Urban tourism research: Recent progress and current paradoxes

Urban tourism has remained a consistent theme in the expansion of tourism research since the 1980s and several seminal papers (e.g. Ashworth, 1989 and Ashworth, 2003) have reviewed the state of research and its progress towards a greater recognition. This Progress in Tourism Management review article moves our understanding and knowledge of the research agendas within urban tourism by examining the paradoxes associated with such agendas thereby highlighting the need to adopt a less inward looking approach that interconnects with the wider domain of the social sciences, especially those of urban studies and the notion of world cities. We argue that understanding urban tourism will only progress by embracing these wider social science agendas so that tourism becomes integrated into these academic debates to progress the subject area.