PICTUREculture-routes.lu/picture/IMG/pdf/152_long_en.pdf · PICTURE Deliverable D3 5 Degradation or...

PICTURE

Pro-active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism upon Urban Resources and Economies

Deliverable n° D3 Deliverable title Multi-dimensional matrix gathering of impacts, methods

and policy measures

Task n° 1.1 Task Leader LEMA

Task partners LEMA, ITAS, ITAM-ARCCHIP, QUB, UAM, FEEM, EICR, OWHC, SYR, CAUE, EH, COC

Authors Elisabeth Dumont, Christine Ruelle, Jacques Teller Date 10.01.2005

The PICTURE project is financed by the European Commission, Sixth Framework Programme of Research

Specific Programme: Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area Activity: Specific activity covering policy-orientated research under “Policy support and anticipating scientific and technological needs” ¬ Priority 3. Underpinning the economic potential and cohesion of a larger and more integrated European Union ¬ Topic 3.6. The protection of cultural heritage and associated conservation strategies ¬ Task 5: Cultural heritage and tourism.

Contract n° SSP1-CT-2003-502491

PICTURE Deliverable D3 2

Executive Summary As a summary to our literature study and analysis of interviews and questionnaires, a preliminary model of tourism impacts and their interaction is proposed hereunder. This model will be improved, validated and completed through extensive work during the rest of the project. Impacts are grouped into three clusters and each cluster is divided into positive and negative:

¬ Impacts upon urban built heritage diversity and circulation: In this sphere, we will find aspects related to the spatial organisation of places of living and transport within them. It is in this field that the consequences of tourism were seen as most problematic. Tourists come to visit specific heritage landmarks but how can a town open these to the public without endangering them? How can it handle car and pedestrian traffic in order to allow easy use and access but still avoid an impression of "clogging" or of a town lost to its inhabitants?

¬ Impacts upon urban cultural practices and representations: Consequences of tourism on the way people think about their town, themselves, and others, as well as the way they behave in it will be dealt with in this cluster. Tourism, because of its bringing into contacts different cultures, is said to influence one's cultural practices and representations. Because tourists' interest in their town, some inhabitants might develop more pride about living in a place they previously did not think much of; or on the contrary feel they have been deprived from their town. And because it puts into contact different structures, it can lead to a change in cultural practices, ranging from a choice of leisure activities (more diversity in the offer, new sports or games or public representation opportunities) to influence on gastronomy or social organisation.

¬ Impacts upon urban economies: Impacts on the economy of a town, be it in terms of increased revenue or expenses, will be examined in this section. The economic impacts of tourism appeared to be the most mentioned and valued consequences of an afflux of people to a town. Most stated among them were the creation of job opportunities, the expenses of a town and the financial benefits of tourists' spending in a town.

The interaction of these impacts will lead to increased or decreased quality of life for the locals of a town. Of course, there exists diversity among citizens. Retailers and owners of hotels, restaurants or cafés were constantly identified as enjoying more benefits from tourism, than, for instance, local residents of protected areas. This diversity can only come to light in detailed analysis and not in a schema that, by definition, entails summarisation and globalisation. Economic impacts are the most independent ones, only having an influence on other impacts in terms of gentrification. Cultural and urban heritage impacts are, on the contrary, heavily intertwined, thus revealing the strong political side of urban renovation.The political side of all these impacts can hardly be brought to light in a schematic way. It is not underlined in the summary matrix or accompanying text but is underlined in the deliverable.


Impacts Upon Built Heritage Diversity and Circulation

Experts and literature identify this cluster as one of the area where most problems can rise, mainly in terms of congestion but also of damage to heritage. The deterioration of heritage is the most usually evoked impact of tourism upon material assets and the cultural heritage. An overexploitation of heritage creates a risk of physical destruction. It is often deplored that heritage is seen as a “mine” to be exploited for tourism. However, the importance of this threat is much debated as some argue that only a few sites suffer from it, while many others are simply fighting to attract more tourists. Besides, tourism can lead to an increased awareness of heritage and a subsequent protection and valorisation. Traffic clearly appears as problematic with increased tourist flows but some also see it as an opportunity for towns to develop sustainable traffic plans. Assessment, planning and carrying capacities might be some keywords allowing to answer to these challenges successfully.

Impacts Upon Built Heritage Diversity and Circulation

Increased protection of

urban landscapes On the one hand, tourist interest in buildings and landscapes within a town foster a desire to, and a realisation of the need to protect. On the other hand, tourist's spending provides a source of revenue to do so.

Better maintenance of public spaces

In order to provide tourists with a sense of safety and security, public spaces are often better cared for. They can be cleaned more often, provided with better lighting, etc.

Heritage valorisation In order to attract tourist and market a town, its heritage is valorised. Boards can be put throughout the city to explain the

significance of heritage, or direct towards thematic paths. Streets in tourist areas also tend to be cleaned more often and

actions such as putting flowers at windows, etc. are encouraged.

Creation of new infrastructures

The pressure of tourism can lead to the production of new infrastructures. They can be sports hall, concert halls; tourist office buildings, kiosks or chalets; or they can be related to

transport. New motorways, bus or train lines can be created to facilitate access to some specific towns or sites.

Re-qualification of otherwise lost places of

interest

Minor sites or sites not directly considered as heritage can be given life, significance or be saved from destruction thanks to tourism. Industrial sites can avoid being demolished through

re-conversion into cultural, arts centres, activity halls or through inclusion in trails such as 'industrial heritage.' Small

museums or buildings normally not related to tourism (houses, breweries, ateliers, etc.) can be brought into light thanks to a

thematic path.

Reorganisation of public

spaces

In order to please tourists and make their stay enjoyable and movements easy, public spaces sometimes have to be re-organised according to tourist preoccupations. Terraces to lounge and have a drink can be created on town squares and historic centres can be turned into pedestrian zones. The local population can react positively or negatively towards these


Degradation or destruction of urban landscapes

Without proper sensitivity to sustainability on the tourists' side or of supervision on the side of the visited, buildings,

monuments or places of interests can suffer degradation or destruction. Tourists' propensity to ruin a site seems to vary

greatly from country to country. Heritage erosion Yet, voluntary degradation only constitutes the tip of the

iceberg, as very often, the sheer number of tourists and their side nuisances (pollution, erosion of soils, noise, etc.) suffice

to damage heritage. Traffic, congestion and

parking issues. The more famous a town, the more people want to visit it. If this sounds good in economic terms, towns are not always

ready to accommodate ten times as many visitors a day as local residents. Especially historic towns, full of narrow streets and

sometimes circled by walls. Prettification and

petrification of urban spaces The poor, derelict sides of a town tend to be erased in favour of the rich, pretty sides of it. The aim is to produce an image that

will attract tourists, and make them want to come and stay. This can however lead to an eradication of whole groups of activities, result in freezing the heritage and compromise the

continuity of the urban environment. Globalisation and standardisation of

architecture, loss of diversity

A call for prettiness and for answering tourist's interests can lead to a globalisation and standardisation of architecture.

Instead of regional differences, buildings start to be built with the same materials and methods all over the world and the same branches can be found inside them, offering the same

products or services. Creation of monofunctional

spaces An excessive development of tourism to the detriment of other types of economic development can lead to whole areas from town being devoted solely to tourism, thus putting in danger

the diversity of the town and creating bubbles in which residents can feel excluded.

Tourist pollution One speaks of tourist pollution in order to refer to a pollution of urban zones by activities meant mainly if not exclusively for tourists. One example of this is the spread of casinos in major

cities, presented as tourist attractions.


Impacts upon urban cultural practices and representations

This group of consequences constitutes the sphere where opinions on impacts prove most mitigated, as the same occurrence can be interpreted in different ways according to its intensity, context or a person's set of values or opinions. This also constitutes a field where relations of power can have a field game. For instance, does the look of a stranger threaten? What are the relationships between tourists and hosts? And within the host communities, who decides on what needs to be valorised, how and according to what criteria? Cultural tourism is not a simple activity of seeing and visiting. The choices made in order to render a place more beautiful are made by some people according to specific criteria. Desires and decisions are run not only by the Market, but also informed by specific contemporary discourses concerned with human alterity. Cultural tourism is a planned activity structured by the specific desires of the tourist in an alien setting constructed by authorities, by a group of people, usually a specific class of people, that is, experts, political, administrative authorities, cultural associations, in charge (in power?) of formatting the place to be visited. Cultural tourism can participate in the formatting, through the reckoning of the imagined look of the other to be seduced, of one self. The schematic form of this matrix renders it hard to bring out how formatting or imposition procedures can work here, but they are commented upon in the extended version of the deliverable.

Impacts upon urban cultural practices and representations

Diversification,

multiplication and improvement in cultural

offer

Intangible attractions such as festivals, shows, plays, etc. become increasingly important in order to attract and retain

cultural tourists, so that they become more and more common in cities. Thanks to the numbers of tourists visiting, they are

also more likely to be profitable so that town are less reluctant to invest in them.

Rediscovery or keeping alive of local values and/or

traditions

Thanks to tourist interest in the exotic, the different, and the host's culture in general, people can be made aware of their local values or traditions. Specific crafts, traditional feast or

legends, local gastronomy can for example been brought into light.

Pride of origin or residence due to increased visibility

or notoriety of a town.

The more tourists visit a town, the more famous it becomes, and the more famous it becomes, the more proud people are of being from there. Visibility can lead to notoriety that can lead

to pride and a sense of identity. Increased awareness of

common history, development of the notion

The explanation of the significance of heritage made for tourists and a recurrent reinterpretation of history fosters sense of common history, thus leading to a strong sense of identity.


of identity. Obliteration of alternative

histories A common sense of identity and reinterpretation of history among these lines can sometimes lead to the obliteration of

alternative histories, or the experience of groups such as women or ethnic minorities.

Adverse stereotyping Sometimes, however, tourism can lead to a bad image of a town, by way of word and mouth or generalisation of some

experiences. It can for instance be said that people are unfriendly, stupid, that it is not safe, boring, etc., thus leading to a loss of opportunities. On the other hand, locals can also develop stereotyping regarding tourists, for instance along

nationality lines, etc. Benefits of cultural

exchanges Tourism is by definition an encounter between different

cultures. Tourists arrive with their own habits, thus showing that difference exists to local residents. If contacts happen freely and without one culture being more valued than the

other, this can lead to cultural enrichment. Loss or theatralisation of

local values and/or customs The danger, however, lies in the imposition of cultural values upon a fragile culture and in the total disappearance of some local cultures. Or in a staging up of traditions, in representing something that does not (or no longer) mean anything, just in

order to please tourist's search of exoticism. Loss of community spirit The increased pressure of tourists in specific areas or the

disturbance created by the contact with different culture and various modes of adapting to it can lead to a loss of community

spirit. Changes to urban space use Increase tourist pressure can lead locals to move away from

certain squares, parks, and streets. The increased feeling of safety resulting from better maintenance and care can on the

contrary lead to a re-investment of previously abandoned zones.

Local alienation, feeling of loss of town

When tourists are overtly present and most of the town's activities or businesses cater to them, locals sometimes

develop a feeling of alienation, a feeling that the town no longer belongs to them. This proves detrimental to a town

because they will no longer care for it. Conflicts between local inhabitants and visitors

A sense of alienation of being deprived from one's town or the feeling that one has to adapt to specific requirements or values can lead to resentment and rejection of tourists by locals, thus

seriously damaging the atmosphere of a town.


Impacts upon Urban Economies According to interviews and literature, tourism benefits most urban economies. Increase in commodity and real estate prices was however, often deemed negative. The extent of the impacts here will depend on the type of equilibrium reached. In partial equilibrium (i.e., assuming that price do not respond to increased demand - the crucial assumption here is the existence of idle capacity, that can be activated before prices start to increase), increased expenditure by tourist increases local production (and income). Because of the multiplier effect the final increase is bigger than the initial increase (estimate average at a bit less than the double). The issue here is that of leakages: how much of the additional demand is not satisfied by local supply: the larger the share of demand satisfied by imports, the smaller the final impact. The relationships of the tourism sector with the rest of the local economy are therefore crucial. The additional income brings with it additional jobs: directly, in the tourism sector and indirectly in the sectors serving the tourism sector. In equilibrium (after prices adjust to equalise demand and supply), the initial impact is smaller. The theoretical result is that the benefits of tourisms are capitalised in higher prices of non-tradable sectors (hotels, restaurants, houses, prices of goods produced locally). The benefits accrue to the immobile factors (e.g., land) employed the non-tradable sector (which is able to charge higher prices). Empirical evidence (CGE models) confirms this result: in general equilibrium the final effect is smaller than in partial equilibrium (as the initial increase in local demand results both in higher quantity and higher prices). There is a distributional issue, as tourism leads to contraction of the traded sector (e.g., manufacturing) and real return of all other factor decrease. Dynamically, the question is: is the specialisation in tourism (relative for example to a specialisation in innovative activities) harmful for growth? i.e., is a region relatively specialised in tourism going to grow slower than others, faster and what type of development does it entail?

Impacts upon Urban Economies

Creation of job opportunities

People are needed in order to accommodate the flows of tourists, may it be in order to host them, feed them; give them services. It seems that job creation and job quality varies from

country to country, but the tourism sector is usually labour-intensive, high-skill intensive, with a part-time or seasonal

basis. It employs relatively more women but with men holding the top positions.

New fields for commercial activities

Small and Medium towns never really regarded tourism as a source of income till the 1990's. The conversion from industry-

related or agriculture-related economies into an economy of services based on tourism opens new possibilities for ventures.


Tourist spending. During a trip, tourists spend on various grounds. First to pay for the entrance of different "places of interest," thus giving

money to the owners of these sites. Very often, they also spend on accommodation, food and drink, thus also contributing to

the welfare of these entrepreneurs. New sources of revenue Through parking revenues, possible tourist taxes, entrances to

buildings, sale of information, hiring of guides or selling of local products, for instance, sources of revenue can be found for the municipality, without having local citizens pay for more taxes.

The tourism multiplier The firms and shops that enjoy through tourism activity an increase of their revenue also contribute to the increase of

revenue of their suppliers, and the suppliers of their suppliers… Contrary to what happens in rural areas, these suppliers are often located in the city, especially if it is big;

therefore the increase of revenue spreads in different sectors. Furthermore, the employees of tourism enterprises live within the city, and spend there most part of their wages and salaries;

they therefore also contribute to the local wealth. This is known as the tourism multiplier.

Attraction of new enterprises

When a city has, for tourism development purposes, undergone a significant regeneration, it becomes far more attractive to

enterprises looking for a new location: this argument of “attractive city” is particularly efficient for the executives to

accept to move in the new place. This increased attractivity of a place is sometimes called "soft location factor" in order to

differentiate from hard economic facts. Risk of

monosectorialisation and overdependence on

tourism.

In some places, tourism has become the main, if not only industry. This can prove dangerous as a town thus becomes

overtly dependent on tourism stakeholders and is left with very little margin to negotiate, and for instance discuss tour operators' conditions. Economists all stress the need of

diversity of sectors in order to enjoy a healthy economy. Increased expenses for a

town Towns often need to spend more on cleaning, garbage

collection, lighting, renovation, etc. in order to please the tourists. Information services, marketing services and people in

charge of tourism can sometimes weigh heavily on a town's budget.

