Reinventing the Local in Tourism

This book investigates the way localities are shaped and negotiated through tourism, and explores the emerging success of local peer-produced hospitality and tourism services which are transforming the tourist experience. Tourists are now being brought into much closer contact with locals and have new opportunities to experience the community at their destination. This book examines these place experiences and travel-sharing arrangements that have now spread globally due to the use of social communication platforms such as Airbnb. It analyses the existence of global communities of ‘place experts’ that are redefining the organisational structures, value systems, market opportunities, affordabilities and geographies in travel and tourism. This volume brings together the work of established tourism scholars as well as early career researchers and is one of the first books to examine the global-local relationship at tourism destinations and the way that the rapidly developing field of peer-to-peer tourism is transforming tourist destinations.

Antonio Paolo Russo is a tenured Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. His research interests include tourism and culture, cities and local development.

Greg Richards is Professor of Placemaking and Events at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands and Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Tilburg, Netherlands. He specialises in cultural and creative tourism.