Mona Erfanian Salim
Despite the economic importance of tourism for communities, its negative impacts have caused a general agreement on the essential of “sustainable tourism development” in recent decades. Meanwhile, along with the increase in intellectual claims of urban development, urban design is becoming more fascinating in this field, and it sets in the concerns of sustainability. Sustainable tourism can be considered as one of these concerns while tourism is changing to a main economic sector for urban tourism destinations. This study focuses on urban open public space concerning urban tourism and attempts to illustrate a strong linkage between two bodies of knowledge namely tourism and urban design. It is conducted to review the background of tourism development and the background of designing urban open public spaces. Based on the current literature, tourism development can be examined through the interaction between socio-cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. Meanwhile, urban planning and design support urban development to balance the same aspects of urban space in an urban tourism destination. It also introduces the characteristics of urban open public space and shows its potential in a sustainable tourism context by reviewing some practices in some cities around the world. According to this comparison review, urban open public space is featured as a proper opportunity to support sustainable tourism goals. Urban design can be employed in the planning process of tourism development. In addition, urban design is assumed to pay attention to the tourism qualities through creating an urban open public space. The speech concluded with some recommendations for planning and managing in both field of tourism and urban study.
2020, 10Th India International Hotel, Travel & Tourism Research Conference