Augmentation of real estate prices

Large tourist flows and high profitability of city centres locations lead to an increase of real estate prices, leading to the moving out of poorer populations of the towns and creating feelings of resentment against tourists.

Price increase of commodities in general

Being on holiday, tourists seem to be less careful about their money than locals. Flows often go in majority from strong

currency countries to low currency counties, so that businesses with higher prices for tourists quickly appear in tourist areas,


thus creating segregation between tourists and locals and eventually leading to desertification or tourist appropriation of these zones. This phenomenon, together with increase of prices

of real estate, often leads to the setting of an area or quarter within the city where only wealthy people can live, creating a

sort of ghetto or gentrification.


Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 13 2 TOURISM AS AN INSTRUMENT OF REVITALISATION FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED

CITIES 14 2.1 The rise of urban tourism 14 2.2 Cultural tourism versus urban tourism 16 2.3 Tourism is not a panacea 17

3 DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL TOURISM 19 3.1 The resources: intrinsic factors that could promote urban tourism 19 3.2 Adapted communication strategy 20

4 POSSIBLE IMPACTS OF TOURISM ON SMALL AND MEDIUM TOWNS – OVERVIEW AND AVAILABLE ASSESSING METHODS 22 4.1 Built heritage diversity 22 4.2 Local Economy 24 4.3 Impact on the social fabric and local identity 25

5 MANAGEMENT POLICIES 27 5.1 The need for cross-sectorial collaboration 27 5.2 The need for monitoring 28 5.3 Cultural tourism: a demand for an alternative tourism 29 5.4 Carrying capacity 29 5.5 Public participation 30

6 SURVEY AMONG LOCAL AUTHORITIES: METHOD 32 6.1 Questionnaires 32 6.2 Interviews 33

7 CULTURAL TOURISM: WHAT IS IT (NOT)? 40 7.1 The politics of a definition 40

7.1.1 Little agreement with DoW definition 40 7.1.2 Difficulty to define 40 7.1.3 A comparison of official definitions 41 7.1.4 The culture component 42 7.1.5 Defining according to a "product" or a strategy 43

7.2 Points of dissention and agreement 45 7.2.1 Status of day-trippers or excursionists 45 7.2.2 Cultural Needs 47 7.2.3 Fear of elitism 48 7.2.4 Cultural Tourism versus other forms of tourism 50 7.2.5 Sustainability 50 7.2.6 What are attractions? 51

7.3 Concluding comments 52 8 A POSITIVE IMAGE OF TOURISM WITHIN SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED TOWNS 54

8.1 Tourism connotations largely positive 54 8.2 Socio-cultural and environmental factors often disregarded in the evaluation of

tourism 55 8.3 Tourism needs to be managed in order to remain positive 57


9 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACTS 59 9.1 Spontaneous answers 59

9.1.1 Economic benefits dominate the positive picture 59 9.1.2 Image improvement and increased notoriety come second on the positive list 61 9.1.3 No clear agreement on indirect positive impacts but tending towards image and money 62 9.1.4 Direct negative impacts hard to discern. Only traffic stands out as a major problem 62 9.1.5 Image of indirect negative impacts, even more blurry, if existing at all. 63

9.2 Tables 65 9.2.1 "Traffic is the worst" negative impact 68 9.2.2 Under closer scrutiny, negative consequences on town's expenditures come to light 68 9.2.3 Real estate prices go up 69 9.2.4 Money still dominates the positive picture, but nuances appear 69 9.2.5 Image, identity and visibility: positive impacts dominate 71 9.2.6 Urban landscapes and public spaces: changes also experienced as mainly positive 71

10 PREDICTION AND EVALUATION OF IMPACTS 73 10.1 Prediction: nothing systematic and mainly focusing on economical aspects 73 10.2 Follow-up, if any, also based on quantity and not quality 74

11 IMPROVEMENT AND COMPENSATION 75 11.1 Not many suggestions for compensation coming from questionnaires 75 11.2 Need of planning not mentioned in questionnaires but brought to light by some

experts. 75 11.3 Promotion seen as a solution by many respondents of the questionnaire 76 11.4 Expert highlight the gap between private need of profit and public need of long

term 76 11.5 Involvement of locals allows better cooperation 78 11.6 A case study 78

12 ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 81 12.1 Funding and promotion of networks, exchange of good practices 81 12.2 Tourism Promotion and Procedural Advice. 81

13 TOOL EXPECTATIONS 84 13.1 Support 84 13.2 Content 85 13.3 Public 88

14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 15 ANNEXES 93


1 Introduction Even though urban tourism is one of the earliest forms of tourism in Europe, it was not considered a major source of income until the beginning of the 1990s, with the exception of capital cities, such as Paris and London, and some exceptional cases, like Bruges or Venice. Since then, interest in tourism has spread rapidly throughout many small and medium European cities, which previously have not considered themselves as tourist destinations. Bilbao, Dundee and Aix-en-Provence, are examples of small and medium-sized cities that have recently decided to promote tourism even though it has not been part of their tradition. This renewed interest can be explained by the fact that tourism is increasingly perceived as a potential means of alleviating the unprecedented crises suffered by many urban centres (Law, 2000). These crises are due to a number of broadly established factors, including the decline of industrial activities located in the vicinity of their centres, progressive loss of inhabitants and the huge difficulties caused by major office development. As urban tourism has grown very rapidly, its further development is usually conceived as a win-win strategy: It has been viewed as a boost to urban growth while supporting a renaissance of housing, since new cultural and leisure activities may serve both tourists and local residents in search of a richer and denser life (Ashworth, 2001). It has still to be considered that tourism as any other form of development may have positive and negative effects upon the local environment, economy and socio-cultural context. Especially an over-development of tourism leads to rapid erosion of cultural heritage: for example, the physical deterioration from pedestrian and vehicular traffic, vandalism, the construction of new facilities damaging the visual quality of the landscape, and loss of diversity of the social fabric due to an over-specialization of tourism activities. Obviously, cultural tourism should not harm the heritage that motivates it. Preventing this is far from easy, especially in small and medium-sized cities, which lack the size, width and population of large cities to absorb the effects of the development of tourism. Tourism is still considered as a self-regulating activity in many destinations, and it is therefore left to spontaneous development. PICTURE takes the view that a sustainable management of tourism is essential to its continued success, in the view of maximising its positive contribution to the development of small and medium-sized cities. The project therefore aims at developing tools to facilitate the assessment of the possible impacts of Cultural Tourism development upon the social, environmental and economic wealth of European small and medium-sized cities. In this context, a literature review has been conducted to highlight the various issues surrounding Cultural Tourism development in small and medium-sized cities. What are the main challenges and the recurrent adverse effects that should be assessed prior to projects, plans and programmes’ implementation? The literature review has been completed by a questionnaire survey among European local authorities as well as direct interviews with stakeholders related to tourism in one way or another. It will allow to better identify the needs and expectations of the local authorities in terms of tools and methods to manage tourism in urban areas. The literature review and the survey will then help us to establish a matrix of potential impacts of the development of Cultural Tourism upon urban areas. This matrix forms the


basis of the work of WP1. It will be updated regularly in order to reflect the progress of the work.

2 Tourism as an instrument of revitalisation for small and medium-sized cities

Tourism accounts for 5% of all jobs and 5% of all consumer expenditure within the European Union (COM, 2001). It is one of Europe’s largest economic sectors and features among the largest key industries of the 21st century. The World Tourism Organisation estimates that the number of arrivals in Europe will double to 720 million tourists per year by 2020 (WTO, 2000). Although it has been underestimated until quite recently, tourism has long been a central component of the economic, social and cultural shift that has left its imprint on the world system of cities in the past two decades. More and more European cities and urban regions are actively promoting the development of tourism as a means to overcome the post-industrial crisis most of them are suffering. Urban tourism now accounts for 35% of the international travel of Europeans with an annual average growth of 4% during the 90ies (European Commission, 2000). The following chapter explains some of the reasons for this boom while the following one introduces the notion of cultural tourism as the up-coming complement of more traditional urban tourism.

2.1 The rise of urban tourism The development of urban tourism is partly related to the industrial crisis that fuelled the development of tourism policies in many European towns. Tourism management strategies should be adapted to the specificities of the city that should be mirrored in an increased diversity of urban tourism destinations. In 1990 Ashworth and Turnbridge already proposed to distinguish between different types of “tourist” cities considering their size and level of multi-functionality. Judd & Fainstein (1999) further distinguished three basic types of tourist cities:

• Resort cities: places created expressly for consumption by visitors (tourism urbanization);

• Tourist-historic cities: lay claim to a historic and cultural identity that tourists can experience. Sometimes these cities have been sites of tourism for a long time (e.g. Venice or Athens), but in many cases a program of conscious promotion and reconstruction of heritage has transformed them into tourist cities;

• Converted cities: have built an infrastructure for the purpose of attracting visitors, but the tourist space brought into being by this infrastructure is insulated from the larger urban milieu within a process of uneven development. These cities often include “tourist bubbles”.


All these three different kind of tourist cities have been experiencing a boom in the development of tourism since the early 80ies. This phenomenon has been greatly fuelled by some general trends during the last two decades. An important factor has been the rise, in developed countries, of affluent social stratums, having cultural desires and attracted by less “passive” stays than those offered by traditional sites (e.g. the beaches), as well as to the rise of a business tourism, itself linked to the strong trend of economic globalisation (Bidou, 2000). The target public of urban tourism is mainly constituted of individuals or small households, and working people (business tourism). Typically well-educated, affluent and broadly travelled, urban tourists generally represent a desirable type of upscale visitor (Judd & Fainstein, 1999). A very general trend which is also benefiting to urban tourism is the thickening of linkages among people around the world through shared working, the Internet, immigration and the prevalence of English as a second language. Urban tourism is a short-stay tourism. It is more than any other encouraged by the fractioning of holidays (Cazes & Potier, 1998) and by the decrease of the work time. Seasonality effects would not affect it as some other forms of tourism, even though it is well known that it can also witness important peaks during the year. Tourism in general benefits from a lowering of the retirement age and the increase of life expectancy, as well as from the increase of small households (single men and women or couples without children), that can more easily travel. Tourists mainly come by car, train or plane to visit a city. Urban tourism is hence the first to benefit from the European networking of cities through the development of rapid transport infrastructures. It still needs be stressed that this networking mainly affects capitals and some major cities (Cattan et. al., 1999) and may not be so strong for second and third "order" cities. The increasing flexibility of booking systems is also promoting urban tourism by allowing last minute departures. The availability of low cost carriers is another favourable factor. Finally, cities are the first to benefit from foreign tourists, as the visit of towns and cities is usually a “mandatory” component of the visit of a foreign country (Cazes & Potier, 1998). One of the first motivations of urban tourism is the cultural visits (historic sites, historic areas). Compared to tourists seeking outdoor recreation, urban visitors are disproportionately drawn by cultural, historical, architectural, and ethnic attractions. However, the human relations (visit to family or friends) constitute another recurrent motivation of urban tourists. Friends actually often house urban tourists or family, they often organise by themselves or thanks to social networks, without any professional intervention (Cazes & Potier, 1998). This characteristic makes that part of the urban tourism demand remains little known. A last (but not least) recurrent motivation is shopping (stroll in commercial areas, window-shopping). In capitals like London, shopping arrives ahead of visiting cultural sites in the motivations of tourists (Cazes & Potier, 1998 ; Orbasli, 2000).1 According to Judd & Fainstein (1999), “in 1994, in Boston, the “city visit” and shopping had surpassed historical sightseeing as the most popular visitor activities”. The range of accommodations, facilities such as sport stadiums or museums, nightlife, and culinary offerings also participate in attracting tourists. Arguably some authors consider that cities are moving from being industrial centres of production to becoming centres of consumption. Still the distinction

1 Smaller cities like Charleroi in Belgium and Lille in France even decided to set up a specific service of urban stewards to orient and assist visitors in their shopping (Mollet, 1999). The number of English tourists that are going to Lille for shopping is estimated at 800 a day. The shopping tourism can be especially important in second and third rank cities located near by by borders (De Groote & Nielsen Diepenbeek, 1998)


between these two types of cities is not that new, Max Weber already proposed it in 1942 in order to contrast different medieval towns. 2 The activities practiced by urban tourists during their stays are often a mix of all the above-mentioned motivations.

2.2 Cultural tourism versus urban tourism Heritage tourism has been one of the most traditional motivations for leisure travel. The fact that almost all tourist brochures make allusions to art, hints to heritage, and glorious past confirms the importance of heritage in attracting tourists. In particular, European cities are appreciated for their huge amount of well-preserved built heritage. However, the sole buildings and urban spaces are no longer sufficient to attract tourists in the long run. Urban heritage may not be separated from the human and living dimension of a region or a town, playing in itself an attractive role: atmosphere, shopping, people, food, crafts, nature and landscape etc (Lidgi S., 2002). ‘Culture’ which is attracting tourists in a particular town is increasingly broader than the sole built and non-built heritage, that is why it is so difficult to define or delimit the concept of “Cultural Tourism” (see the results of the questionnaire surveys and interviews in the second part of the document). Prentice (1993) proposed a typology of 23 heritage attraction types, from natural history attractions to fieldsports etc. “Heritage in general, the discovery of a town, its atmosphere, are major attractive elements for tourists” (Cazes & Potier, 1998). “Urban visitors are drawn by cultural, historical, architectural and ethnic attractions. Cultural tourists consume not only art, opera, and “son et lumière” in historical settings but also gourmet food and locally produced crafts” (Judd & Fainstein, 1999, p63). The rising importance of cultural tourism in European cities can be further explained by the diffusion and democratization of culture promoted from the mid of the 20th century. This movement allowed a progressive widening of the concept of ‘culture’. Additionally the principle of a unitarian and state heritage is increasingly questioned and makes room for greater consideration to cultural diversity and regional differences. As a consequence, entire areas until then neglected are now considered as pieces of culture: gothic from the 16th century, regionalist architecture from the 20th century, etc (Amirou, 2000). With the diffusion of culture and education to culture, one might say that a form of social pressure appeared, to do cultural holiday homework. There is a sort of aesthetic (and moral) duty: one must see, or have seen this exhibition (Amirou, 2000). However this diffusion has also created cultural needs and sensitivity among the public. Furthermore tourism tends to consecrate what is distant in time and space and distant from our understanding. “Now that most people in the highly developed countries reside in suburbs and small towns, the large city has assumed the status of exotica” (Judd and Fainstein, 1999). Tourists look for estrangement. They often look for a rupture in daily lives' cycle, they crave for experiences distinct from their daily life. Yet, things should not be too different in order to avoid fear, destabilisation. It can be hard to strike a good balance when working on cultural tourism development projects. For the tourists but also for their hosts, who often find

2 Weber indeed considered the feudal town as a city of great consumers, whose development was mostly oriented towards fulfilling the needs of the local nobility.


themselves constructed into some kind of different "other," unified in its difference from the tourism and symbolism of the place. Cultural tourism is heavily dependent on the city, given its mere organisation: it is influenced by the morphology of the town or city, and the localisation of the sites within the urban network. Outlying urban areas are for instance hardly visited in many cities. A survey of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International (1995) highlighted that 53% of european cultural attractions were located in either a major city or a town. This explains by the fact that cultural attractions have long been an important facet of urban area tourism products. Still there is few information about the length of stays visits to heritage attractions, may it be museums, built heritage or else, induces in the surrounding town. Yet knowledge of such induced stays is important if the economic impact of tourist attractions is to be properly understood, for tourists’spending on food and drink in a locality will likelmy increase as their length of stay increases (Prentice, 1993). The aesthetic pleasure is an important motive of the cultural experience. The vision (visual sense) certainly played a major role in the development of travel and tourism in the West, especially recently (Amirou, 2000). The sense of sight had an increasing importance after Renaissance, and has been still transformed by the widespread and adoption of photography. This aesthetic approach is likely to create prettifying effects on built and non-built-heritage: the world is itself increasingly conceived of and grasped as a picture. It should still be aknowledged that aesthetic pleasure is a quite complex phenomenon that encompasses both cognitive and emotional aspects, as underlined by Ligdi (2002). Education and site conservation purposes were identified as cornestone issues by tourists visiting heritage attractions in a survey led in the isle of Man by Prentice (1993). The same survey highlighted sharp differences between the expectations of cultural tourists and general visitors (which means that site based strategies may be inappropriate for reaching this wider audience).

