Contenu du sommaire : Le tourisme et la ville

Marrakesh is widely recognized as a tourist city both at a national and an international level. The different plans implemented in this city and its hinterland to divesify tourist activities are likely to contribute to Marrakesh's development. In the city, however, tourism is still an activity shared by a host of actors with different strategies,logics and actions that are rarely co-ordinated, nd sometimes controversial. The sysem of actors needs to be restructured.

The coming of mass tourism to Majorca led to a concentration of the population and the economy along the coast with consequences for the old town of Palma. It has lost many of its inhabitants and economic activities (craft and commercial industry). This has caused the degradation of much of the medieval town and damaged to its urban heritage. Since the 1980s and especially since the second half of the 1990s, this old central core has been the subject of a rehabilitation and improvement programme. This concerns both the architectural heritage and social conditions, as well as having a tourist dimension, notably in relation to the current development of cultural tourism.

French research on tourism in cities is not very developed and tourist themselves are rarely a subject of interest. This paper does not look at the town in terms of its tourist amenities or local policies but rather in relation to the behaviour of its visitors. It is based on the analysis of surveys carried out in three towns in Western France. The results suggest that many visitors are not tourists and show the diverse character of towns as tourist destinations and of the links between about urban and rural areas.

Although state capitals are often ignored by tour- operators and foreigners, they play an important role in the tourist trips of Americans. Promotion of heritagein these cities is a recent phenomenon, due to the late awareness of the interest of this factor and to the appalling image with which they have long been associated reflecting a mixture of their banal and corrupt character. As state capitals are often small, their heritage is limited, outside the capitol. However, this building symbolises the State and historical museums provide school children and adults with details of their past. Related tourist development is modest and where it exists is due to other factors. Only certain former capitals have succeeded in basing the renewal of their identity and economy on heritage and political tourism.

Urban tourism can date back several centuries as in Japan. These early visits gave rise to a wide range of defining features of Japanese cities. The analysis of Japanese tourist guidebooks shows that visits are not only related to the varied forms of architectural heritage but are also strongly motived by various intangible and ephemeral aspects of the urban culture. The guidebook issued by the Japan Travel Bureau on Kamakura (170 000 inhabitants) located 40 kilometres from the centre of Tokyo, illustrates this phenomenon. This former capital (between 1185 and 1333) owes its tourist attraction as much to the presence of numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto's shrines as to an atmosphere of elegance and nostalgia, associated with the rich past of the city.

Classifying the diversity of tourist destinations is an important question. Is Brighton and Hove a tourist resort or a tourist town ? To answer this question, it is necessary to distinguish clearly the difference between the two concepts. This distinction is based essentially on the degree of diversity of urban functions. Such analysis shows Brighton and Hove to be a tourist town due to the extremely diversified urban functions which characterise this major city within the London urban region.

Vichy is a spa town (70 000 habitants), well known throughout the word. К was created in the 18th century and developed in the19th. Between the two world wars and after the second world war, it became a town with a complete range of urban functions : industry (22% of total employment, similar to the national average) and the tertiary sector (private and public, such as hospital and universities). Thirty years ago, the town faced a twin crisis : the decline of spa treatments and of industry ; this led to restructuring. Tourism now appears the obvious way for development to take place in the new millenium. First, this involves the renewal of the spa facilities linked to health and fitness ; it also concerns entrancing the major urban amenities of the neighting century (golf course, opera house, casino and race course. . .) as well as promoting the town's urban heritage. Today this town located near by Clermont- Ferrand, the regional centre, has developed new forms of tourism, as in other medium-sized town.

For nearly a century. Palma has been at the centre of tourist development in Majorca. It houses the island's major resort, Terreno, and as tourism has grown new resorts have been developed, providing a large and coherent structure. Over recent decades and especially during the last ten years, the different districts of Palma have experienced contrasting forms of development - the town of Palma, the western districts and the east of the island. What is the role of tourism today, and what does Palma represent ? Is it a resort or a tourist town. This example is used to analyse the development of a tourist destination and the relationships between tourism and town.

International conference tourism is a complex economic, scientific and cultural activity. Using a data base collected over 15 years, this article initially at the world network of conference centres, identifying their characteristics and growth factors. A typology of cities hosting international meetings is then proposed. This in twon is need to demonstrate links between globalisation, high-level conference functions and urban centres.

Different factors are used to differentiate tourist towns : these include the size of the town, the nature and impor- . tance of tourist flows and the activities of tourists. Understanding of the relationship between urban areas and tourism also requires knowledge of the form of the town and the way in which it is appropriated and structured by both inhabitants and tourists. The relationship between town and tourism is illustrated by the case of Kathmandu, viewed from a twin perspective : the analysis its tourist functions at the scale of Nepal and the analysis of the spatial inscription and dynamics of tourism in the urban area.

The paper proposes an analysis of the phenomenal success of Las Vegas, Nevada, an urban tourism destination which attracts more than 33 million tourists a year. After a short presentation of the history of the tourist development of the city since 1931, the paper gives a presentation of the tourist product of Las Vegas. It insists on the consequences of the family entertainment orientation taken by the city in the beginning of the 90s. Although financially unsuccessful, the development of many entertainment attractions and theme environments gave Las Vegas a tremendous tourist development potential which differentiated the city from other gambling destinations, such as Atlantic City. Finally, the paper shows that the phenomenal success of Las Vegas can be understood by a double process : on the one hand. Las Vegas increasingly uses urban references in its themed hotel-casinos. On the other hand, western cities are more and more inspired by the festival atmosphere tourists can enjoy in Las Vegas. In this sense. Las Vegas can be seen not as an urban exception, but as a "prophecy of the city" and of its relationship with tourism. More than a tourist city. Las Vegas can be seen as the archetype of the contemporary "festival city" in which shows, entertainment, and festival atmosphere transcend architecture, planning, design and urban management.