The touristification of nightlife: some theoretical notes

Abstract

Agrowing number of authors have recently suggested a clear interaction between tourist gentrification and commercial gentrification. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the growing interrelation between the nighttime leisure economy and urban tourism, along with all its complex forms of simultaneous interaction as fundamental driving forces of the current processes transforming the social, economic and cultural fabric of the central areas of many European cities. This short paper will argue that much more academic attention should be paid to how the touristification of nightlife is emerging as one of the most aggressive forms of material, symbolic and heritage dispossession of local communities within the central historic neighborhoods of many European cities.