2.3 Tourism is not a panacea Tourism does not work as a panacea for a redevelopment of cities. As any kind of development, it is itself characterised by a number impacts - be it from an environmental, cultural, economic or social point of view. As we will see in the survey questionnaire results, most stakeholders present tourism as all rosy. Without going to the opposite extreme, this statement should be somehow moderated. In the following chapter we will especially focus on impacts related to the authenticity of built heritage, to the local economy and to social issues.

• The urban regeneration allowed by tourism development is often underlined, but an excessive development of tourism bears the risk of transforming our urban heritage into mono-functional spaces, threatening the long-term conservation of this heritage. This yields a risk of losing meaning and authenticity (“Disney-isation” of the city centres).

• In towns and regions most affected by the crisis, there is often a temptation to focus on tourism as the main and almost only economic activity; even though it is generally admitted that the tourism industry is not sufficient to replace all the jobs lost in the productive activities. Moreover an excessive specialisation along one type of development is always a risky policy, especially in the tourism market characterised by quite unpredictable ups and downs.

• Tourism is often presented to inhabitants as a vector for urban regeneration and building of new infrastructures from which they will benefit. However, the other side


of the coin is an increase of prices (estate prices, and price of life in general), with the consequence that some inhabitants are progressively excluded from the town (gentrification).

Faced with all the contradicting effects that tourism is likely to produce, nobody may a priori claim that finally, tourism is all rosy, or all black. It is therefore necessary, prior to any action, to assess the impacts of future/planned tourist developments.


3 Development of cultural tourism Two main aspects can be investigated to develop tourism in a city: the analysis of the “resources” (what are the elements, qualities, amenities to put forward?) and the communication strategy (how to make them attractive and accessible?). Even though there are clear overlaps between these two domains we will structure the discussion about the development of cultural tourism along these two axes.

3.1 The resources: intrinsic factors that could promote cultural tourism within towns

Each city must stress its particularities, elements that make it different from other cities. As each town is basically different from another one, there is a crucial work to accomplish for developing tourism, which is to identify the ‘resources’ of the town, that is to say all the elements or factors likely to attract tourists, because of their specificity, or their great quality.

• Historical evidence is one of the main assets likely to attract tourists. As every town has its own history, it can be put forward as specificity. Some monuments inherited from the past act as a landmark and put a city on the tourist’s mental map, but cultural tourist resource should not be limited to monuments as entire urban areas can also be valued for their character, with or without buildings. History also make some towns, like Jerusalem or Lourdes, benefit from strong symbolic or religious meanings. The fact that a town remained for a long time under-visited, can sometimes reinforce its attraction for a while, by providing a sense of rediscovering a neglected world. An example is given by the rapid transformation of Prague into a central tourist destination after the opening of East Europe, thanks to the advantage of a relatively intact central core (benefit from underdevelopment, strong planning cultures, and preservationist traditions). Naples in Italy also rediscovered (or was rediscovered by) tourism after years of abandonment and dereliction (Froment, 2003). This did not happen without causing conflicts with those groups that previously occupied public spaces (Dines, 2002).

• Some towns decide to create new resources rather than solely highlight those offered by the past, either because they do not benefit from a rich past history (or rather from a past history that is likely to attract international tourists), or simply because they would like to boost their "tourist attraction power." This generally takes the form of new emblematic and attractive monuments, also called iconic architecture by reference to advertisement practices that are built by internationally renowned architects. Famous examples are the Guggenheim museum by Franck 0’Gherry in Bilbao3, or, at a larger scale the Euralille urban project designed by Rem Koolhas.

It must be remembered that the "resources" of a town have to keep evolving throughout time and that today's creations are likely to attract tomorrow's tourists. Towns would hence benefit in the long run from promoting local urban innovation.

3 There were 3.600.00 visitors of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao between its opening on the 19th of october 1997 and the 31st of december 2001. It is estimated that these visitors spent more than 6.200 thousands EUR (which is nearly seven times the cost of the museum itself). The museum contributed to maintain some 4.000 jobs a year. While the occupation rate of hotel lied between 45 to 51%, it is now around 80% with peaks at 100% durin,g week-ends and the summer period. (Varga, 2001)


Even though an important resource, the intrinsic value of heritage in terms of diversity or uniqueness is a factor that should obviously be considered alongside with other cultural elements, like museums, events and activities. The social and cultural life of a town is likely to attract tourists. Lille is for instance famous for its flea market (braderie), Venice for its carnival, Edinburgh for its theatre festival and Milan for its design activities. The availability of attractive shops and restaurants and the accessibility of a place also play a very important role in the success of any tourist destination. One should however note that accessibility has its strange workings that do not always lead to positive impacts. For instance, the development of the high-speed rail linking York to London and Edinburgh made that many tourists now stay for less than a day in York (Orbasli 2000)

3.2 Adapted communication strategy Towns and cities are not always conscious of the importance of an adequate communication strategy. All too often they solely concentrate their efforts on the “hardware” (built heritage renovation, public spaces regeneration, etc), when it can also prove very helpful to learn to manage the “software” (marketing, services, welcome, etc). By neglecting this aspect, tourism risks to develop in an inappropriate way or no developing at all. Over-using without the proper hardware can also lead to tourist being disappointed, never coming back and making a bad name out of your town. According to the type of tourism expected, different communication strategies are required4. A city must have intrinsic qualities but deliberate communication strategies are often able to transform its image. An example is the inversion of New York’s image, thanks to an appropriate tourist marketing (Gilbert & Hancock, 2000). New York was presenting a challenge to European tourism because of the lack of monuments and history that traditionally interest visitors. Gradually, the idea of a beauty specific to New York has been developed. The island site allows an aesthetic capture of Manhattan; it gives the approach by boat all the panoramic qualities on which the European tourist imagination is feeding. One of the New York’s marketing leitmotivs is that it is not an American city, but the future of the world. Usual communication strategies include the following actions.

• The development of a city thematic (design, architecture, crafts, music, etc) is a way to differentiate from other cities and impose the city as an interesting passage point for who is interested in this thematic. Arts are very important in the creation of a city image, projecting an aura of high quality, civility, creativity, and sophistication and consequently conferring status on its visitors (Judd & Fainstein 1999).

• The development of a tourist-friendly and welcoming attitude is likely to provide a good reputation to a city, and thus attract tourists on the long-term. The welcome of tourists, through information, means of signalisation, organisation of parking, organisation of city tours, temporary offers, etc. are likely to facilitate the life of tourists and contribute to leave them with good memories from their stay (meaning that they are likely to come back, or at least to recommend the town to their acquaintances).

4 The city of Quebec, after its nomination as world heritage city, defined a global interpretation strategy at the city level in order to “successfully communicate its world heritage features to residents and visitors, through adequate means, activities and programmes.” (Cultura, 1989) This strategy identifies different lines along which to discover and learn about the heritage of the city, and declines specific means to develop these interpretation lines for different expectations of the public.


• The added value that makes a locality different from and better than others may no longer be only in its historic qualities, but may also be sought in the active elements of the town or modern-day additions. The organisation of festive events like concerts, sportive manifestations, cultural exhibitions, cinema festivals, etc has progressively become indispensable.

• Hosting an international event can also put a neglected town under the spotlight. The 1992 international exhibition in Sevilla boosted tourism in the city: +18% of arrivals each year since 1992 (Cazes & Potier, 1998). However it is less than expected and all the investments made in infrastructures, hotels, etc. are currently oversized. Staging a big event is actually a financial gamble for a city, but the remaking of a city’s image, and its long-term place on the international scene, while difficult to quantify, can eventually more than compensate the economic dangers.

• Being designated as “European Capital of Culture” can also put a city under the spotlight and provide it with a high-quality image. This designation generally produces long-term positive effects on the image of a town. Glasgow, the prestige of which has durably increased after its designation in 1990, gives an example.

• Taking part into cities’ networks allows playing on the complementariness, regrouping several small and mediums towns in a limited geographical area, which is particularly interesting for these towns that would otherwise be outshined by bigger cities. Some networks are based on quality labels, allowing exchanges of experience and information, and mutual improvement of the towns’ tourist qualities.

A communication strategy should logically evolve throughout time. Just as the reputation of big firms may rise and fall with the quality of their products and the effectiveness of their marketing, a city’s reputation will fluctuate too according to local conditions (infrastructures, services, crime rates) and the effectiveness of the city’s communication efforts (Judd & Fainstein, 1999).


4 Possible impacts of tourism on small and medium towns – overview and available assessing methods

As it has already been said tourism produces certain impacts, both positive and negative, that need to be managed by local authorities in order to lead to sustainable forms of development. This section is specifically aimed at providing an overview of the main challenges and recurrent adverse effects attached to tourism development. It will consider the impacts of tourism at large and not of a specific type of tourism. Before detailing the different types of impacts, one must note that the impacts of tourism, whatever their type, are largely dependent on the physical and cultural capacity of a place to cater for and absorb tourists without them becoming an obstruction to daily life. While the centre of large capitals, such as Paris or London, can arguably absorb the impacts of tourism, pressures are much greater on the smaller towns, including cultural pressures where a more traditional way of life continues, and in rural settlements where impacts are immediately felt (Orbasli 2000). Additionally one must keep in mind that impacts are evolving since the tourist activity is also changing throughout the time (number of visitors, composition, etc). Tourism is volatile, unstable by nature, fashion driven and plagued by political conflict, natural disaster or still perceptions of security. Tourism is a consumer of natural environments, historic buildings, urban spaces and local culture, all of which, if they are spoilt by overcrowding and overdevelopment, face the danger of being abandoned in favour of fresh and more attractive destinations. A common cycle thus occurs in tourism: from discovery of a destination to subsequent tourism development, success, followed all too often by oversupply and overcrowding, “visit before it sinks” (Venice) or “visit it before it is spoilt” (Dubrovnik) attitude, and a lower and less profitable class of tourist taking advantage of the lower prices of oversupply (Manente & Celotto, 2004). Finally, impacts of tourism depend on visitors, and can sometimes be more closely related to the type of visitor than it is to numbers. In equal numbers, a group of elderly tourists seeking culture or a group of excitable youths coming for a football match might have very different impacts on a place, even though exceptions can occur.

4.1 Built heritage diversity Before entering the debate about the impact of tourism upon built heritage, it should be stressed that the mere definition of heritage can somehow be influenced by tourism itself. As tourists are attracted by “heritage”, the temptation is high to multiply the designation of elements as heritage. According to Picard (1995), “the view of Culture as a resource to be exploited strengthens and feeds the one of Culture as a heritage to be preserved”. Furthermore the designation of an element as heritage implies the installation of a symbolic and social distance between this element and the normal life. As such, it is quite similar from the “exotism” that tourists are actively seeking. Still when the predominant objective of heritage conservation is tourism development, it is in danger of becoming a superficial exercise devoid of any cultural significance.


Accordingly the concept of heritage tends to include more than “container” because it is the contents that animates it. It is urban life taken as a whole with its complexity, which makes the container live and evolve (Cazes & Potier 1998). “The concept of cultural heritage too often evokes the sole “princes” of architecture like castles, palaces or cathedrals. It appears now indispensable to redefine it, according to the interest, or symbolic and affective significance that an element – glorious or modest – arouses within a community. Because, beautiful though it is, any shell loses its meaning when isolated from its context and deprived of the living relational networks that animate it” (Lemaire 1997). The deterioration of heritage is the most usually evoked impact of tourism upon material assets and the cultural heritage. An overexploitation of heritage creates a risk of physical destruction. It is often deplored that heritage is seen as a “mine” to be exploited for tourism. However, the importance of this threat is much debated. Even if the danger of destruction or vandalism are often real, the monuments which are “over-visited” would not be that numerous. According to Amirou (2000), they are limited to Versailles, Mont-St-Michel, and Chambord in France. For the great majority of owners and managers of little museums and sites, the problem is rather to increase the number of visitors. Furthermore, tourism is an important catalyst for the safeguarding of historic fabric and the funding of conservation programmes. Tourism may also provide a way to re-use buildings with minimal changes to their historic character. Private houses and some monuments provide an alternative form of visitor accommodation in unique and authentic settings, with a living function closely linked to the original one. It is thus impossible to draw a generic conclusion about the effect of tourism on ‘material assets and the cultural heritage’. The 1976 Cultural Tourism Charter (Icomos 1976) was already balancing the positive and negative effects on cultural heritage, produced by the important development of tourism all over the world. Prettification-aesthetisation, petrifaction and standardization of public spaces is another commonly cited negative impact of tourism upon urban settings. “Urban conservation, in connection with the growing influence of tourism, is resulting in a freezing-in-time approach and a re-recreation of past times, compromising the continuity of the urban environment. The integration of conservation with tourism has been such that tourism is no longer an outcome of preservation but conservation is increasingly a product of tourism, resulting in: a hurried attempt to re-create or even invent history; facadism and “pastiche” streetscape re-creation; over-sanitisation of both history and the life of a town; theming.” (Orbasli 2000). Enhancing the legibility and attractiveness of heritage can sometimes lead to highly contestable extrapolations and over-simplifications. A recurrent criticism is that the “picturesque” prevails over the respect of authenticity, yet a pillar principle of the conservation action mentioned in all heritage charters: Venice (1964), Florence (1982), and Toledo (1987). One may wonder about heritage diversity when the same materials are seen everywhere: tinted glass and steal, hard coatings, monopolistic urban furniture, grey pavements, and flashy sodium lighting. The tourist “product” tends to become uniform. According to Orbasli (2000), revitalist and pastiche approaches have become a common approach across Britain, which is often supported by local planning authorities and compounded by the availability of mass-produced “traditional” materials. Tourism in the urban realm is predominantly an external activity. Accordingly the emphasis of conservation would be moving to external aspects, streets and public spaces. In this context, façadism is a potential risk as well as replication of historic styles (pastiche). Tourism leaves an extra imprint in urban spaces through enhancement of “traditional”


architectural features. Besides excessive heritage designations are changing some places into landscapes (Puig, 2000). The prettification approach may be pushed very far. Even though outside Europe, Tozeur in Tunisia seems worth mentioning for its exemplifying qualities. The Al-Hawadif sector in Tozeur is an example of transformation of a centre of social activity into a kind of scenery. A leisure landscape (“La Ville des rêves,” "the dream city in English") has been “built” upon a historic substratum to answer to tourists’ imagination and expectations. Tourists are maintained in a permanent euphory through browsing through these “fictionalised and derealised universes” (Winkin 1998). Guides are also participating in this arrangement of the reality in order to avoid breaking the “world’s enchantment” (Puig 2000). Differentiation of such areas from the rest of the city can lead to the construction of enclaves, also called “tourist bubbles” by Judd and Fainstein (1999). While tourist areas (often in the centre or on waterfronts) are heavily patrolled against “undesirables”, other parts of the city are often allowed to deteriorate and become centres of criminal activities, anomy, and physical decay (Judd & Fainstein 1999). The ordinary fabric of daily life in the city outside those enclaves hence seems hostile or uninviting to the visitors. “Separating and specialising an urban zone, depending on how condensed its heritage is, makes citizens turn their backs on it to a considerable and detrimental degree, which constitutes a rejection and impoverishment and a kind of distortion and impermeabilisation that is contrary to the positive value of tourist flows.” (ITR, 2004). By contrast some cities do not need to achieve a Disneyland-like sense of cleanliness and order to attract tourists, and tourism is not the only force shaping these cities. Boston is a good example in this respect. It is one of the premier tourist cities in America, but it occurred almost by accident. Tourism planning is actually underdeveloped in Boston, but urban planning and design, historic preservation, and struggles over urban space are not. As a result, Boston managed to preserve its historic neighbourhoods that are now attracting tourists. Tourism is absorbed into the daily life of the city.

