Imagining experiences through the urbex. A kind of suburban post-industrial prototourism

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of urban exploration, urbex, and its relationship with industrial tourism. This activity connects practitioners with the past and with other forms of production sometimes lost through the exploration of industrial heritage. The objective of the study is to analyse the connection between the urbex and tourism from an anthropological perspective. Ethnographics allowed us to contact with groups of urbexers, using virtual ethnography. The results of the research show that this practice, which occurs in the intermediate phase or the abandonment of heritage and is situated between industrial activity and possible future musealisation or final demolition, may have connotations for tourism besides great implications from a cultural point of view.