Tourism and the Night: Rethinking Nocturnal Destinations

Over recent decades, municipal authorities have promoted their cities as places boasting desirable night-time activities. Light festivals, museum lates, nightclubbing, and night markets extend the typical tourist experience into the night and have become a key part of the way some cities are branded. This anthology draws together research addressing the relationship between tourism and the night, facilitating a better understanding of nocturnal city destinations.

Tourism and the Night: Rethinking Nocturnal Destinations covers an array of different tourist activities taking place at night and a range of European cities. The challenges facing late-night workers, the relationship between tourists and residents, and the effects of local policies on the expansion of late-night entertainment are examined in the first part of the book. The latter part focuses on the significance of night-time events, addressing the rising popularity of light art festivals and established religious rituals. Ultimately, this ground-breaking collection of papers examines how the night has become an important setting for city tourism. This trend means there is a need to rethink the management of urban districts and destinations, but there are also important implications for our understanding and experiences of the urban night.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events.

Andrew Smith is a Reader in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster, UK. He is the author of Events in the City: Using Public Spaces as Event Venues (2016) and Events and Urban Regeneration: The Strategic Use of Events to Revitalise Cities (2012).

Adam Eldridge is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Westminster, UK. He is the co-author of Planning the Night Time City (2009) and co-editor of Exploring Nightlife: Space, Society and Governance (2018). His research examines the night as a source of debates about public space, leisure, and identity.