4.2 Local Economy Tourism can have a catalyst role, a booster role to reactivate a local economy that is asleep after a crisis. Whether tourism produces good jobs or bad is not an inherent characteristics of the tourist industry but rather a consequence of how it is structured in a specific location. It is not so easy to draw up the balance sheet of tourism. One must take into consideration various indirect costs, like garbage collection, cleanliness surveillance, security, water supply, infrastructures, estate pressure, etc. They can exceed limits preventing an active town working in normal market conditions (Cazes & Potier 1998). Another recurrently mentioned adverse impact of tourism is the inflation of prices (renting prices, estate prices, life price, etc) due to renovation, rehabilitation and enhancement of built heritage, speculation or monosectorialisation (Drdacky M. F., 2002). Quite typically the urban form and fabric of an historic town that are primary attractions to visitors are a free commodity. Hospitality service and commercial outlets within the town are secondary attractions, but they constitute the greatest opportunity for financial gain. As a consequence, the investment in infrastructure and the conservation of urban fabric do not benefit from a direct financial return (Orbasli 2000). One should especially wonder who receives the final economic benefits of tourism? Criteria exist for judging economic effects of tourism, and effects on equity: the number of jobs directly and indirectly created; the overall number of jobs going to local people, especially


women, low-income and minorities; the proportion of jobs that lead to advancement; wage levels; and tax revenues contributed to the general fund. Also important is the organization of the industry and the ease to enter into it. Does local small business share in the proceeds? Is there a framework for cooperative endeavours so that associations of local businesses can market their products widely, as is done by groups of bed-and-breakfast establishments in various locations? Where multinational corporations dominate management and marketing of enterprises, are franchise opportunities and needed credit available to local entrepreneurs? (Judd & Fainstein 1999) All these issues need to be taken into consideration in the evaluation of the impact of tourism upon local economies.

4.3 Impact on the social fabric and local identity It is widely accepted that conflicts can occur between local inhabitants and visitors: conflicts of interests of course, but also tensions between people that result from overcrowding, increasing prices and the crossing of cultural boundaries. “The West European approach to conservation in historic quarters where “technically” balanced interventions and facade preservations have created favourable settings for tourism and shopping, have alienated local communities and users. Urban conservation, in connection with the growing influence of tourism, is resulting in: gentrification of residential areas and shopping facilities; local alienation or feelings of loss of privacy; loss of community spirit; changes to urban space use, physical urban pattern and subsequently urban character” (Orbasli, 2000). Some tourist places are subject to such an increase of visitors that daily life comes to be evacuated from them (Vincent 1997). Gifts shops, restaurants and other tourist services can colonise urban spaces in such a way that it becomes assimilated to another form of “pollution”. It is hence crucial to manage the number of visitors before local inhabitants start leaving, threatening the long-term conservation of these urban ecosystems. The idea that conservation and architecture concern both buildings and people is cornerstone to the sustainable development of tourism, and key to the definition of cultural tourism. Prague where rising rents led to replacement of the cheap shops and restaurants serving local residents and workers by boutiques, galleries, and up-scale restaurants that cater predominately to tourists, and progressively excluding local inhabitants give a counter-example. Such a process create a tension between old social patterns based on a specific population and social structure and new patterns emerging not only from tourism but from the market economy to which it is related (Judd & Fainstein, 1999). Conflicts may also arise from divergent uses of the urban space: tourists practicing leisure, inhabitants desiring to have rest, workers, Cazes & Potier (1998) also recommends to wonder about the re-use of urban heritage and the functions that are given to the historic city. They also denounce the attempt to conquer the historic city by the “all-cultural”, to the detriment of urban ordinary life. In most urban areas some outdoor spaces are considered as “private” by local users (e.g. tight residential community in a small cul-de-sac, like in the Hors-Château quarter in Liège). This feeling of privacy is often part of a historically defined spatial hierarchy. These residents often view their intimacy as aggressed by recurrent tourist visits and develop animosity towards them. From a more cultural stance some forms of institutional commemoration or official memories within societies may lead to silence alternative memories of the places and the past. This especially the case when some landscapes or distinctive buildings and monuments are taken to represent a nation in ways that undermine alternative memories of other social groups.


Finally, conflicts are sometimes strengthened by public authorities’ lack of consideration for local communities. Paradoxically too many “tourism policies” solely concentrate on the demands of tourists, forgetting local residents that are usually the main users of public services. One must however stress that tourism can be a potential benefit for local inhabitants, who benefit from tourism-related investments, both financially and through improved amenities. Tourism can also be a fantastic carrier of identity: tourism development can strongly improve the image that inhabitants have of their city, as for instance in the case of Marseille where tourism development dramatically changed the inhabitants’ perception of their city (Allemand 2003). Lille's image also changed drastically since it has been named European Capital of Culture for 2004. Tourism can also, in some cases, participate to improve social cohesion. An example is given by the small French-Louisiana's towns, where Creole and Acadian people are collaborating on the same tourist project, which is strengthening community solidarity (Le Menestrel, 2000). After a flourishing oil industry, Louisiana was confronted in the eighties to the collapse of oil prices. Tourism was then considered as a new resource. And this economic redevelopment coincided with the rebirth of the Louisianaise identity. Acadian culture became one of the main themes of the tourist policy (cookery, music and dance). In the nineties, Louisiana set up strategies advertising the different regions and showing their interest for a “cultural and ethnic” tourism. The French language, although banished and denigrated until then, was rehabilitated. One should finally stress that tourism tends to foster a supranational culture by forging connections among people from different places, which has its pros and its cons. Reaching conclusions about the desirability of tourism as it affects culture hence ultimately refers to a highly subjective hierarchy of values. How to provide democratic access to a non-ordinary experience? Inhabitants, confronted with the ‘valorisation as heritage’ of their daily life environment can develop specific conceptions about their own culture. The analysis of such identity shifts would inform us about the local imagination and the way that social experiences are affected by the insertion of tourism (Puig, 2000).


5 Management policies In many destinations, tourism is still considered as a self-regulating activity (Van Der Borg 2003). Cazes & Potier (1998) looked for management strategies in different French towns and cities, and the conclusion was that only one town (Aix-en-Provence) had such a strategy. According to the authors it is almost impossible to find a Local Authority ready to take politic decisions related to tourism. In the best case, some measures are aimed at managing traffic jams and parking problems by creating parks outside the cities. To avoid or control the adverse effects mentioned in the previous section, a tourism management strategy should be preliminary defined and regularly updated according to the results of continuous monitoring programmes. The importance of planning for tourism development is obvious, yet it is often overlooked or reduced to too tight a time frame. The stages of a commonly agreed framework for tourism development planning as adapted by Orbasli (2000) from Laws (1995), Page (1995) and Boniface (1995) and physical planning procedure suggested for historic towns (Feilden and Jokilehto 1998), are the following ones:

Preparatory stages:

• Identification of the current situation: research including evaluation of the site, community, economic and political background;

• Forecasting growth, development patterns and future events; • Identification of possible funding sources; • Setting tourism and development objectives.

Effective long-term planning, based on sound methodological approaches:

• Coordination of communication and product development; • Consultation and community involvement (as essential); • Identifying investment incentives (public and private involvement and partnerships); • Assessing feasibility and desirability of options.

Implementation:

• Maintaining and assessing quality; • Continuous monitoring and periodic review.

It should still be admitted that managing and controlling the long-term effects of tourism is far from straightforward: how to avoid that a grocer or a baker are replaced by fashion or souvenir shops? How to limit the proliferation of cafes and restaurants – and their accompanying nuisances – in some streets?

5.1 The need for cross-sectorial collaboration One major difficulty in managing tourism is that it requires collaboration between several actors. Urban heritage typically does not have a simple owner; there are many users and claimants to urban space, linked or conflicting through a complex web of relations. A city is only ever partly managed and key players emerge from these ownership and management patterns. The total cast of players is in a variety of forms, includes a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, with at times conflicting interests, agendas and accountability structures.


Recurrent conflicts or incidents are likely to occur between actors or key players, in relation to conservation and tourism in historic towns and town centres:

• between central and local government (policy and control); • between political (short term objectives) and professional (administration) priorities in

local government; • between different departments of government (at national and local level), for instance

between urban development and urban conservation departments; • between the public and the private sectors; • between the local market and international operators; • between community and local administration; • within the community itself; • between community and visitors (see above sections).

As for other issues the collaboration between different administrative units forming a common urban agglomeration is key to effective tourism policy. In Brest, the “Communauté Urbaine” (Urban Communities), a decision-making level that federates different municipalities, is now competent for the planning and management of tourism. It therefore adopted the model of “pays touristique” initially developed by rural communities. It means that the Community is in charge of the development of the local tourism offer, the valorisation of this offer and the mobilisation and animation of local actors. It also develops an activity of follow-up and evaluation of tourism policies at the level of the entire territory covered by its different municipalities (Doria & Dupuy, 2003). While European cities benefit from the relative weakening of States as social and political integration unit, they progressively engage in complex strategies intertwining local and regional levels in the view of developing a specific cultural policy (D’Angelo, 2002 ; D’Angelo & Vespérini, 2001).

5.2 The need for monitoring As the tourist activity is evolving throughout time, the effects, its costs and benefits are difficult to predict and are fluctuating. It is necessary to monitor them continuously in order to regularly feed the management policy with fresh information. The development of tourism monitoring boards would be welcomed. But one should pay special attention to the methodological choices that are made when developing such boards. For instance, in most tourist statistics, only paying visits of cultural sites are recognised as “cultural tourism” (Amirou 2000). To admire the architecture of an Italian place for example is not cultural according to this approach. Another example is that urban tourism has been for a long time under-evaluated because flow statistics were only considering stays of more than four days (Cazes & Potier 1998). One will see in the second part of the document that most cities have no idea about the financial benefits of tourism in their town. In this sense, the city of Montpellier is a pioneer as it set up an observatory of the tourist activity in 1998, just after the World Football Competition, in order to identify the benefits related to this event, to better know the tourists visiting the town, and to measure the part of tourism within the economy of the town. (Klépandy and Cros 2003). Organisation of regular qualitative surveys would also be helpful. Monitoring of visitors’ satisfaction is for instance crucial. The attraction exerted by a piece of cultural heritage is


actually evolving. It is successively subject to different kinds of attention or value registers. Curious objects can suddenly be valued for their aesthetics or ordinary object considered as historic or object of collection. On the contrary, objects previously valued can lose their aura and be denied, or even damaged by visitors (Amirou 2000).

5.3 Cultural tourism: a demand for an alternative tourism In response to consumer demand in the 1990s, a sustainable approach to tourism developed just as in many other economic sectors. Progressively, another market arose in reaction to mass tourism. The social challenge attached to this alternative tourism is to reconcile inhabitants and tourists; the economic challenge is to create jobs (at the level of local community) and to diffuse economic benefits of tourism by helping alternative structures to reach the balance (little concert halls, alternative cafes); the urban planning challenge is the diffusion of tourist flows within space through the valorisation of new territories; and finally the identity challenge is the enhancement of local heritage, local products and authenticity (Sallet-Lovorel, 2003). To attest the importance of this form of tourism most author refer to the unexpected success of some operations like the Oberkampf and Bercy village quarters in Paris. The sale of the “Banlieues de Paris” backpacker guide reached a record showing that the demand is real (Sallet-Lovorel 2003). The development of guesthouses coincides with this increasing demand for another form of tourism. The public of this alternative tourism seems constituted by inhabitants themselves and small groups. But it is still more difficult to appreciate this demand than the demand for traditional tourism, because people are using parallel networks. However, numerous associations have been created, like the French association of travellers or inhabitants’ committees that are mobilising and organising visits of the city, in order to give their own view of the city to tourists (Sallet-Lovorel, 2003). In Berlin, 35 to 40 structures are proposing different visits of the city, focusing on the encounter with Berliners.

5.4 Carrying capacity The notion of carrying capacity is based on the assumption that there must be some quantitative limit to the acceptance of tourism development over which the urban environment is adversely affected. As such it is a combination between physical capacity and social tolerance. The evaluation of the carrying capacity of a place is a contentious issue. Firstly because it may be calculated at different scales (applying it to a site in a town or the whole town). Secondly because it requires an understanding of the dynamics of the tourist market and the laws attached to the life cycle of the tourist product. There is no widely accepted formula for the calculation of carrying capacity in a living urban environment and maintaining set targets is even more difficult, especially as carrying capacity is not simply defined as a fixed number, but it is a variable of season, space and cultural and natural elements (Medlik 1995). For tourist towns, the major consideration is often concentration in certain areas at certain times. While a narrow medieval street may have the physical capacity to accommodate a given number of persons, the valued image and context of a medieval quarter are lost once it is overcrowded (Orbasli 2000). Jansen-Verbeke (1995) however lists indicators for when a critical point has been reached:

• a decline in the number of overnight stays;


• a growing absence of the original target groups; • an over-capacity in the hotels, which leads to “price-dumping” campaigns; • a loss of quality of products and services; • a decreasing interest in the city from project developers, investors and sponsors of

events; • an indifferent or even an antagonist attitude of the locals towards tourism and tourists.

