In a context of increasing urban concentration of the population, growth of social disparities, accelerated mobilities, globalisation, digital innovation, and expanding environmental awareness, the theme park industry is driving a number of crucial transformations. Interestingly, entertainment corporations, design companies and attractions suppliers are shaping tastes and cultures of people.

Focusing on the nexus between social, economic and environmental issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, this presentation seeks to identify current trends, issues and paradoxes related to the current theme parks development.

They include the resistance of some “local” practices and developments in an increasingly globalised world, the purposely designed role of certain entertainment places as vehicles for community identity formation, and the contradiction between the multiplication of criticisms to the theme park development together and the growth of theme parked environments.

Salvador Anton Clavé is Professor of Regional Geographical Analysis, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Research Group in Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies at the Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona (Spain). His research deals with the complexity of the evolution of tourist destinations, the globalisation of thematic entertainment and recreational attractions, and the effects on the region and on local and regional development of leisure mobility.