This paper aims at studying the business tourism that affects this economically emerging country, with special regard to the business tourism in Guangzhou (better known as Canton), its influence on urban economy and its relations with other types of tourism. A qualitative-quantitative approach has been used: the qualitative part has been based upon the existing literature and the direct observation of the analysed area, during a field mission of about one month; the quantitative part has been based on related figures. Business tourism represents the primary motivation of inbound tourism in Guangzhou, which is a hot destination for investments, offering considerable business opportunities. Guangzhou is also the Chinese city that hosts the highest number of trade fairs, the most important of which is the "China Import and Export Fair", the biggest Chinese commercial fair. Figures about inbound business tourism flow are not available. Nevertheless, we can assume that business tourism represents the core business of the tourism sector in the city and estimate that the related incoming flow is not less than one million visitors per year.

In the past few years Lisbon has been through many changes, most of them related to the tourism growth. Alcântara is one of the neighbourhoods that became popular, once an industrial area that is presently experiencing a process of urban regeneration. Alcântara is probably the best district of Lisbon to recall the industrial era. At the same time, it has all the services that it needs to welcome visitors: diversity of tourist supplies; a vibrant image, trendy, but also authentic; a barycentric position between two well-known quarters (Baixa and Belém); a good accessibility, still being strengthened; a fast growth in accommodation supply. Arguably, an important role in the tourist development of Alcântara is played by the LX Factory, a former industrial area of around 23.000 m2, where important companies were located. LX Factory is considered a successful experiment of reconversion of an industrial space into a multifunctional complex, which still preserves the former factory atmosphere, although according to a contemporary formula. The LX Factory was inaugurated in 2008. It hosts design offices, art ateliers, start-ups, shops, restaurants, cafés, night clubs, co-working spaces, and even a hostel. It also hosts cultural activities, concerts, workshops, and a Sunday market of vintage and biological products. A previous research (Zarrilli et al., 2019) showed that LX Factory is by far the main tourist attractor of Alcântara. In this contribution, we will try to deeper investigate what we may call the LX Factory phenomenon, in terms of tourist image, flows, motivations and assessments. At this aim, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of shop owners located in its facilities. Conclusions allow us to understand LX Factory main issues from the shop owners’ perspective, regarding the commercial activity, the current image, the people who visit it, and their opinion about the neighbourhood.

No abstract

In cultural geography, several authors agree on the existence of a two-way relationship between music and place. Thus emerges the concept of “soundscape”, according to which a geographical space is identified and perceived also thanks to its auditory dimension. This is certainly the case of Lisbon’s fado: born in the slums of the Portuguese capital during the XIX century, it has now achieved a strong tourist value, also thanks to its inclusion in the list of Unesco Intangible World Heritage in November 2011. In this paper we try to understand if fado corresponds to a still authentic feeling, or if it is turning rather into a “scenography” and a representation aimed at an audience of tourists, which inevitably involves a process of “commodification” and trivialization.

The stereotype of Iceland is a land of ice and fire, constantly subject to the devasting power of nature, an image that evokes the idea of a radically inhospitable environment, where is almost impossible to survive. Nevertheless Iceland, since independence, has developed so quickly to rank nowadays in the first positions in the world in terms of GDP pro-capita and HDI. Under this development there is a peculiar relation man-nature, that have been influencing the settlement and the economy so far, and that is so deeply rooted in the history of this territory to become a cultural and identitary factor. The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation environment-development in Iceland and the role of the natural landscape in the cultural sphere and in the development policies of this country.