Director of EURICUR, the European Institute for Comparative Urban Research and professor of Regional Economics and Urban Development at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, he has coordinated, as EURICUR director, a great number of research projects concerned with the government of metropolitan regions, urban tourism and the influence of the private sector in the development of the city. His books Industrial Tourism Opportunities for City and Enterprise (Ashgate, 2010) and How important Is Manufacturing in the ‘New Urban Economy’? An International Comparative Study on the Development of Manufacturing in Developed and Emerging economies (Routledge, 2010) are about to be published.