How can we act to maintain tourism within carrying capacity levels? Some propose to control the tourist flows by creating a tax for entering into the city for example or by simply closing the entrance. But then some tourists are disappointed, like for instance at the “Cité des Sciences de la Villette” (Chesnel 2001). Another possibility is to regulate the flows. New tours can be created at the risk of affecting authenticity of sectors not yet hit by tourism. In the city of Bath, a World Heritage Site, a tourism management proposal to spread the load of tourists away from the centre by promoting other parts of the city was met by protests from residents in these middle-class areas not wishing to be further disturbed by tourists (Laws 1995). Another example of approach is the Venice Card that has been set up in 2002 and 70% exploited by the Local Authority. Venice is a typical example of a town where tourism pressure is considered as higher than the city’s carrying capacity. The historic centre of Venice could support about 25 000 visitors a day, among which about 15 000 tourists (60% of capacity) and 10 000 day-trippers. In practice, tourists are representing only 30% of the visitors, and during two thirds of the year, the number of visitors is exceeding the capacity, with 10 days up to 100 000 visitors (Van Der Borg, 2003). Faced with this problem, Venice opted for a soft incentive approach: it offers service packages (including tickets for restaurants, entrances to museums and exhibitions, discount cards in souvenir shops, etc.), in order to encourage visitors to book in advance and to come in Venice at certain periods (see www.venicecard.com).

5.5 Public participation Public participation is more and more acknowledged as a condition to ensure a sustainable development of tourism. “The tourist flows produce necessarily changes in the local community. The sustainability is strongly linked to the acceptability of these changes, and more precisely, to the notion of acceptable change. If the change is acceptable, the tourist development by which it is produced is considered as sustainable” (Wall, 2003). The role of development for community has to be rethought, for a high-quality environment to live in can then be sustained as a high-quality environment to visit. Inhabitants can be invited to participate to decisions related to tourism development and management. Too often, historic towns have become gentrified centres of tourist interests, where citizen participation is often reduced to decision-making for communal spaces or to the availability of information on local council activities on town hall notice boards (Orbasli, 2000). As city authorities are not isolated from economic pressures, involving the public in the decision-making processes related to tourism through working groups, steering committees, or any other means appears as a valuable strategy. The European Agenda 21 for tourism furthermore encourages by the Agenda 21 policy, and in particular, public participation in decision-making processes (Eurocult21, 2005).


Interactive tourism could also further be promoted with participation of inhabitants as actors or animators of the tourist project. In the case of Belleville (France), they take part in the welcoming of tourists, by accompanying visiting groups and providing them the view of the inhabitants (Holm, 2003). They can also participate by offering guesthouses. This kind of accommodation, already well developed in the United Kingdom, is also widespread in France. The success of the “Fleurs du soleil” label, with guest houses that started developing in Marseille and are now present all over the country, is a good example (Bouvant, 2003).


6 Survey among local authorities: method In order to complete the literature analysis, a survey among local authorities and tourism stakeholders has been organised during the first six months of the research. A total of 80 persons have been consulted at this purpose, either via questionnaires or via direct interviews. The present section details the methodology adopted for this survey and the results of this work are presented in the following sections.

6.1 Questionnaires A written, standardised questionnaire was developed in the context of task 1.1 through collaborative work among the consortium. It was sent to around 250 small and medium towns through our partners' networks. The towns chosen all answered our criteria for small or medium-sized towns, i.e. towns ranging from 10.000 to 50.000 inhabitants or from 50.000 to 250.000 inhabitants. They were given a choice between a paper and a digital version. In the digital version, the layout adapted itself to the answers of the respondents; we had foreseen more space for answers in the paper version, in order to allow an easy "print-and-fill-in" option. The questionnaire has been made available into English, French and Spanish. 56 questionnaires completed and returned were usable. The answers come from all different areas of Europe, Eastern, Southern, Central, Northern. Some even come from candidate countries. From these 38 replies, 18 come from small towns and 20 from medium-sized towns. The smallest town that took part into the survey counted 8600 residents and the biggest 274.000, thus slightly exceeding the above limit of medium-sized. A wide variety can be found between these two extremes. As can be seen in annex 1, the questionnaire is divided into 5 parts. It starts with general question in order to be able to identify the type of town answering, the number of tourists it receives and the revenue they generate. It then moves to tourist strategies, a section in which the state of tourism development of the towns and their strategies as well as organisational practices regarding matters of tourism are probed into. The third part of the questionnaires clearly deals with impacts, as it asks different questions to find out what impacts our respondents identify, how they think about them and who they identify as the main benefactors or sufferers. The next segment aims at finding out the different methods of impact assessment and evaluation, if any; and the one following asks about measures taken, planned or thought of in order to maximise the positive consequences of tourism and reduce the negative side-effects. Finally, the last section investigates the perceived role of the European Union in the process. The general aim of the questionnaire was to get a picture, as clear as possible, of all impacts of tourism, short term or long term, positive or negative, reversible or irreversible. Treatment of data was based on a classification based on a question found in the section on tourism strategies regarding the state of tourist development. Towns were given a choice between, developed/mature, developing or not developed. Only one chose the "not developed" option, on the basis that it was not developed yet. It also chose "developing" claiming that they want to develop tourism. For practical reasons and because one can hardly prove a significant number, it was treated with other developing towns. It appeared in the answers that mature towns where tourism had reached very high levels, and where saturation had been reached showed much more awareness of negative impacts and the


need of management. An additional study with towns where tourism appears in decline (if any want to admit this or bear this identification) could prove helpful in order to confirm, fulfil or infirm these findings.

6.2 Interviews In addition to this survey, direct interviews were realised on a qualitative, explorative mode. They were semi-conducted, i.e. based on an interview grid that allows the interviewer to broach on the topics most important to him/her but still leaves space for the interviewee to mention aspects particularly important to her/him (see annex 2). The interview grid was based on the questionnaire elaborated for the same task, through collaborative work of the consortium but questions regarding cultural tourism were added. The aim of our interviews did not lie in obtaining a fair representation of each country but in identifying experts largely recognised in their field of expertise. These fields of expertise all relate to tourism in one way or another. We specifically chose to interview specialists of other fields than tourism itself in order to avoid receiving a monolithic image. Their opinions allowed us to obtain information and give us working directions, or confirm/infirm the findings of the questionnaire or the claims of the literature study. In order not to erase local differences that Europe (and the world) is so rich in, we did however tend towards diversity, in the communities of origin but also in area of expertise, sector and level of decision-making or influence. In total, 24 experts have been interviewed, coming from a variety of countries, such as Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain or even Lebanon, with experience in their region of origin and others. The following tables give an indication of what type of experts we interviewed (field of expertise, sector) and what their levels of decision-making are. In the following text, we will refer to people who answered our interviews as experts and people who filled in the questionnaire as respondents, in order to allow a clear identification. We however want to stress here that we do not deem people who answered the questionnaire less experts than those who answered our questions on a face-to-face basis. These appellations just exist for methodological and terminological purposes. In order to facilitate the reading process, the most relevant information regarding the speaker will appear between parentheses after a quote. When a person comes from a specific town, its name will appear; when a person works at regional, international or supranational level, it will be mentioned. This gives the reader an idea of whether the person comes from a mature town or a developing town, or again, whether they work with different towns in different places. The main specialty of the expert is given next to their “geographic origin,” so to speak. Deciding where the main fields of expertise laid did not prove an easy process and can sometimes appear as subjective pigeonholing. The point here was not to decide what our experts did more and what our experts did less but to give an indication to our readers of whether they concentrated mainly on tourism or whether their contact with tourism came from a different angle, since this can lead to drastically different opinions.


ID

(identification code)

Table 1: Area of Expertise

Urbanism

Infrastructure

Architecture

Heritage Archaeology Tourism Economy Culture Local involvement

Tourism Consultant, mainly at

European level

0 0 0

Tourism Consultant, at international

level

0 0 0


European level

0 0 0

Bruges, protection of

buildings

0

Liège, urbanism 0

Bruges, urbanism

0

Mons, urbanism 0

Bruges, architecture

0

Amiens, heritage

0

High public officer in

cultural matters, working at

regional level

0

Maastricht, building

protection, also working at local

and national level

0 0

Liège, representative of local residents

and fighting for protection of

historical buildings

0

Bruges, 0


ID (identification

code)

Table 1: Area of Expertise

representative of local residents, fighting for a

"liveable Bruges"

Liège, archaeology

0

Mons, tourism, culture and economy

0 0 0 0

Liège, tourism 0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0

Avila, tourism

Badajoz, tourism

Caceres, tourism

Tourism and heritage,

working at international

level

0 0 0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0 0

Mons, tourism


ID


Table 2: Level of decision-making or influence

Local or Municipal

Regional or departmental

National Supranational


European level

0 0

Tourism Consultant, at international

level

0


European level

0 0

Bruges, protection of

buildings

0

Liège, urbanism 0

Bruges, urbanism

0

Mons, urbanism 0


0

Amiens, heritage

0 0

High public officer in

cultural matters, working at

regional level

0



and national level

0 0

Liège, representative of local residents

and fighting for protection of

historical buildings

0

Bruges, 0


ID (identification

code)

Table 2: Level of decision-making or influence

representative of local residents, fighting for a

"liveable Bruges"

Liège, archaeology

0

Mons, tourism, culture and economy

0

Liège, tourism 0 0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0

Avila, tourism 0

Badajoz, tourism

0

Caceres, tourism 0

Tourism and heritage,

working at international

level

0 0

Tourism, working at

regional level

0

Mons, tourism 0


ID


Table 3: sector

Private Public, elected Public, appointed Tourism

Consultant, mainly at

European level

0

Tourism Consultant, at

international level

0


European level

0

Bruges, protection of buildings

0

Liège, urbanism 0

Bruges, urbanism 0

Mons, urbanism 0


0

Amiens, heritage 0

High public officer in cultural matters, working at regional level

0



and national level

0 0

Liège, representative of

local residents and fighting for

protection of historical buildings

0

Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a

"liveable Bruges"

0

Liège, archaeology

0

Mons, tourism, culture and

0


ID (identification

code)

Table 3: sector

economy

Liège, tourism 0

Tourism, working at regional level

0


0

Avila, tourism 0

Badajoz, tourism 0

Caceres, tourism 0

Tourism and heritage, working

at international level

0


0 0

Mons, tourism 0


7 Cultural Tourism: what is it (not)? 7.1 The politics of a definition 7.1.1 Little agreement with DoW definition

The definition of Cultural Tourism given in the Description of Work was taken from an article published in Journal of Vacation Marketing by Richards, G. and Boninck C.A.M under the title "European Cultural Markets" (1995). It circumscribes cultural tourism as "the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their place of residence with the intention of gathering new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs." Only 15% of our respondents agreed with this definition. And in most cases, this agreement does seem to result from unconditional adherence to the content of the definition, but rather from a feeling that it is so vague that it is rather hard to disagree; or else a desire not to enter into large discussions.

It is more than open, as a definition ... Listen the definition is so open that I can say yes! 5 (Liège, representative of local residents and fighting for protection of historical buildings)

The definition is very general but it makes sense.6 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

Hum, yes, that's ok, hum, yes7. (Liège, urbanism)

7.1.2 Difficulty to define

However, nearly ALL of our respondents displayed some kind of unease when asked to give their own definition of cultural tourism. One, active in the field of archaeology, simply stated that is was beyond its domain of competency (That's absolutely beyond my competency limit - C'est absolument hors de mes sphères de compétences, Liège, archaeology). Some other insisted on the complexity of the task, waited a long time or hesitated before speaking.

Ha, ha, my definition of cultural tourism. It is very difficult to have only one category within cultural tourism.8 (Tourism and heritage, working at international level)

Euh, pfff, euh, cultural tourism, it is the dimension, pff, how can I say that, euh, it is evidencing, valorising for Belgian or foreign tourists, ...9 (Liège, representative of local residents and fighting for protection of historical buildings)

Well, cultural tourism, it is, I like it a lot because in general, it is, it is ... (blank)10 (Liège, tourism)

5 Original: : "C'est plus qu'ouvert, comme définition ... Ecoute, la définition est si ouverte que je peux dire oui!" 6 This is a free translation of an original that read : ". La définition est très générale, mais elle tient le cap" 7 Original:"Hum, oui, c'est bon, hum, oui" 8 Original: "Ha, ha. Ma définition du tourisme culturel. C'est très difficile d'avoir une seule catégorie dans le tourisme culturel." 9 Original: "Heu, Pfff, heu, le tourisme culturel, c'est, c'est la dimension, pff, comment dire, euh, c'est mettre en évidence, en valeur pour des touristes belges ou étrangers" 10 Original: "Ben, le tourisme culturel, il est, il est, je l'aime beaucoup. Parce qu'en général, c'est, c'est .... (blanc)"


7.1.3 A comparison of official definitions

Two experts referred to official definitions, in order to avoid risking their own definition. Well, you have to know what you mean with cultural tourism. I think that the right definition is the French definition of the French Observatory of Tourism ...11 (Mons, tourism)

What's the aim of this? ... If I had to give a definition of cultural tourism, euh, I would look for it in an official document, because it is rather complex to find a definition that sticks to reality. Where's that document with ICOMOS definition?12 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

At this point, it might be interesting to quote both definitions and compare them with the definition used in the Description of Work of PICTURE project. The French observatory of tourism resembles Richards and Boninck's in so much as it also mentions the need for cultural to happen away from home and the broadening of horizon that cultural tourism is meant to foster. It however gives a notion of duration absent in the other definition.

Cultural Tourism is defined here as a trip (including at least one night away), of which the main motivation lies in enlarging one's horizons, search for knowledge and emotions through the discovery of a heritage and its territory. (ONT/Observatoire National du Tourisme-SOFRES)

ICOMOS agrees with the other two definitions in stating that cultural tourism takes place outside one's place of residence, but it gives no notion of time and rather insists on culture lying at the centre of the tourist enterprise. It also gives examples of what this type of tourism entails, thus making their definition less abstract than those mentioned before.

Cultural Tourism is essentially that form of tourism that focuses on the culture, and the cultural environments including landscapes of the destination, the values and lifestyles, heritage, visual and performing arts, industries, traditions, and leisure pursuits of the local destination or host community. It can include attendance at cultural events, visits to museums and heritage places and mixing with local people. It should not be regarded as a definable niche within the broad range of tourism activities, but encompasses all experiences absorbed by the visitor to a place that is beyond their own living environment. (Icomos, International Tourism Charter, 2002)

This definition also gives more room for unexpected happenings as it stresses less the notion of will on the part of the visitor. The first two definitions spoke of intention and motivation, this one speaks of all experiences absorbed, willingly or not. Its self-reflexivity constitutes another very interesting point. This definition in the act of defining alludes to the difficulty of the task, just as so many of our experts have claimed. It proves near to impossible to put cultural tourism into a nicely sealed box. It rather resembles an octopus having tentacles in different fields.

Now, during trips, you make a lot of different activities ... It is difficult to say what is Cultural Tourism and what is not. Is culture old stones? What do you make of industrial tourism? Work for a convention centre, is this cultural? Does that include intangible culture, folklore, linguistic contacts, ... the food of each country? Hmmm, one needs to

11 Original: "Ben, il faut savoir ce qu'on entend par tourisme culturel. Je crois que la bonne définition, c'est la définition française de l'observatoire national du tourisme en France ..." 12 Original: "C'est dans quel but? ... Si je devais donner une définition du tourisme culturel, euh, j'irais la chercher dans un document officiel, car c'est complexe de trouver une définition qui colle à la réalité. Où est-ce que cela se trouve, ce document avec la définition d'ICOMOS?"


know what is meant by cultural tourism. I think it is difficult to say where it stops 13 (Santa Maria)

As this quote illustrates, art of the complexity involved in the task of explaining what is cultural tourism, lies in the fact that it is made out of two very intricate notions, such as culture and, to a lesser extent tourism.

