Patrimoine et tourisme urbain. La valorisation de l’authenticité à Lyon et Pékin

Abstract

Tourism lies at the heart of urban territorial valorization. The urban heritage – itself a major pillar of urban tourism – is becoming increasingly commodified, within a context of generalized urban competition. Based on the analysis of two changing urban centers – Lyon and Beijing – this paper analyzes the commodified valorization of heritage, produced by entrepreneurial urban governments, and challenges the notion of « authenticity », itself central to discourses on the valorization of urban heritage. This concept of authenticity bears very little heuristic value, and is itself a « fetish », resulting from a deformed perception of reality under the social conditions of capitalism.

Keywords

• urban tourism
• urban heritage
• authenticity
• fetichism
• commodification
• tourism