Promoting Creative, Cultural or Ethnic Quarters in Cities: Strategic Tool for Developing Urban Tourism - Capstone Project Example

Promoting Creative, Cultural or Ethnic Quarters in Cities: A Strategic Tool for Developing Urban Tourism

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Objective of the Paper:3

Literature Review:3

Urban Tourism4

Creativity and Cultural Tourism:5

Importance of Creative, Cultural or Ethnic Quarters in Cities: An Analysis on Spitalfields-London6

Arts Festivals, Urban Tourism and Cultural Policy7

Development of Urban tourism: Analysis on Spitalfields-London:8

Why Government take Interest9

Recommendations10

Conclusion:10

Reference List12

• Introduction

Travel and tourism is gaining popularity over the years and in modern era, it is considered as one of the most important aspects associated with world economy. In various form of tourism, urban tourism is one of the most significant parts associated with the travel and tourism sector. In the modern era, half of the world is living in the urban areas and the level of civilization is increasing continuously over the years. These urban cities are the areas of entertainments, leisure and arts, for the people and at the same time, it act as gateways of traditional and modern society. In terms of centre of commercial industries and finance, the urban cities provide opportunity for creativity as well as diversity. In recent years, tourism gain popularity at a very fast pace and Scheyvens and Momsen (2008) in their review has mentioned that it is the largest industry in modern world. According to Muhammad (2011), present situation in the tourism industry is growing at a very rapid pace. From 1950 till 1995, the international tourist arrivals in different nation increased at a steady pace and after that, from 1995 till 2010 it increased at a very fast pace. After 2010, there was a slowdown in the number of international tourist incoming mainly due to economic crisis.

• Objective of the Paper:

The main objective of the paper is to analyze the importance of developing theme spaces along with cultural, creative and ethic quarters in various parts of the city to develop the tourism. In order to analyse the same, the city that taken into consideration is London where travel and tourism plays a major role not only in terms of assuring economic boost but also at the same time, creating a huge number of job opportunity.

• Literature Review:

The growth of the urban tourism industry is one of the main factors of economical boost of European cities (Delitheou, Vinieratou and Touri, 2010). It is a proven fact that the urban tourism is an indispensable feature of the developing relationship between internal and external demands. Edwards et al. (2008) in their review has mentioned that tourism can be considered as one among many social and economic forces associated with the urban environment. It helps in marketing various kinds of product and helps people to enjoy a wide range of preferences and cultural perspectives. Travelling is a medium of exchanging new thoughts and ideas as well. Reutsche (2006) critically analyzes the relationship between tourism and urban development. According to her review, there is a difference between primary, secondary and additional elements associated with the urban tourism. The primary elements are those, which attract the travellers to visit any particular place. There are two key points associated with primary elements and those are; places for deploying activities and places for spending the leisure time. Among secondary elements, there are numbers of points such as developing new facilities for the travellers, developing opportunity for shopping and adaptation and at the same time, development of new market. Moreover, development of tourism sector is helpful for the betterment of transportation and accessibility, providing detailed tourism information etc., all these are equally important for the success of tourism development in any area (Popescu, 2008; Popescu and Corbos, 2010).

• • Urban Tourism

Over time, cities have developed their own values and traditions, and these have been created and recreated by successive groups of people who live, work, eat, and play there (Rath, 2007). Based on various factors, including its landscape, cultural identity, politics, and business, every city has developed a unique appeal as a destination in the international tourism market with many tourists for various purposes (Ashworth and Page. 2011). Often various urban areas consider as the gateway of larger cities for various international as well as domestic tourists. So, one can easily say that, as an "accessible, efficient, structured, manageable and organized" area (Beedie, 2008, p. 39), a city performs numerous and overlapping tourism roles such a gateway, staging post, destination, and tourist source (Pernecky, 2012).

