Borrowed production: spatial processes of urban waterfront tourism in Guangzhou

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban waterfronts are time-space constructions encompassing various social relationships and functions. They become tourism spaces in the context of particular interactions among multiple stakeholders, including local governments and tourism enterprises. Yet the processes for and approaches to transforming urban waterfronts into tourism spaces remain under-researched. Based on the lens of Lefebvre’s space production theory, this research explores how tourism spaces are generated in the waterfront area of Pearl River in Guangzhou that originally featured no tourism attributes. The city government has conceived the shifting representations of space for the Pearl River waterfront over time including commercial space, scenery space, and a showcase of a prosperous city image, but neglected tourism development. Cruise companies are the key entity facilitating the spatial processes of the Pearl River Tour. The approach to space production presents itself as a means of ‘borrowed production,’ where cruise companies produce tourism spaces by embedding themselves into government plans and flexibly utilizing public projects that significantly improve waterfront infrastructure and views. This study contributes to the literature on tourism space production by clarifying the negotiating relationship between urban politics and tourism enterprises.