Integrating popular culture tourism in local communities: a scoping review and ways forward

Abstract

There is nowadays a growing scholarship examining the intersection of popular culture and tourism. Most of this literature reveals that much of this work is grounded in an optimistic predisposition about the positive effects that tourism induced by popular culture has for locales. This is mainly featured in the dominant management discourse that feeds an overly positive tone about the benefits of popular culture for tourism development. However, there is a less loud line of scholarship originated in critical social studies that views regional popular culture tourism contexts in a more nuanced way bearing dubious outcomes. To address these shortcomings, the purpose of this scoping review is to demarcate and establish the strategic role of popular culture in regional tourism development. We put forward that a holistic approach entails the comprehensive treatment and multi-level embeddedness of popular culture tourism into regional contexts, epitomised by their territorial capital. On this basis, we present the predominant themes shaping the discourse in the field of popular culture tourism by discerning its two primary disciplinary streams, namely management and critical studies. Next, implications are drawn for the sustainable territorial touristification of places by leveraging comprehensively the development of popular culture tourism in local communities.