7.1.4 The culture component

ICOMOS gives a very broad definition of culture, focusing on shared values or characteristics, present or past.

...the whole complex of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterise a community, society, or social group. It includes, not only arts and literature, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of human beings, value systems, traditions and beliefs. Culture encompasses the living or contemporary characteristics and values of a community as well as those that have survived from the past. (Icomos, International Tourism Charter, 2002)

In this way, they actually come close to an expert's definition of culture as everything related to human production.

Something very general, as an archaeologist, for me, culture represents everything related to human production. It might also be ethnographical, this logic of the term.14 (Liège, archaeology)

And indeed, it seems to be a vision of culture, usually circulating in circles where anthropologists have their say. For some others, culture, rather lays in Fine Arts, in theatre, opera, museums. The expert who referred to the definition of cultural tourism given by the French observatory of tourism follows by complaining that cultural tourism in Belgium encompasses too many activities. He explains that France, that he considers as an example because of its status of most visited country in the world, only sees muse and exhibitions as cultural tourism, while Belgium would include any old church, to use his own words.

In France, when people say cultural tourism, they mean tourism of museums and exhibitions. In Belgium, and particularly in Wallonia, we tend to want to put everything into the cultural and when we see an old church, we say: it is cultural tourism.15 (Mons, tourism)

This expert admits that, often times, a narrow definition does not hold and synergies can happen:

You need to make a difference between built heritage tourism and cultural tourism. Even though cultural tourism and built heritage tourism can perfectly meet. Example:

13 Original: "Maintenant, pendant les voyages, on réalise des tas d'activités différentes ... Il est difficile de dire ce qui est culturel ou pas. Est-ce que la culture ce sont les vieilles pierres. Et que fait-on du tourisme industriel ? Travailler pour un palais des congrès, est-ce culturel? Est-ce que cela inclut la culture immatérielle, le folklore, le contact linguistique, ... la nourriture de chaque pays ? Ben, c'est difficile de dire où cela s'arrête." 14 Original: "Quelque chose d''extrêmement général, en tant qu'archéologue, pour moi, la culture, c'est tout ce qui repré"sente, tout ce qui est relatif à une production humaine. C'est peut-être ethnographique aussi cette logique du terme. 15 Original: "En France, par tourisme culturel, on entend le tourisme des musées et des expositions. En Belgique, et en wallonie en particulier, on a tendance à vouloir tout mettre dans le culturel et quand on voit une ancienne église, on dit : c'est du tourisme culturel."


exhibition of a great painter in a church or a series of concerts in a church. As long as both meet.16 (Mons, tourism)

Yet, he reasserts a clear-cut vision of cultural tourism. But saying that visiting a nearly derelict church or castle in the neighbourhood is cultural tourism would be an error.17 (Mons, tourism)

In fact, as another expert puts it, one's definition of cultural tourism will greatly depend on one's conception of culture. For her part, she distinguishes two types: one that can be "limited" (focusing on Fine Arts) or "extended" (a more anthropological vision base on the knowledge of the other).

The definition of cultural tourism will depend on an extended or narrow vision of culture. In the narrow version, you put the emphasis on Fine Arts, Culture with a big "C." For the extended version, it is more an anthropological vision of the knowledge of another person's culture, its identity, and its cultural, spiritual and social values.18 (High public officer in cultural matters, working at regional level)

7.1.5 Defining according to a "product" or a strategy

The point here does not lie in giving different definitions of cultural tourism or culture, but in stressing the constructed aspect of the definitions, as well as to evidence the politics of discourse inherent in the art of defining. Giving a definition means including certain things, aspects and leaving out some others. It turns out that this usually happens on basis of what turns out more convenient for the speaker, may this careful selection be conscious or unconscious. The expert quoted above who makes a difference between limited and extended culture, continues by giving her opinion on this and saying that she believes much more in the second (extended) conception of culture, because "I think it is the way to attract the most people."19 (High public officer in cultural matters, working at regional level). At the basis of her definition and choices lies an interest for attracting more visitors to cultural sites (be it for commercial or educational motives). Later in her discourse, she explains that due to the intricate workings of the Federal State she lives in, she is only allowed to deal with cultural matters, and does not hold any official competency over tourism. It highlights her interest to have a definition of culture as broad as possible. Let us now go back to the expert who held to a narrow definition of cultural tourism. After giving a restricted definition, he continues by explaining that, in accordance with the definition given, the impact of cultural tourism appears rather limited. Yet, even if he mentions the French Observatory of Tourism to legitimate his circumscription of cultural tourism, we have seen that their definition does not limit itself to museums and exhibitions but rather speaks of the "discovery of an heritage and its territory"

16 Original: "Il faut bien faire la différence entre le tourisme patrimoine bâti et le tourisme culturel. Encore que le tourisme culturel et le tourisme du pâtrimoine bati peuvent parfaitement se rejoindre. Exemple : exposition d'un grand peintre dans une église ou une série de concerts dans une église. Du moment que les deux se rejoignent" 17 Original: "Mais dire que visiter une église ou un château à moitié en ruines du coin, c'est du tourisme culturel, ce serait un erreur." 18 Original: "La définition du tourisme culturel va dépendre de la manière limitée ou étendue de voir la culture. Dans la vision limitée, on privilégie les Beaux-Arts, la culture avec un grand C. Pour la vision étendue, il s'agit plus d'une vision anthropologique, de la connaisance de la culture de l'autre, de son identité, de ses valeurs culturelles, spirituelles, sociales." 19 Original: "Je crois que c'est comme cela que l'on attirera le plus de gens."


This expert actually seems to be trying to deconstruct the notion that cultural tourism can alleviate economic difficulties for mid-size towns and be used as a means of urban regeneration. His discourse constantly insists on the "unculturality" of the most visited and profitable sites.

You need to know one thing, that is, according to this very meaningful definition of cultural tourism; it amounts to, depending on where, between 15 and 22-23% of the tourist impact. It is thus important but not "explosive." The example of this type of importance is that you have in Paris more tourists on the boats on the Seine or going up the Eiffel Tower, that has nothing cultural, than visiting the Louvre.20 (Mons, tourism, 2).

He then goes on to explain that museum can never prove profitable if entrances prices do not witness any increase. He compares his country with others, in order to stress the importance of asking more money to visitors, in order to be able to afford exhibitions of quality. His narrow definition of cultural tourism in fact allows him to reduce its impact and put forward a more aggressive and commercial management of cultural tourism, based more on profit and business practices than on the notion of common good. It also allows him to make a plea for cultural tourism as a commodity, as he insists on the importance of catering, snacks and souvenir shops.

I come back to cultural tourism. Museums are not profitable. I am not saying you don't need museums, on the contrary, ... but you'll never manage to make people pay for the cost of maintenance, and the more qualitative that museum is, the more brilliant it is, the more attractive it is, the more money it costs ... it costs a lot of money and it can only be conceived providing important public subventions ... Or, we should use a strategy that is used not so far from here ... you have the MOMA collections, but you pay the equivalent of hundreds of Belgian francs of entrance fees. There is no reduction, eh! Then, the exhibition at MOMA is going to bring hundreds of millions of visitors, that is a completely cultural exhibition, there we are in the middle of cultural tourism, then this exhibition will be able to be cash-flow positive thanks, on the one hand to extremely high entrance fees, and on the other hand, thanks to catering and souvenir shops. Yet, we are very poor in Belgium on that level. Museums are cheap or very cheap. Catering is absent in most Belgian museums, even museums of high level. We're afraid to sell beer, coca-cola or even cakes. And souvenir shops are often under furnished, or at least they were till not so long ago.21 (Mons, tourism)

Variations on the same theme could amount to the number of interviews realised as most respondents evidenced an agenda during the conversation. One city councillor who is trying

20 Original:" Il faut savoir une chose, c'est que si on en est à cette définition pleine de bon sens du tourisme culturel, celui-ci représente, selon les endroits, entre 15 et 22-23% de l'impact touristique. Il est donc important mais il n'est pas explosif. L'exemple type de cette importance, c'est qu'il y a à Paris plus de touristes sur les bateaux mouches de la Seine ou qui grimpent la Tour Eiffel, qui n'a rien de culturel, que, pour visiter le Louvre." 21 Original:" J'en reviens au tourisme culturel, les musées ne sont pas rentables. Je ne dis pas qu'il ne faut pas de musées, au contraire, ... mais on ne pourra jamais facturer aux gens ce que coûte l'entretien d'un musée, et plus ce musée est de qualité, plus il est brillant, plus il est attractif et plus il coûte cher... ça coûte beaucoup d'argent et cela ne peut être conçu que moyennant des subventions publiques importantes ... Or, il faudrait pratiquer une politique qui n'est pas pratiquée loin de chez nous ...vous avez les collections du MOMA, mais vous payez l'équivalent de plusieurs centaines d'anciens francs belges comme prix d'entrée. Il n'y a pas de réduction, hein.. Alors, l'exposition MOMA qui va drainer des centaines de millions de visiteurs, qui est une exposition tout à fait culturelle, là, nous sommes en plein tourisme culturel, ben, cette exposition va pouvoir équilibrer son budget grâce, d'un côté aux droits d'entrées extrêmement élevés et d'autre part, grâce au catering et grâce aux boutiques souvenirs. Or, à ce niveau-là, en Belgique, nous sommes extrêmement lacunaires. Ou c'est gratuit les musées, ou ce n'est pas très cher. Le catering est absent dans beaucoup de musées belges, même des musées de très haut niveau, même des musées de qualité. On a peur de vendre de la bière, des cocas ou même des pâtisseries. Au point de vue des boutiques, c'est souvent lacunaire, du moins, c'était lacunaire jusqu'à il y a peu."


to make its town known for its architecture and built heritage spoke of cultural tourism as a tourism of town visit, of old stones. Another expert, competent in urbanism will speak of a type of tourism that displays interest in the culture of the place, another city councillor will include hunting, gastronomy and religious tourism in his definition as these constitute major centres of interest for his town, another who voices fears of seeing her city turn into some kind of amusement park claims that only built heritage, museums and theatre should be included into cultural tourism, one specialised in archaeology will demonstrate how it relates to cultural tourism, etc. In fact, as the following definition clearly shows, most of the experts modelled a definition of cultural tourism based on the "product" that they wanted to sell or market, especially when we talked with people responsible for a specific town or area.

It is difficult to give a definition just like that, out of the blue. Bruges has a cultural potential stemming from its past of historic town, as well as from its art, that exists in Bruges, was made there and is still there. These are finally the big attractors of Bruges. And finally, that's what you should work around."22 (Bruges, urbanism)

All in all, it turns nearly impossible to draw a definition of cultural tourism that would please all and agree with everybody's interest. Cultural Tourism appears a signifier hiding numerous signified, differing from person to person. It is for this reason that we decided to proceed as was suggested in the DoW and not focus specifically on cultural tourism in the questionnaire, but rather to speak of tourism in general.

7.2 Points of dissention and agreement The interviews with the experts allow us, though, to discern points of dissention and points of agreement, in spite of the variety in the fields of expertise, the expected benefits and their geographical location. The next part of this chapter highlights them.

7.2.1 Status of day-trippers or excursionists

First of all, and contrary to all three definitions mentioned above, 85 % of the experts did not necessarily see cultural tourism as happening away from one's place of residence.

Far from their place of residence. No, why far?23. (Liège, tourism)

Far from their place of residence, yes and no, because some people may visit a tourist attraction that has been created where they live will still visit it and learn more about the area they live in.24 (Tourism, working at regional level)

The few experts who insisted that the local population should not be included or wanted to make a difference between excursionists/day trippers and tourists were active in the domain of tourism. They were thus probably more sensitive to statistics making and the differences of expenditure between local and foreign tourists, excursionists and short-stay tourists, as the following quote illustrates:

22 Original: "Het is moeilijk om daar zo direct een definitie aan te geven. Brugge heeft zoveel cullturele potenties die uit zijn verleden komt als historische stad, die uit zijn kunst komt, die in Brugge zit, die er gemaakt is en er nog is. Dat zijn uiteindelijk de grote troeven van de stad Brugge. Uiteindelijk, moet je daarrond gaan werken." 23 Original: "Loin de leurs lieux de résidence. Non. Pourquoi loin? " 24 Original:"Loin de leur résidence, oui et non, parce qu'il y a des gens qui ... en voyant qu'il y a eu une attraction touristique qui a été créée sur place vont quand même la visiter et vont en apprendre un peu plus sur les régions dans lesquelles ils vivent."


Regarding "spending one night away from home." This seems to me good for tourism statistics in general but I don't think it really answers the question of cultural tourism, notably because a lot of cultural tourism is day tourism, people passing and not necessarily remaining to sleep. Thus, I am taking some distance from the tourist definition of the World Tourist Organisation....25 (Tourism and heritage, working at international level).

Movement away from their place of residence is even considered as dangerous by one of our experts on two grounds. First it entails a notion of mass that resembles more mass tourism than cultural tourism, and second, this requirement of important movement of people may render it difficult for some specifically cultural projects to come through. She sees the need to quantify as counterproductive to quality.

To me, movement brings to mind mass ... you associate a movement of people, thus for you, tourism necessarily means an important mass, and, euh; it scares me, because then, it suppresses more difficult projects that don't cater to the masses.26 (Mons, urbanism)

Two experts suggested alternative categories, or methods of categorizing in order to replace the day-tripper/tourist dichotomy. One would be proximity tourism against international or far away tourism, and the other, suggested by two experts would be individual against group tourism (orchestrated by a tour operator). It is striking that this suggestion is made by our two experts who have a broad vision on tourism and work at international level, rather than at the level of a town or region.

I think it is intelligent but in operational terms, I don't think it is that intelligent, it seems to me much more important ... to make these other distinctions: are they proximity or national visitors or are they far away or international visitors? Because their style of approach, of adhesion, their prior introduction is different and thus, the way one can welcome and handle these visitors, tourists, I say visitors, is different, depending on whether they come from the first or second category. And the second distinction that I think is important is whether they are individual or group travellers. This makes a big difference too, euh, we need specific actions if they are groups, we need to give ourselves some negotiation power because very often, groups are managed by tour operators that have a big buying power and it is difficult to resist them.27 (Tourism and heritage, working at international level)

25 Original:"Pour ce qui est : celui qui passe une nuit en dehors de chez lui. Ça me paraît bon pour les statistiques du tourisme en général mais je ne pense pas que cela réponde vraiment à la question du tourisme culturel, notamment parce que beaucoup de tourisme culturel, c'est du tourisme d'un jour; des gens qui passent et qui ne logent pas nécessairement. Donc, je me distingue de la définition touriste, de l'organisation mondiale du tourisme ..." 26 Original:"Moi, mouvement, cela m'évoque la masse ... vous associez un mouvement de personnes, donc, pour vous, le tourisme suppose en effet, de toute façon, qu'il y ait une masse importante, et heu, cela me fait peur, parce qu'à ce moment là, ça supprime, me semble-t-il, peut-être des projets plus difficiles qui ne font justement pas appel à la masse." 27 Original:"Je crois que c’est intelligent mais en termes opérationnels je ne crois pas que cela le soit aussi, il me paraît par contre, plus important, ... de faire ces deux autres distinctions, est-ce que ce sont des visiteurs nationaux et de proximité ou des visiteurs lointains ou internationaux ? Parce que le style de démarche, l’adhésion, l’introduction au préalable est différent et donc, la manière dont on peut accueillir et traiter ces visiteurs, les touristes, je dis les visiteurs, est différente qu’ils soient dans la première ou la deuxième catégorie. Et la seconde distinction qui me paraît importante, est-ce que ce sont des voyageurs individuels ou des voyageurs en groupe ? ça, ça fait une grande distinction aussi, heu, on a besoin d’actions spécifiques si ce sont des g Aujourd'hui, une grande réflexion est menée sur la notion de "tourisme de valeurs," notion à laqelle la Picardie est très sensible. Deux grands types de tourisme sont distingués: le tourisme de consommation et le tourisme de participation. Le tourisme de consommation concerne principalement l'Europe du Sud. C'est le tourisme standardisé sans contact avec la population, le tourisme des piscines, des résidences, des offres


Another expert rather suggested making a difference between consumption tourism and participative tourism. He defines the first one as standardised, allowing no contacts with different population and no exchanges, while he sees the second one as more human, allowing exchanges. His discourse displays some hierarchical tendencies that we will not comment upon here, the aim being simply to look at different ways of classifying tourism.