In modern era, this field is mainly consider as cash cow in the industry as there are immense opportunity for this sector to contribute to the economy of any nation. In recent time, the concept of urban tourism has recognized as a resourceful vehicle for financially and culturally restores the deteriorated town surroundings in many developed countries. In most of those places, numbers of urban areas are in crumble situation as conventional industries lose liveliness (González, 2010). Although the concept of urban tourism is yet to be explore properly as, there is no "simple definition for neither this complex phenomenon nor any clear demarcation of its diverse and vaguely formulated set of activities" (Ashworth and Page, 2011, p. 2).

In nutshell, one can mention that the concept of urban tourism is a widespread but mixed group of performance that visitors with a variety of purposes experience in cities as versatile and ever-changing entities. If one compares the developed area and tourism in those places, the local government in various urban areas will face number of challenges in terms of development of tourism sectors. Local authorities need to restructure the industries, change the quality of the life of the people in those areas, making some necessary changes to attract tourist and make them feel comfortable in the local environment as well as making alteration in the political aspects also (Ashworth and Page. 2011)

• • Creativity and Cultural Tourism:

According to Landry (2007), there is a proper correlation between creativity and places, which helps any particular area, especially the urban areas to develop its tourism sector. As a matter of fact, one key concept associated with tourism development in the urban area is developing attractions related to that particular place, boost its economy and providing ensure opportunity for the local people to earn money.. In different urban areas, cultural heritage is not only associated with the image of the city or any particular area; but at the same time, it is also associated with the creativity. Smith (2007) in his review has mentioned that cultural heritage is a crowd-puller for the tourists and different urban areas must design the tourism business strategy keeping in mind both tangible and intangible aspects of cultural heritage of the place which includes monuments, architecture, galleries and museums etc. Apart from that, local music, art and culture, theatre, film etc. all play an important role in the development of tourism sector. Montgomery (2007) in his review defines cultural tourism as seeds of developing attraction of a place among the people across the globe. Smith (2007) in his analysis also mentioned that urban areas must link their tourism with local cultural heritage as well as community values, to ensure the development of this sector. Miles and Paddison (2005) gave more emphasis on the positive input of cultural heritage tourism on originality with the help of growing prosperity, cosmopolitanism, regular growth in business services, transmission of social and human capital, improvement in the life style and transformed organizational capacity.

• Importance of Creative, Cultural or Ethnic Quarters in Cities: An Analysis on Spitalfields-London

As one of the most happening sectors, travel and tourism industry is growing at a rapid pace. Across the globe, there are number of countries as well as cities, which focus greatly on developing tourism industry by increasing the creative, cultural and ethnic values associated with the travel and tourism places. Creativity and culture- both these factors play an important role in the development of tourism sector in any country. According to Yigitcanlar, et al. (2008), creative practices associated with city development consider as the catalyst behind development of tourism sector in any country especially in the urban areas. Creativity also associated with the cultural aspects of the city as well and it helps to boost the growth of the tourism industry by generating significant induced effects on image of the city image, along with its attractiveness and consumption pattern (Harcup, 2000).

According to the report of UNESCO, the concept of cultural and heritage tourism is growing at a very fast pace and in 2007, this segment was responsible for 40% of total international tourism (Mintel 2010). Slowly, there was a shift in the pattern of tourism as travellers across the globe started to give equal interest in the creative tourism sector as well especially in the urban areas. If one compare between cultural and creative tourism, the major difference is in the fact that creative developments are quicker to change the dimension of any particular urban areas compared to the cultural factor. Not only that, creative elements can contribute more towards integrating new cultures (Richards and Wilson 2007)

Image 2: Changes From Tangible to intangible Tourism Resources

(Source: Richards and Wilson 2007)

Image 3: Changes from Tangible to Intangible Cultural Resources in Tourism

(Source: Richards and Wilson 2007)

