Bas Spierings

Bas Spierings is an Associate Professor in Urban Geography at Utrecht University's Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning within the Faculty of Geosciences. He directs the PhD training program for the Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research (NETHUR). His research focuses on urban tourism, commercial gentrification, consumption spaces, and mobility patterns. Previously, he held postdoctoral positions at Groningen University and was a visiting scholar in cities like Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Education: PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen (2006), studies at Tilburg University and Trinity College Dublin.

Research interests include urban public space commercialization, touristification impacts, and spatial differentiation processes. His recent work analyzes how retail capital shapes urban consumption landscapes and explores migrant entrepreneurship in border regions.

Key projects involve Dutch Research Council-funded studies on touristification strategies, Hong Kong tourism dynamics, and digital marketing in shopping districts. Supervised PhD topics include Amsterdam's urban tourism challenges and Guangzhou's Nigerian migrant traders.

Professional roles include editorial board memberships for International Journal of Tourism Research and Space and Culture. He advises city center management initiatives and contributes to urban policy debates through platforms like the Dutch-Belgian City Center Management Platform.

Research teams include collaborations within the Dynamics of Youth (DoY) and Institutions for Open Societies (IOS) networks.