Today a big reflection goes on around the notion of "tourism of values," notion to which Picardy Region is very sensitive. Two main types of tourism are distinguished: consumption tourism and participative tourism. Consumption tourism is mainly found in Southern Europe. It is a standardised form of tourism without any contact with the population, a tourism of swimming pools, of holiday houses, of commonplace offers ... Participative tourism happens more in Northern Europe. It is a tourism of sharing that fosters an encounter between populations and tourists. The tourist tries to share some values. 28 (Tourism and heritage, working at international level)

7.2.2 Cultural Needs

One aspect that our experts found especially strange in Richards and Boninck's definition is the notion of cultural needs, as the sarcasm of the following quote evidence.

What are cultural needs? Do YOU have cultural needs?29 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

Another respondent rather makes ironic statements in order to call into question this notion of "need".

It can mean going to eat a tasty ice cream? ... Or buy, I don't know, a tool to flatten the dough, some textile (laugh).30 (Liège, representative of local residents and fighting for protection of historical buildings)

... because already, saying "cultural needs," what does that mean cultural needs?31 (Liège, archaeology)

About half of our respondents suggested an alternative word or concept, such as pleasure, or in most cases, curiosity.

Their need seems to me a bit strong, their curiosity ... For me, it is more tied to knowledge.32 (Mons, urbanism)

banalisées... Le tourisme de participation est plus actif dans le Nord de l'Europe. C'est un tourisme de partage qui incite à la rencontre population-touristes. L'aspect humain est important. Le touriste cherche à partager des valeurs.roupes il faut qu’on se donne un pouvoir de négociation parce que très souvent les groupes sont gérés par des tours opérateurs qui ont un grand pouvoir d’achat et il est difficile de leur résister." 28 Original:"Aujourd'hui, une grande réflexion est menée sur la notion de "tourisme de valeurs," notion à laqelle la Picardie est très sensible. Deux grands types de tourisme sont distingués: le tourisme de consommation et le tourisme de participation. Le tourisme de consommation concerne principalement l'Europe du Sud. C'est le tourisme standardisé sans contact avec la population, le tourisme des piscines", des résidences, des offres banalisées... Le tourisme de participation est plus actif dans le Nord de l'Europe. C'est un tourisme de partage qui incite à la rencontre population-touristes. L'aspect humain est important. Le touriste cherche à partager des valeurs." 29 Original:"C'est quoi des besoins culturels? Vous a"vez des besoins culturels, vous? Cela peut-être aller manger une bonne crème glacée? ... Ou acheter, je ne sais pas moi, un rouleau à tarte, des floches, ...(rire) 30 Original:"Cela peut-être aller manger une bonne crème glacée? ... Ou acheter, je ne sais pas moi, un rouleau à tarte, des floches, ...(rires)" 31 Original:" ...parce que déjà de dire "besoin culturel," cela veut dire quoi besoins culturels?" 32 Original:" Leur besoin me semble un peu fort, leur curiosité ... Pour moi, c'est plus lié à la connaissance."


Their cultural needs; ok, but with this notion of pleasure, eh ... tourism for me is pleasure.33 (Liège, tourism)

It would be useful to redefine certain things, needs are different from curiosity.34 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

Another one mentioned that the whole point of cultural tourism does not lie in satisfying this (in)famous need but rather in creating it, thus giving a desire to learn more about culture to more citizens. He states that Richards and Boninck's definition seems to take cultural needs for granted while he rather thinks that it can only exist thanks to a whole job of raising awareness.

I think that the problem with this definition is that, euh, you just go into one direction ... cultural tourism has for mission to satisfy cultural needs. It means that there is a need. Euh, I think it should go much further, we should not just satisfy a cultural need, we should foster it. Participate to its creation and find a means to create a cultural need. Euh, it is a bit like the education of a child, euh, if s/he keeps asking you to have some candy, then you will give it to him/her but if you don't teach him/her that there are tons of marvellous things like flowers, birds, butterflies, s/he won't know. And, well, I don't want to impose some kind of education but I think that when one respects the human being, when one loves him/her, one likes to share what one finds. Thus, I think it should go a bit further than this aspect. 35 (Liège, archaeology)

Here, the expert presents cultural tourism as a didactic phenomenon, some kind of ladder that would help human beings come out of their cavern. It is also perceived as a way to foster a better understanding of one another, thus not only serving as a tool of urban regeneration but also a an instrument that would allow cohesion and integration within these urban centres. Instead of fulfilling a need existent only within some people, cultural tourism would create needs and desires within everybody.

7.2.3 Fear of elitism

All in all, the unease with the concept of cultural needs seems to result from a fear of elitism. Many experts expressed a fear that cultural tourism might seem too elitist.

Needs, on the contrary, I think, it limits it to an elite.36 (Mons, urbanism)

In general,... it is not always social, but it can be, but it does not mean elitist, in the meaning of going to the high spheres of society.37 (Liège, tourism)

33 Original:" Leurs besoins culturels; ok, mais avec cette notion de plaisirs, hein... le tourisme pour moi est plaisir." 34 Original:" Il y aurait intérêt à redéfinir certaines choses, les besoins, c'est différent de la curiosité." 35 Original:" J'ai l'impression que le problème de cette définition, c'est, heu, vous allez dans un seul sens ... le tourisme culturel a pour mission donc de satisfaire le besoin culturel. C'est à dire qu'il y a un besoin. Heu, moi, je pense que cela doit être beaucoup plus, on ne doit pas que satisfaire un besoin culturel, éventuellement l'éveiller. Participer à son éveil et trouver le moyen d'éveiller le besoin culturel. Heu, c'est un peu comme l'éducation d'un enfant, heu, s'il vous demande sans cesse pour avoir une chique ou quoi, vous allez lui donner une chique, mais si vous ne lui apprenez pas qu'il y a un tas de choses merveilleuses à regarder comme les fleurs, les canaris, les papillons, lui il ne va pas savoir. Et bon, je ne veux pas imposer une éducation, mais je pense que quand on respecte l'être humain, quand on l'aime, on aime lui faire partager ce qu'on découvre. Donc, je pense que cela doit aller plus loin que cet aspect." 36 Original:" Les besoins, par contre, je trouve que cela limite cela à une élite." 37 Original:" En général, ..., c'est pas toujours social, mais cela peut l'être, mais cela ne veut pas dire élitiste, dans le sens qu'on va dans les hautes sphères de la société."


It seems a bit elitist to me ... I must say that, a priori, the term cultural tourism disturbs me a little bit.38 (Liège, archaeology)

The more qualitative tourism is, the better it is, naturally, from a certain point of view. ... The times are not really in favour of pleading for something a little bit elitist. You would immediately face some backlash, ...39 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

It seems in fact that the line between quality tourism and elitist tourism is hard to draw. And if many experts express a fear of elitism, they all unanimously agree to deem cultural tourism, a tourism of quality, or a tourism that "goes a bit further" that looks for things that are not so obvious at first sight.

The cultural tourist goes a bit further ... He is also going to go through the trouble of looking for things that are not so obvious.40. (Bruges, architecture)

It is a special type of tourist that moves away from the golden triangle, a tourist who is motivated.41 (Bruges, protection of buildings)

It is the type of public that is going to want to visit collegiate churches, exhibitions, Curtius' Museum, baptismal funds. You see? It requires at least, if not a high level of education, a certain curiosity.42 (Liège, tourism)

Well, a tourism that goes a bit further than just looking at the landscape of buildings and treating the town in the same way as somebody treats an amusement park. 43 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

Euh, contrarily to classic tourism, that, euh, that, euh to my eyes, is more traditional, of the person who walks about, goes to eat something, s/he has seen that it is a beautiful city, for instance, and then goes away and s/he has just seen one or two facets easily taken in. So, I think cultural tourism should invite somebody to discover all the facets of a world s/he finds him/herself in.44 (Liège, archaeology)

38 Original:" Cela me paraît un peu élitiste ... Je dois dire qu'à priori, le terme tourisme culturel me dérange un peu." 39 Original:" Hoe kwalitatiever het toerisme, hoe beter, natuurlijk, vanuit een zeker oogpunt. ... De tijden zijn trouwens niet erg gunstig om voor iets een beetje elitair te pleiten. Men zou onmiddelijk de tegenwind krijgen, ..." 40 Original:" De culturele toerist gaat verder ... Hij gaat ook de moeite doen om dingen te zoeken die niet zo onmiddelijk voor de hand liggen." 41 Original:" Het is een speciaal soort toerist die zich buiten de gouden driehoek begeeft ... een tourist die gemotiveerd is." 42 Original:" C'est ce public là qui va rechercher la visite des Collégiales, la visite d'une exposition, la visite du futur Grand Curtius, ou du Musée de la Vie Wallonne et des Fonds Baptismaux. Vous voyez? Cela demande quand même, sinon un niveau d'éducation élevé, du moins, une curiosité." 43 Original:" Tja, een toerisme dat iets verder gaat dan het gewoon komen bekijken van ensembles van gebouwen en van het behandelen van de stad, eingelijk op dezelfde wijze waarop men een pretpark behandeld." 44 Original:" Heu, à l'inverse du tourisme classique, qui heu, qui, heu, à mes yeux est plus traditionnel, le type qui se promène, qui va manger quelque chose, il a vu que c'était une belle ville, par exemple, et puis il repart et il n'en a vu que une ou deux ou trois facettes plus facilement admises. Donc moi, je pense que le tourisme culturel doit inviter quelqu'un à découvrir toutes les facettes du monde dans lequel il s'insére."


7.2.4 Cultural Tourism versus other forms of tourism

This idea of antagonism or opposition between cultural tourism and "traditional" or leisure tourism present in the last two quotations above appears repeatedly.

Well, it is everything that could bring a plus concerning the knowledge that a tourist would have when visiting tourist sites or when visiting a region. This he would visit a region and would no longer do what we used to call "lobster" (i.e. lying about in the sun doing nothing except getting suntanned).45 (Tourism, working at regional level)

The cultural tourist is one that is interested in history and art and who comes to Bruges for these reasons and not for shopping or simply to have fun, or drink a beer, or take a boat trip on the canals, or these kind of things.46 (Bruges, urbanism)

It is also defined as opposed to business tourism or mass tourism and on the verge of leisure tourism.

I would say it could be opposed to business tourism ... and to the borderline of leisure tourism.47 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

Quickly, I would say it is landscape tourism but different from mass tourism.48 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

Strangely, or very tellingly, in the light of the unease about elitism, this opposition often takes a hierarchical form. Cultural tourism seems better than mass tourism and leisure tourism. And some forms of tourisms are completely silenced, why? Through a deeper analysis of these hierarchies of categories of tourism, one could interestingly identify criteria, expectations, ideal characteristics put forward by tourism managers. The economical turnover is of course, advocated as a central factor, but visual impact of tourists seems important. Are groups of tourists, flocks of tourists, feared, looked upon? Why. Which values are embedded in this suspicion?

7.2.5 Sustainability

Cultural tourism is actually seen as a sustainable form of tourism, a form of tourism that would not destroy the heritage it is bringing to light.

But, euh, I would say it is a tourism that is based on, euh, it is a sustainable form of tourism, based on the heritage, euh, museums and, euh stage values that the town of Mons offers.49 (Mons, urbanism)

It is a sustainable form of tourism, focusing on respect of the other and contact with the other, made of an exchange of culture between oneself and the other.50 (High public officer in cultural matters, working at regional level)

45 Original:" Ben, c'est tout ce qui est, tout ce qui pourrait apporter un plus au niveau de la connaissance que le touriste aurait en visitant les sites touristiques ou en visitant une région, quoi. Donc il verrait une région et ne ferait plus ce qu'on appellait avant le "homard." 46 Original:" De culturele toerist is diegene die geïnteresseerd is in de geschiedenis en de kunst en die daarvoor naar Brugge komt en niet voor het shoppen of louter voor het amusement, of om een pintje te gaan drinken, of rondvaarten, of weet ik veel." 47 Original:" Je dirais qu'il s'oppose au tourisme d'affaires ... et à la frange limite du tourisme des loisirs." 48 Original:" En vitesse, je dirais que c'est un tourisme paysager mais différent du tourisme de masse." 49 Original:" Mais, heu, je dirais que c'est un tourisme qui est basé, heu, c'est un tourisme durable, dirais-je, basé sur les valeurs." patrimoniales, heu, muséographiques, heu scénographiques que présente la ville


For me, it is defined by its effect. It is a non-destructive form of tourism.51 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

It is a particularly interesting type of public because it ... it... exists, it grows and, furthermore, it is respectful of the places it is visiting.52 (Liège, tourism)

One expert who makes distinctions between different types of cultural tourism moderates these optimistic statements. According to him, only part, and a small one of cultural tourism is made up of highly motivated individuals. The other part of cultural tourism would only happen by chance.

Well, there are, to be simple, two main categories. There are those we are dreaming of, motivated cultural tourists (laugh) … it is really a person who wants to visit Roman Churches of Catalonia, it is really a precise goal or they go and visit Venice for the whole of its buildings and museums. The second category is made up of people for whom it is not the main goal but who visit a cultural site, by chance when happening to be in a town or country. I make this distinction because I think that the two types of public are very different in management terms. The first ones are motivated people who are more demanding as well as more respectful of heritage in general and of the people they meet; thus it is a type of tourism we need to promote. And it indeed goes in the direction of everything that grows a lot in quantitative terms, even though it remains quite marginal in relative terms.53 (Tourism and heritage, working at international level)

7.2.6 What are attractions?

The concept of attraction was also called into question by a small percentage of our respondents. One expert thought it put too much emphasis on tangible heritage and left out the intangible.

