can be the subject of additional investigations: can this tourism diversification reduce overtourism in the centre, or is it only a diversification that functions as an additional driver of attractiveness? This research opens new perspectives on the modes of diversification (spatial and experiential) of metropolitan tourism as well as on the role that commercial changes play in these evolutions. It also makes it possible to question the modes of engagement of investors and traders in tourism.
Originality/value
This is an in-depth analysis of the case of Saint-Ouen flea market. The issues raised herein are applicable to similar peripheral urban areas, flea markets especially, that are rarely studied on the tourism-aestheticization-gentrification nexus. The analysis also shows the diversification of places and imaginaries of metropolitan tourism.
Pôle de recherche pour l'organisation et la diffusion de l'information géographique (CNRS UMR 8586) Electronic reference Sébastien Jacquot, « Politiques de valorisation patrimoniale et figuration des habitants en banlieue parisienne (
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