Taiex workshop: Urban Tourism

Editor's Notes

• #3: Worldwide more than 50% of the population lives in cities or urbanized agglomerations; Europe even higher : 60% Cities have become popular again: globalization and informatisation We – at least in most European countries – live in a service and information economy. That means that we are less and less, or sometimes not at all any longer dependent on raw materials. We are getting increasingly dependent on people. And people settle in nice and agreeable destinations: cities. Cities have a lot to offer as we will see later on. I concentrate on pleasant cities – cities looked upon from a leisure perspective, those that have a lot to offer to their inhabitants, hence to companies and also to tourists and visitors
• #4: Another very important reason of the popularity of cities is the fact that we are getting increasingly mobile: there is no place where we can get to, there are many different means to attain the various destinations. Cities are the nodal point where different sorts of transportation come together. Most big cities have airports in their neighbourhood, very often they have large rivers flowing through the city, a vast network of highways is leading to and from cities and most European cities have a well developed rail network connecting them with other destinations. In brief, cities are well connected with other destinations. However, not all cities benefited from the changes which have taken place. Some cities from the past have disappeared, perished or ceased to be a lively city. One of the most well-known examples is of course Pompeii.
• #5: Let’s have a look at cities that flourished: Barcelona that invested an enormous amount of money for the Games- ever since it has thrived and attracted huge numbers of visitors. The average income of the inhabitants increased, quality of living improved tremendously. Las Vegas: used to be a strip in a desert…no need to explain what it is right now Or Bilbao: nobody or let’s say very few people outside Spain knew Bilbao and if they did it was always in connection with the ETA; it was a relatively quiet city not welcoming crowds of visitors. That has changed as you all know.    
• #6: But not all cities gave benefitted from the changes that took place. There are several reasons for this. To start with, sometimes there are disasters that take place like a few weeks ago in Italy. A whole area is destroyed and gets deprived of the bare essentials of life to survive: food and houses health and education institutes etc. Not to speak about the human losses take have occurred. Italy is an example but hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other environmental calamities have destroyed cities. Not only natural disasters are threatening cities and regions also wars and conflicts caused by human disagreements have menaced cities and their citizens. But also, lack of governance can be unsuccessful for cities: cities like Cancun or Pattaya – I always forget which city is on this picture – are so identity-less – that they are suffering in a world that cries out for authenticity
• #7: These are political issues but also criminal issues can get out of the hand. I mention the situation in Mexico where the drugs kartels are getting so intimidating that citizens are frightened. Companies and visitors refrain from visiting these places. Or the situation with which Napels saw itself confronted: people left the city and tourists stayed away. Lack of governance or a struggle to govern is the underlying issue. This is also at stake for cities, regions or countries that are recovering form bad periods: above Lluang Prabang, a city in Laos, on the World heritage list. Having been at war for quite some time, and having little to offer – it is one of the poorest countries in the world – it focused on Tourism. Backpackers…It is struggling to preserving its old heritage In Summary, making to right choices is not always easy and it is not always predictable if a conscious choice will be the right choice in the long term
• #8: Competition is getting stronger and fiercer, and cities are all competing to attract their fair share of citizens, entrepreneurs and their companies, or political, diplomatic, health or educational organisations. And last but not least, cities all want to have visitors and tourists. Therefore cities need to be attractive and need to distinguish themselves from their competition.
• #9: To do so there are three factors of importance: Hardware – software - mindware