Urban Agriculture (UA) has gained popularity in cities all over the world. In this paper, we explore the concept of UA and discuss it along various locational and strategic dimensions. The article aims to provide insights into the chances and challenges of UA for sustainable city development. By making use of case examples from cities worldwide we show that UA can contribute to the social, environmental, and economics pillars of sustainable city development. However, there are limitations which should be taken into account for cities that want to invest in urban agriculture.

Thanks to its conceptual character the paper ‘City Branding: An Effective Assertion of Identity or a Transitory Marketing Trick?' by Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005) is a classic piece in the area of place branding. The paper has been much cited in the literature, but did it really steer the further development of the field? Nearly fifteen years later, there is still a lot of debate in place branding circles. Taking the paper as a starting point I briefly discuss four controversies in city branding: (1) branding versus marketing; (2) places versus products; (3) policy versus politics; and (4) theory versus practice. I conclude that the complexities surrounding places and their stakeholders asks for more realism, modesty and dialogue in the place branding community.

The coronavirus outbreak in late 2019 and the subsequent restrictions on mobility and physical contacts caused an extreme collapse of international tourism. Shortly before the pandemic turned the world upside down, one of the most pressing issues in global tourism was a phenomenon that became known as overtourism. It describes massively the negative impacts of tourism on destinations and the frustrated residents protesting against it, with discontent reaching a dimension that could hardly be estimated at the time when Doxey’s Irritation Index was created. Especially in southern European destinations, thousands of people have taken to the streets over their dissatisfaction with the unlimited growth of tourism and its negative effects on their daily lives. Within a few years, small neighbourhood actions morphed into coordinated social movements demanding that politicians make fundamental changes to the socio-economic system. Those events demonstrate a politicizing effect of tourism that has not sufficiently been addressed hitherto in tourism research, which is mainly focused on the attitude of the visited towards tourism itself. This article offers a broader socio-political approach that focuses on tourism as one of the largest industries within a capitalist system that has massive impacts on people’s lives, rather than simply on changing attitudes towards tourism. Twelve problem-centred interviews with actors of the anti-overtourism movements in the Balearic Island of Mallorca were conducted to examine the effects of overtourism and COVID-19-caused tourism breakdown on residents’ socio-political perspectives. Building on the transformative learning theory developed by the American sociologist Jack Mezirow, the analysis of the data revealed far-reaching influences on residents’ personal development, fundamental perspectives and professional decisions.

Agritourism is increasing in popularity as more urban residents appreciate the slower paced rural environment and its authenticity. External influences (political crises and pandemics) have recently reduced mobility which makes agritourism an attractive alternative to former more distant holiday destinations. Agritourists are interested in working farms, local production and animal husbandry. Some European regions (e.g., Bavaria and South Tyrol) have successfully developed agritourism whereas the majority of rural regions are left behind. Agritourism diversifies farmers’ business model and increases their income. For our study, we chose Kleve County (Lower Rhine Area, Germany) as an exemplary region for a touristically unknown rural area. Regional opinion leaders, farmers and industry experts were interviewed to share their experiences about factors that could further and contribute to successful development of agritourism. The results of our case study and supplementary market interviews suggest that its success in less known rural regions depends on the geographic location, mutual efforts of local visionary entrepreneurs, regional beneficial networks and on committed political stakeholders to develop a sustainable business model. The results may be useful for other comparable European rural regions to diversify their farming and develop their own business model.