This book explores travel, tourism, and urban development at the edges of Europe from the 1970s until the present. It compares tourism-spurred urban growth in Spain and Bulgaria, showing how development in Southern Europe after the fall of dictatorships provided a model for integrating post-socialist Europe in the 1990s. It analyzes the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of tourist economies, showing how they aligned with major European Union integration goals and were supported with EU development funds. It also chronicles the social and environmental costs of mass tourism where over-development has despoiled beachfronts and promoted low paying service jobs, reinforcing regional divisions in Europe between those who host and those who visit. Ultimately, it argues that while mass tourism is touted as a viable economic solution to EU inequality, it can potentially exacerbate disparities between core and peripheral zones, creating new and troubling forms of regional polarization.

This book explores travel, tourism, and urban development at the edges of Europe from the 1970s until the present. It compares tourism-spurred urban growth in Spain and Bulgaria, showing how development in Southern Europe after the fall of dictatorships provided a model for integrating post-socialist Europe in the 1990s. It analyzes the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of tourist economies, showing how they aligned with major European Union integration goals and were supported with EU development funds. It also chronicles the social and environmental costs of mass tourism where over-development has despoiled beachfronts and promoted low paying service jobs, reinforcing regional divisions in Europe between those who host and those who visit. Ultimately, it argues that while mass tourism is touted as a viable economic solution to EU inequality, it can potentially exacerbate disparities between core and peripheral zones, creating new and troubling forms of regional polarization.

Statistical information is an important tool for analysing changing patterns of urban development and the impact that policy decisions have on life in our cities, towns and suburbs. Urban Europe - statistics on cities, towns and suburbs provides detailed information for a number of territorial typologies that can be used to paint a picture of urban developments and urban life in the EU Member States, as well as EFTA and candidate countries. Each chapter presents statistical information in the form of maps, tables and figures, accompanied by a description of the policy context and a set of main findings. The publication is broken down into two parts : the first treats topics under the heading of city and urban developments, while the second focuses on the people in cities and the lives they lead. Overall there are 12 main chapters, covering : the urban paradox, patterns of urban and city developments, the dominance of capital cities, smart cities, green cities, tourism and culture in cities, living in cities, working in cities, housing in cities, foreign-born persons in cities, poverty and social exclusion in cities, as well as satisfaction and the quality of life in cities.

With 29 contributors from across Europe and beyond, this work represents a unique and important resource that examines the many relationships between tourism and geopolitics, with a focus on experiences drawn from Central and Eastern Europe. It begins by assessing the changing nature of 'geopolitics', from pejorative associations with Nazism to the more recent critical and feminist geopolitics of social science's 'cultural turn'. The book then addresses the important historical role of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in geopolitical thinking, before exemplifying a range of contemporary interactions between tourism and geopolitics within this critical region. Pursuing innovative analytical paths, the book demonstrates the interrelated nature of tourism and geopolitics and emphasizes the freshness of this research area. Addressing key principles and ideas which are applicable globally, it is an essential source for researchers, teachers and students of tourism, geography, political science and European studies, as well as for diplomatic, business and consultant practitioners.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This innovative book explores the role of utopian thinking in law and politics, including alternative forms of social engineering, such as technology and architecture. Building on Levitas’ Utopia as Method, the topic of utopia is addressed within the book from a multidisciplinary perspective.

This volume reports on contemporary research by geographers and others into resource management and planning issues in the Caribbean region. The common theme is the search for developmental strategies that focus on social and economic needs without further deterioration of the resource base.

At a time of increasing city competition, national capitals are at the forefront of efforts to gain competitive advantage for themselves and their nation, to project a distinctive and positive image and to score well in global city league tables. They are frequently their country’s main tourist gateway, and their success in attracting visitors is inextricably linked with that of the nation. They attract not just leisure visitors; they are especially important in other growing tourism markets, for example, as centres of power they feature strongly in business tourism, as academic centres they are important for educational tourism, and they frequently host global events such as the Olympic Games. And there are more of them: first, the number of capitals has grown as the number of nation-states has increased and, secondly, pressures for devolution mean more cities are seeking national capital status, even when they are not at the head of independent states. We need to understand tourism in capitals better – but there has been little research in the past. This book develops new insights as it explores the phenomenon of capital city tourism, and uses recent research to examine the appeal of ‘capitalness’ to tourists, and explore developments in capitals across the world. This book was published as a special issue of Current Issues in Tourism.

This book offers the first overview of services regulation in the EU, tracing its history from early, sector-specific interventions to the complex modern landscape of 'new governance' techniques. It sets the legal developments in their economic context and critiques the varied regulatory methods with which the EU has experimented.

Western Europe provides a balanced appraisal of common characteristics and shared problems of the eighteen states lying to the west of the former Iron Curtain.

This book discusses urban planning and regional development practices in the twentieth century, and ways in which they are currently being transformed. It addresses questions such as: What are the factors affecting planning dynamics at local, regional, national and global scales? With the push to adopt a market paradigm in land development and infrastructure, the relationship between resource management, sustainable development and the role of governance has been transformed. Centralized planning is giving way to privatization, not only in the traditional regions but also in newly emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Further, attempts are being made to bring planning related decision-making closer to the people who are most affected by it. Presenting a collection of studies from scholars around the world and highlighting recent advances in the field, the book is a valuable reference guide for those engaged in urban transformations, whether as graduate students, researchers, practitioners or policymakers.