• • Arts Festivals, Urban Tourism and Cultural Policy

For a long period, art festival was associated with only those people who are interested in this particular field. During those time also, this was consider as only the first step in the developmental process of sustainable, productive cultural exchange process. In recent years, the concept has change at a rapid pace mainly after the travel and tourism sector started to gain popularity as an industry. Associated with broader array of neo-liberal, culture-led urban revival strategies, these kinds of festivals are now a stronghold in the development of urban tourism and various kind of urban policy-making (Gotham 2005). As Miles and Paddison (2005, p. 834) in their review has mentioned, “The rapidity with which culture has ascended the urban policy agenda has been little short of extraordinary”. There are various others researchers who have also pointed out that the application of the concept of culture for the development of wide range of societal and financial goals is most obvious in cities (Griffiths 2006). Number of urban arts festivals in various developing as well as developed nations has proliferated to a larger degree than any other type. If one analyzes the situation of lat 20 years, there are innumerable arts festivals organised in the significance of stimulating urban economies, ensuring constructive development of the entire cities or city and making sure that with the help of developing urban tourism, the city can represent itself in the global platform as a place to consider (Wood, 2005).

• • Development of Urban tourism: Analysis on Spitalfields-London:

In London, travel and tourism industry is growing at a fast pace and in recent years, there are number of urban areas where city administrators are taking necessary steps to promote the tourism. In modern era, despite high-speed development in modern technologies and facilities, there are number of people who often look for getting the feel of the urban life, tradition culture and values, which are there associated with all the developed nations. These are available in the urban areas and local authorities are constantly focusing on the same to develop the travel and tourism industry based on the culture, value and ethnic importance of the place.

Spitalfields, located in East London, is one of the less developed areas and for a long period, it was not in the tourist interest list. There are many histories associated with this place. In order to develop the travel and tourism sector the city administrators started to promote the historical areas associated with the place such as French Huguenots, Irish migrants and Russian-Polish Jews etc. During 1950s and 60s, there are number of Bangladeshi immigrants who started ethnic restaurant and shops in this area. In modern era, all these historical structure and presence of ethnic shop and restaurants attracts number of foreigners as well as British tourists in this region.

The main reason attract the tourist in this area is the atmosphere which is composed of various features such as independent shops, open culture, and old essence of London. For most of the tourists, they are able to figure out the essence of ‘Real London’ in that area. This place provides opportunity to the travellers to mingle with the local people and get to know the culture and heritage more in-depth manner. This value of authenticity can directly relate to the characteristics of the travellers.

• Why Government take Interest

In recent years, urban tourism consider as one of the key sources associated with the economical growth of several European countries. Reutsche (2006) in her analysis has mentioned that there is a clear relation between tourism sector and urban areas and local administrator must consider this as one of the key factors not only to boost the economy but also to ensure social development as well. She pointed out that there are three key points that government needs to look at and those are primary, secondary and additional elements. Among primary elements government needs to focus on points such as cultural facilities, entertainment and sports facilities (places for deploying activities) and places or areas to spend free time like historical places, old statutes etc. With the help of urban tourism, government can promote this place and ensure that local people get opportunity to earn some money. Secondary elements includes adaptation and catering facilities along with some other points such as accessibility, development of transport and parking’s, tourism information etc(Popescu and Corbos, 2010).

According to Stanciulescu (2009), for local administration in UK, urban tourism can bring about following advantages such as

• Development of new work place;
• New option for local tourism firms
• Create more opportunities for investment in the urban areas, which not only boost local economy but also boost overall growth of the area in terms of social and economical
• Helps in the development of the standard of living of the people in the city
• The income from taxes (paid by the travellers as decided by administrators) can be use for restoration as well as for the development of different community facilities.

• Recommendations

In order to improve the travel and tourism of this area, the local authority can implement some of the following points in order to enrich the relationship among history, culture and ethnic value of the area. They must ensure that the travel industry is contributing not only to economy of the country but at the same time create new job opportunity.

