Tourism and the city: urban as a tourist product

Abstract

The urban tourism is a segment with a relevant expansion, assuming an important role in the revitalization and in the promotion of economic development in cities. The following communication tries to explore some crucial issues in the analysis of the urban dimension and its interconnections with the tourism activities. The evolution of growth urban patterns, the representations and concept of city and models of spatial development are synthetically presented. Urban tourism is presented and discussed, the relations with the tourism system and the affirmation of city as a tourism product. The ideas presented in the communication stress the interest of urban tourism to city planning as a set of economic activities capable of promoting the economic development. The communication also underlines the pertinence in studying these phenomena using transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological frameworks that mix contributes from Economics to Sociology, capturing in a richer way the diversity of tourism in urban areas.City, Urban Tourism, Urban Growth, Tourism System, Tourism Product