Urban Ethnic Tourism in New York’s Neighborhoods - Then and Now
- Urban ethnic tourism, this chapter has shown, has long been an important element within New York’s tourism and leisure trade. The appeal of ethnic and minority neighbourhoods as estinations as well as the accompanying
transformation of culture and ethnicity into ‘marketable commodities’ is hardly new. What is new is the intensity with which these previously marginalised communities are being incorporated into post-industrial urban economies and development cycles. As Ho! man (2003: 297) argues, Harlem’s current transformation illustrates ‘a new mode of regulation, making for greater social/political and economic inclusion, but with the associated costs as well as benefi ts’—costs which many consider too high as tourism frequently operates in contexts of urban development that disadvantage local communities’ (particularly the most vulnerable within them) and their ability to control the negative e! ects. As this chapter has argued, tourism and leisure today—as in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century—is better understood inUrban ethnic tourism, this chapter has shown, has long been an important element within New York’s tourism and leisure trade. The appeal of ethnic and minority neighbourhoods as estinations as well as the accompanying
transformation of culture and ethnicity into ‘marketable commodities’ is hardly new. What is new is the intensity with which these previously marginalised communities are being incorporated into post-industrial urban economies and development cycles. As Ho! man (2003: 297) argues, Harlem’s current transformation illustrates ‘a new mode of regulation, making for greater social/political and economic inclusion, but with the associated costs as well as benefi ts’—costs which many consider too high as tourism frequently operates in contexts of urban development that disadvantage local communities’ (particularly the most vulnerable within them) and their ability to control the negative e! ects. As this chapter has argued, tourism and leisure today—as in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century—is better understood in light of the broader institutional and regulatory frameworks in which communities find themselves, as well as the underlying power relationships by which they are structured. The challenge is to find ways to transform the framework—to expand the opportunities the tourist and leisure economies promise for ethnic minority neighbourhoods and the social groups within them.…