Community based cultural tourism: Findings from the US

Community-based cultural tourism remains an unexamined aspect of urban cultural tourism which has grown in importance during the past several decades primarily as an economic development strategy but also as a key characteristic for improving and indicating urban quality of life. While prevalent in Europe and other parts of the world, such tourism has also grown in scope and size in the United States which has experienced a proliferation of informally and formally designated arts and cultural districts, entertainment districts, and historic districts. Despite the prevalence of such efforts, there has been relatively little research into community-based cultural tourism in comparison to the extent that urban cultural tourism is being developed in cities and towns across the United States. This paper contributes to addressing this knowledge gap by explaining how the dominant context of urban cultural tourism neglects local residents and community-based tourism. In doing so, this paper identifies several of the issues associated with understanding the complexity, identification, and analysis of urban cultural tourism at large.