• Local authority can encourage cultural events in different time of the year keeping in mind the tourist inflow pattern. The cultural events will not only promote the culture of Spitalfields but at the same time, it will bring back the memory of old London.
• There must be proper care of all the historical building in and around the place. Proper maintenance of those areas, development of small museums to demonstrate the history related to that architecture will attract the tourists from different parts and at the same time, will provide opportunity for new employment.
• There has to be proper accommodation facilities for the travellers. Apart from hotels, local administrators can encourage the concept of Home Stay, which will be helpful for the traveller to associate with the local culture and values by interacting with their hosts.
• A proper travel set up with travel guidance, travel consultation team, etc. needs to be set up by the administrative team, which can assist the traveller,’s to design the tour plan and explore the area.
• Conclusion:

Creative, Cultural or Ethnic Quarters are three most important points, which can be used by the authorities in order to develop the urban tourism across the city. All over the globe, urban tourism is gaining momentum and to be unique, every city is looking for some out of the box thinking. In places such as Spitalfields, it is necessary to create a link among history, culture and ethnicity. It is not only helpful for the city administrator in terms of boosting their own economy but at the same time, this development helps in creating new job opportunity, establish the place in the map of travel and tourism and create interest among the mind of the travellers to explore the same. However, the process of development of urban tourism is not a static process as with time, authorities’ needs to continuously update the offerings to make sure that the interest is not becoming static among the mind of the travellers and they can find something new every time they visit the place.

• Reference List

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Delitheou, V., Vinieratou M. and Touri M., 2010. The contribution of public and private investments to the growth of conference tourism in Greece. Management Research and Practice, 2 (2), pp.165-178

Edwards, D., Griffin, T., and Hayllar, B. 2008. Urban tourism research: developing an agenda. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(4), pp.1032–1052.

González, S. ,2010. Bilbao and Barcelona ‘in Motion’: How urban regeneration ‘Models’ travel and mutate in the global flows of policy tourism. Urban Studies, 48(7), pp.1397-1418

Gotham, K. F., 2005. Tourism from above and below: globalization, localization and New Orlean’s Mardi Gras, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29 (2), pp. 309-26.

Griffiths, R., 2006. City/culture discourses: evidence from the competition to select the European Capital of Culture 2008. European Planning Studies, 14 (4), pp. 415 – 430.

Harcup, T., 2000. Re-imaging a post-industrial city: the Leeds St Valentine’s fair as a civic spectacle. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 4(2), pp. 215-31

Landry, C., 2012. The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Earthscan

Miles, S. and Paddison, R., 2005. Introduction: the rise and rise of culture-led urban regeneration. Urban Studies, 42(5/6), pp. 833-9.

Montgomery, J., 2007. The New Wealth of Cities: City Dynamics and the Fifth Wave. Ashgate: Aldershot.

Muhammad, E., 2011. Urban Tourism and Strategic Planning: An Integrated Study of Alexandria and Barcelona. [Pdf] Available at: < http://www.cpas-egypt.com/pdf/Mohamed_Eldaidamony/MS.c/Master_thesis_Muhammad_Eldaidamony_4Citites2011.pdf>. [Accessed 14 June 2016]

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Popescu, I., 2008. Promoting the urban touring destinations by implementing the total quality management. In Transylvanian Magazine of Administrative Sciences, 1(21), pp. 105-124

Popescu, R. I. and Corbos, R., 2010. The Role of Urban Tourism in Strategical development of Brasov Area. Theoretical and Empirical Research in Urban Management, 7(16), pp. 69-85.

Reutsche, J. 2006. Urban Tourism: What Attracts Visitors to Cities?, Let`s Talk Business.

Richards, G. and Wilson, J., 2007. The creative turn in regeneration: creative spaces, spectacles and tourism in cities.

Scheyvens, R. and Momsen, J. H., 2008.  Tourism and Poverty Reduction: Issues for small Island States. Tourism Geographies, 10(1), pp. 22‐41

Smith, M., 2007.Towards a cultural planning approaches to regeneration. Wallingford: CAB International

Stanciulescu, G. C., 2009.The role of urban marketing in the local economic development. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, 1(10), pp.114-135

Wood, E., 2005. Measuring the economic and social impacts of local authority events. International Journal of Public Sector Management 18(1), pp. 37-53.

Yigitcanlar, T., Velibeyoglu, K. and Martinez-Fernandez, C., 2008. Rising knowledge cities: the role of knowledge precincts. Journal of Knowledge Management, 12(5), pp. 8-20.