Edinburgh Napier University

  This study uses 'hospitality' in a sociological way, to examine the creation of Edinburgh's 'welcome tourist destination'. In viewing Edinburgh as a 'host', trying to attract 'guests', I consider the conflicting civic and commercial issues which emerged when trying to renovate the urban home. Edinburgh had 'ideal guests' in mind, which had an influence on the type of maintenance that was approved, what was denied and what was emphasised as important. I discuss Edinburgh's anxiety of official representation by evoking the metaphor of the tyrannical host, which eventually gives way to a co-constructed tourist gaze.
I use archival sources, stream of consciousness observations, autoethnography and photographs, to establish an exploratory concept, "the civic commercial home", which allowed me to explore these tensions in depth from a historical perspective and from an evocative perspective.