Bélanger, Hélène

Guillemard, Alexis

Lapointe, Dominic

English

Digital Commons @ TRU Library (Thompson Rivers University)

Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings
Volume 2019 Article 44
2019
Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The
Touristification of Everyday Life in Montreal
Dominic Lapointe
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Hélène Bélanger
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Alexis Guillemard
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
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Recommended Citation
Lapointe, Dominic; Bélanger, Hélène; and Guillemard, Alexis (2019) "Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The Touristification
of Everyday Life in Montreal," Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings: Vol. 2019 , Article 44.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings/vol2019/iss1/44
CTS 2019 
L 
Title: Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The Touristification of Everyday Life in 
Montreal 
 
Authors: 
 
Dominic Lapointe 
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada 
 
Hélène Bélanger 
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada 
 
Alexis Guillemard 
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada 
 
Abstract: 
Urban stakeholders, in a context of neoliberal international competition, seek to attract 
economic activities, tourists and new wealthy residents (Kavaratzis, 2007). One of the favorite 
actions, in order to capture unwarranted earnings (Harvey, 1989), is the construction of a “hard” 
brand image through the alteration of symbolic and physical attributes of a place in order to 
create a unique experience (Zukin, 1995). By doing so in residential environments, they create 
spectacular, clean and safe spaces framed by leisure, authenticity and consumerism social 
discourses in what can be associated with tourist bubbles (Judd and Feinstein, 1999). We argue 
that this contributes to the commodification of space and people (Britton, 1991; Edensor, 2001), 
where tourism intermingles with dwelling (to dwell), giving blurred boundaries between daily 
life and a/the tourism experience, what we call touristification of daily life. 
In the city of Montreal, neighborhoods’ revitalization leads not only to gentrification but 
also to touristification of daily life. In these neighborhoods, space is staged, secured and 
standardized to provide an experience, a landscape, a way of life, thereby producing a space 
(Lefebvre, 1974) that conforms to the needs of capital (Harvey, 2001). The transformation of 
space excludes marginalized populations, poor residents and their private market affordable 
housing. The traditional private rental market is shrinking and is replaced by a new one, where 
housing is a capital investment for small and big investors who target the middle and upper 
middle classes contributing to the speculative bubble. Starting with urban planning criticism of 
the chain reaction City’s revitalization plan-private real estate development-gentrification-
touristification which leads to physical and symbolic exclusion, using examples based on 
observations and interviews with stakeholders and residents from neighborhoods in Montreal, 
this paper will discuss how tourism and urban planning practice are causing or exacerbating 
these conditions, and will open questions on ways to challenge the issue. 
 
Britton, S. (1991). Tourism, capital, and place: Towards a critical geography of 
tourism. Environment and planning D: society and space, 9(4), 451-478. 
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Lapointe et al.: Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The Touristification of
Published by Digital Commons @ TRU Library, 2019
CTS 2019 
Edensor, T. (2001). Performing tourism, staging tourism: (Re) producing tourist space and 
practice. Tourist studies, 1(1), 59-81. 
Harvey, D. (1989). From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: the transformation in urban 
governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 71(1), 
3-17. 
Judd, D. R., & Fainstein, S. S. (Eds.). (1999). The tourist city. Yale University Press. 
Kavaratzis, M. (2007). City marketing: The past, the present and some unresolved 
issues. Geography compass, 1(3), 695-712. 
Zukin, S. (1995). The cultures of cities Blackwell. Cambridge, MA and Oxford. 
  
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Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings, Vol. 2019 [2019], Art. 44
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Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The Touristification of Everyday Life in Montreal

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Gentrification beyond the Tourist Bubble: The Touristification of Everyday Life in Montreal

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