ABSTRACT
As a centre of trade, source of finance for global markets, a city of government and sometime imperial capital, London attracts visitors drawn to the City for a range of reasons. The stock of historic buildings and ‘zones of prestige’ where, ‘culturally impressive activities are produced, displayed and consumed’ (Maguire 2005, p. 16) that are concentrated in the centre are the main attraction and reproduced in iconic images of the capital. Other activities, for example national and international sporting events draw visitors, and the underlying consideration of the bid for the 2012 summer Olympics was the economic value this presented in terms of increased tourism and boosted city image. The multiple attractions of the City mean that we need to carefully differentiate city visitors in order to understand how London is developing as a world tourism city. The multiple functions of the City – global financial centre, home of national cultural institutions and seat of government – mean that we need to examine the relationships between tourism and other forces impacting on its social and economic life. In the first part of this chapter, we review contemporary trends in tourism in London and focus on the changing flows of local, domestic and international visitors. In the second part, we review how tourism is understood in public policy and focus in particular on the objective of drawing visitors away from congested central areas. We then examine two ‘new tourism areas’ close to the centre where distinctive groups of visitors have contributed to wider processes of change and the transformation of the local landscape. We question the potential lessons from these experiences and the future of this type of urban transformation. The final section of the chapter reflects on potential future directions of change in London tourism.
