Tourism in the City. Overdosed Underplanned or What?

The presentation outlines important aspects to consider when studying conflicts about and around tourism in cities, including, first, the role of urban tourism’s massive and often rapid growth; second, the fact that backlashes in cities are often less directed against tourism in its entirety than against particular kinds of tourism (or tourists); third, the need to look at contestations surrounding urban tourism not in isolation from, but in firm connection to the more general rise of struggles and protests in and about urban space unfolding in cities worldwide; fourth, the extent to which contestations are linked to the ongoing, and, it seems, accelerating, geographical spread of tourism; and, finally, the need to critically engage with the notion of tourism itself and move beyond essentialising narratives that portray tourism as an altogether distinct, easily separable social phenomenon.

Johannes Novy studied urban planning and urban studies in Germany, Italy and the United States and holds a PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University, New York. His research interests cover urban and planning theory, urban (development) politics, urban tourism and leisure consumption. Previous positions he held include a guest professorship at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (2013-2015), a visiting professorship at the Politecnico di Milano (2014) and, most recently, a lectureship at Cardiff University (2015-2018), where he acted as course director of the BSc Urban Planning & Development programme. 

Some of his most recent publications include the co-edited volume "Protest and Resistance in the Tourist City" (Routledge, 2016) as well as the journal article “’Destination’ Berlin Revisited. From (New) Tourism towards a Pentagon of Mobility and Place Consumption” (Tourism Geographies, 2016). Novy regularly teaches at the Sorbonne (Panthéon) in Paris and is a member of the Berlin-based urbanist collective u-Lab, Studio für Stadt und Raumprozesse. In addition to teaching and research, he enjoys working as a consultant and advisor for public, private and non-profit organisations in the realms of urban and tourism development, planning, and policy.