I don't like "cultural attractions," cultural tourism can also be anthropological, thus towards places and no longer towards cultural attractions, towards small towns … it is too reductive … you need to include folklore.54 (High public officer in cultural matters, working at regional level)

This might be explained because the field of expertise of this person laid in culture and the development of cultural routes, very often across cities and concerning intangible heritage. Tourism in itself was beyond her realm of competencies. When discussing this issue we enter the realm of the significance of words and the matters can be very subjective, yet this

50 Original:" C'est un tourisme durable, axé sur le respect de l'autre et le contact avec l'autre, qui est fait dans un échange de culture de soi et de l'autre." 51 Original:" Pour moi, il est défini par son effet, c'est un tourisme caractérisé par son côté non destructeur." 52 Original:" C'est un public particulièrement intéressant parce que ... il ... il existe, il grandit et en plus il est très respectueux des endroits qu'il visite." 53 Original:" Alors, y a, pour être simple, moi je me is ttrais deux grandes catégories, il y a , ceux dont on rêve, les touristes culturels motivés (rire) ... C’est vraiment la personne qui veut visiter les Eglises Romanes de Catalogne, c’est vraiment un but précis ou qui vont visiter Venise pour l’ensemble de la ville et les musées. La seconde catégorie ce sont des personnes qui, dont ce n’est pas le but principal mais qui à l’occasion d’un passage dans une ville ou un pays visitent un site culturel. Et je fais cette distinction parce que je crois qu'en termes de gestion les deux publics sont assez différents. Le premier, sont à la fois des gens motivés qui sont à la fois plus exigeants et à la fois plus respectueux du patrimoine en général et de la population qu’ils rencontrent, donc, c’est un tourisme qu’il faut essayer de promouvoir, qui va d’ailleurs dans tout le sens de ce qui en terme quantitatif grandit beaucoup même si en termes relatifs ça reste tout à fait marginal." 54 Original:" Je n'aime pas attractions culturelles, le tourisme culturel peut aussi être anthropologique, donc moins vers des lieux et plus vers des attractions culturelles vers des petites villes. ... C'est trop limitatif... il faut inclure le folklore."


comment appears interesting because it alludes to the question of what is really heritage. Is it built heritage or is it more? And if it is more, what can be considered as intangible heritage?

Another respondent also alluded to this problem but rather complained that the word attraction refers too much to "events" or commercial aspects.

I don't like the word attraction... It might be a big word, or a word that is a bit extreme. I think it refers to a commercial, event-related aspect that I oppose to sustainability.55 (Mons, urbanism)

7.3 Concluding comments In order to conclude and summarise, we could say that the definition given in the Description of Work of PICTURE project does not meet enthusiastic agreement, even though it very much resembles two of the most well-known definitions of cultural tourism, ICOMOS' and the French Observatory of Tourism's.

Analysing the discourse of our respondents, we can rather locate one of the reason of the reluctance to fully agree with the definition in the politics of definition and the need to include or exclude certain aspects in order to defend a product or a strategy. Most expressed their agenda in their definitions. Another reason for the reluctance could be the difficulty to give a definition of a notion, cultural tourism, made up of two words that refer to varying concepts: culture and tourism. For instance, is culture just Fine Arts or is it all productions of human beings? Do we give it a broad or a narrow definition? And do excursionists make part of tourists or are they another breed? Then again, the paradox between the unease with the notion of elitism, combined with constant allusions to it, could also give us hints of why it proves so hard.

All in all, cultural tourism is a widely known concept but under different shapes. It does not mean the same for everybody but the interviews realised proved very helpful in allowing us to highlight different points of agreement and disagreement. In the questionnaires asking about impact assessment and management, however, we decided not to focus too much on cultural tourism but rather on tourism in general in order to avoid answers referring to completely different realities.

Our experts most agree between themselves and disagree with the official definitions of cultural tourism in their insistence that local and one day tourism can be included within cultural tourism. A suggestion made in order to be able to categorise and develop coherent procedures regarding cultural tourism is to replace the dichotomy overnight(s)/one-day tourism by on the one hand, an opposition between independent and tour-operated travel; and on the other hand, an opposition between local and international/far-away travel.

The majority of our respondents also reject the notion of cultural needs and refuse to see cultural tourism as an elitist practice. They stress however, the quality, durability and sustainability of such a form of tourism, as well as the respect for what surrounds them, motivation and curiosity of cultural tourists. The vision given strikes one as rather optimistic even though a few experts mention the existence of different categories of cultural tourists, some being more motivated, respectful and curious than others who sometimes would happen to indulge in cultural tourism just by chance.

55 Original:" Je n'aime pas le mot attraction ... C'est peut-être un grand mot, ou un mot qui est un peu extrême. Je pense qu'il renvoie à un aspect commercial, événementiel que j'oppose à la soutenabilité."


Some discussion of the signified behind cultural heritage also comes to light during the interviews, namely regarding tangible and intangible heritage. Does the latter form part of heritage, and if so, under what form? And finally, different forms of tourisms are mentioned and our experts opposed cultural tourism to traditional, mass and business tourism but placed it on the border of leisure tourism.


8 A positive image of tourism within small and medium sized towns

8.1 Tourism connotations largely positive "Mirror, mirror, tell me who is the most beautiful?" Tourism should certainly not fear the looking-class trial within small and medium-sized towns, as it enjoys an overwhelmingly positive and attractive image. Tourism appears as the Prince Charming or Snow white of many cities, ready to go through incredible lengths to secure it within their walls. It nearly seems taboo not to have anything to do with tourism, so that out of the 56 questionnaires returned, 17 chose for the status of mature towns in terms of tourism, 38 for "developing" and only one for "not developed." And then again, it did not choose "not developed" only, it ticked "not developed," "because we haven't developed much tourism yet" but also crossed developed "because we plan to develop it." For practical purposes, and because one can hardly prove a significant number, we have decided to include this town in the developing towns.

Not surprisingly, thus, when asked the question whether, on the whole, they deem the impacts of tourism positive or negative, most cities clearly opt for the "positive" option, no matter what state of tourism development they find themselves in. 36/36 for the developing towns (3 towns did not answer that question) and 16/16 for the mature towns (one town did not answer this question).

Experts' interviews confirm this feeling since experts from developing towns share this overtly positive idea that tourism does not create any negative side impacts:

I think that at the negative level, there is nothing, is there?56 (Badajoz, tourism)

Well, I told you that I did not see many negative consequences to tourism. I am convinced, if you ask me, that it is not tourists who make a town dirty, it is not tourists who bring unemployment, all of this, it is even things that tourism can change and move to the other direction, thus, well, I don't see any negative consequence on a rise of tourist frequentation.57 (Liège, urbanism).

Many experts only see the positive aspects of tourism, or they see negative consequences but explain that they are compensated by other positive aspects, thus privileging an optimistic vision of tourism. The following example illustrates this emphasis on relativity:

Damage is not really irreversible in the sense that you can bring solutions to damage, in the style, of well, if people pluck plants out, you put extra guards, you add warnings forbidding to do so, you add, I don't know, euh, "be careful, you are in a protected area, it is forbidden to do that, that, that." The positive consequence is that you increase a little bit tourist information. On the other hand, the negative consequence, is that we are forced to make folders that might very well end up in the trash, thus increasing pollution

56 Original:" Yo creo que a nivel negativo, no hay nada, no?" 57 Original:" Ben moi, je vous ai dit que je ne voyais pas beaucoup de conséquences négatives du tourisme, hein. Je suis persuadé, pour ma part, que ce ne sont pas les touristes qui salissent la ville, que ce ne sont pas les touristes qui génèrent le chômage, tout ça, ce sont des choses que le tourisme peut même inverser dans l'autre sens, donc, heu, je ne vois pas de conséquences négatives sur une augmentation de la fréquentation touristique."


levels and that also requires more garbage collection, no? But, the positive side is that it might create a job opening in the town. Yet again on the other hand, this might mean taking money from the town budget that is already not that "glittery" as we say. Thus what I want to say is that it might be positive or negative, but on the whole, everything is mixed.58 (Tourism, working at regional level)

Interviewing people from different fields of expertise gives us different insights on this positiveness. It seems that tourism appears more positive to certain people than others. The responsible of tourist development from a medium-sized and developing town explained, for instance, that they would launch a series of walks. When asked whether they thought about the impacts of such an activity, he answers plainly that walkers do not destroy anything.

-Did you ask yourself the question: what are we going to offer? What will be the protection for the places they will visit?

- No, these are walks, they won't destroy anything, these people are walking.59 (Liège, tourism)

8.2 Socio-cultural and environmental factors often disregarded in the evaluation of tourism

Another expert working in the same town, but more in the field of archaeology and protection, gives us, however, another side of the coin. He argues that tourism developers underestimate the importance of management and conservation and, to speak concretely, that walkers can destroy the environment they tread on.

I think that the question should be asked to people responsible for tourism in general. For instance, in Liège, but also in other places, I have the feeling that they are miles away from, well, I know a lot of people who work directly in that field, and I think they are miles away from perceiving the importance it has and taking this aspect into consideration.

OK.

Well, visitor erosion, I don't know if it plays a role. I take the micro project of the hillsides of the Citadel, well, I have never heard, never seen that this issue was taken into account. Never, really, and the problem of conservation, no, no, it has not entered our culture yet.60 (Liège, archaeology)

58 Original:" Les dégradations, c'est pas vraiment irréversible dans le sens où on apporte des solutions dans les dégradations, style heu, arrachage de plantes, ben, on va mettre des gardes supplémentaires, on va rajouter des avertissements interdisant, on va ré-augmenter je sais pas, moi, heu, "attention vous êtes dans une réserve naturelle, il vous est interdit de faire ça, ça, ça." La conséquence positive, c’est qu’on augmente un peu l’information touristique. La conséquence négative d’un autre côté, c’est, quand on est obligé de faire des brochures qui risquent de se retrouver à la poubelle et donc les taux de pollutions à nouveau ça demande le ramassage des poubelles, non, côté positif ça va peut-être créer un nouvel emploi à la commune d’un autre côté, négatif, ça grimpe un peu sur le budget communal qui est déjà hein, pas très reluisant, comme on dit, donc je veux dire, que ce soit positif ou négatif l’un dans l’autre, tout se mélange." 59 Original:" Est-ce que vous vous êtes posé la question: mais enfin, qu'est-ce qu'on va offrir? Quelle sera la protection des lieux qu'ils vont visiter?

- Non, comme ce sont des promenades, ils ne vont pas abîmer, hein, ce sont des gens qui vont marcher."

60 Original: "Je pense que la question de la gestion devrait être posée aux responsables du tourisme en général. Par exemple à Liège mais ailleurs aussi, j’ai l’impression, qu'ils sont à cent lieues de, d’abord, je connais plusieurs personnes qui travaillent dans ce domaine là, directement, je crois qu’ils sont à cent lieues de percevoir l’importance que ça a et de prendre en considération cet aspect là, hein.


The same expert also points out problematic side effects, such as erosion and destruction of habitat, due to walks for instance, thus the very same activity that the tourist developer considered totally harmless.

And, you spoke about the hillsides of the Citadel, do you already have points that allow you to say that it might be problematic at some points, and that maybe, conservation has been thought of... euh?

We have, it is obvious, it is totally obvious. Frequencies need to be regulated but we have never addressed the question, rather logically, since we never asked ourselves the question of whether frequencies can have an impact on the environment, but there is a very important natural biotope and archeologically important too. Just to give you an anecdote, there are still fig trees on the hillsides that give figs that are in fact descending from the fig trees that have been planted during the modern epoch by some religious congregations, to make fig oil. It is rather interesting, but the fig trees, I believe, there are still three or two and I don't know how much more time it will take for the two other to disappear, but well. I am not the only one, we're maybe four or five to know that there are there fig trees descending from the thing, the others could not care less.61 (Liège, archaeology)

He deplores the fact that managers and conservators usually come from different worlds and usually do not know much each other's job.

In one way, you just need to look at the number of places where curators have become tourism managers and vice versa, and it would be interesting and to know when you have the two types of vision.62 (Liège, archaeology)

Bearing this in mind, we can start to understand why the questionnaires cast such a positive image of tourism. Our respondents were mainly in charge of tourism (34/56), or marketing promotion (7/56), or again, elected officials (15/56), and as such, they prove more likely to focus on the positive sides of tourism than its negative ones. This positive image mainly results from their expectations regarding economic benefits thanks to tourism. Socio-cultural or environmental effects are sadly often overlooked.

D’accord.

Heu, l’érosion du visiteur, je sais pas, si cela joue un rôle, je prends le micro projet coteaux de la Citadelle, enfin, je n’ai jamais entendu, jamais vu qu’on abordait cette problématique là. Jamais, hein, et le problème de conservation, non, non, les conservateurs, chez nous, c’est pas entré dans notre culture 61 Original:" Et, vous parliez des coteaux de la Citadelle, vous avez déjà des points qui vous permettent de dire que ça peut être problématique par endroits et que, on a peut-être déjà pensé à la conservation, heu… ?

On a….C’est évident… c’est tout à fait évident. Les fréquences sont à réguler mais forcément on n'a jamais abordé la question parce qu’on ne s’est jamais posé la question de savoir si la fréquence pouvait avoir un impact sur l’environnement mais il y a un biotope tout à fait naturel important et important archéologiquement aussi. A titre d’anecdote il y a toujours des figuiers sur les coteaux et qui produisent des figues et qui sont en fait les descendants des figuiers qui ont été installés là aux temps modernes par certaines congrégations religieuses, pour en faire de l’huile de figues, c’est quand même intéressant mais les figuiers, je crois qu’il y en a encore trois, deux, je sais qu’il en existe encore trois mais je ne sais pas combien de temps il faudra pour que les deux autres disparaissent mais, bon ; Je suis peut-être le seul, on est peut-être à quatre, cinq, à savoir qu’il y a là deux figuiers qui sont les descendants du truc, ils s’en foutent complètement." 62 Original:" Il suffirait de voir, quelque part, le nombres d’endroits, où les conservateurs sont devenus gestionnaires touristiques et vice versa et ça devrait être intéressant et savoir quand il y a les deux gammes de vision."


One interviewed expert confirms the existence of different points of view, depending on the field of expertise of the person concerned. She explains that people within his department of urban planning and protection of building rather possess a negative image of tourism because they constantly face its negative consequences. She claims that the story would be different if we spoke with people from the tourism department.

Here, we will draw you a very negative image of the evolution of the town. What other actors are you going to speak to? You always hear a different story.63 (Bruges, architecture)

8.3 Tourism needs to be managed in order to remain positive

Another expert working in the same department, explains that they are aware of the advantages of tourism, that they are not against it but that they are in a department where they have to ask themselves questions and they want to underline the need for it to be managed.

We are for tourism. We know that tourists must be here. It is a source of well-being and providence in the town. But we are in a department that need to ... Can the town still be managed? Is it still bearable? What other values do we need to keep an eye on? Aren't these forgotten? That's what we stand for? But we are also in favour of tourism, of course!64 (Bruges, urbanism).

Different experts, from different towns and countries express the same concern and only deem tourism positive if it is managed:

It is positive if it is kept under control.65 (Maastricht, building protection, also working at local and national level)

For the rest, I am certainly not against tourism. Thus, we need to remain welcoming towards the tourists here, but you need to do it in a way that it remains in its place. That it does not become a nuisance for other aspects of the town.66 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

Under a certain level, it is positive. Beyond a certain level, it is negative.67 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

It seems that there is a limit above which tourism creates problems. Defining a carrying capacity can prove helpful in order to contain the negative impacts of tourism.

It seems that the more mature a town becomes, the more the need for management becomes obvious. Already in our sample of towns who answered the questionnaires, we can discern some evolution in the answers, it seems that the more mature a town is in terms of tourism,

63 Original:" Er wordt hier een zeer negatief beeld opgehangen van de evolutie van de stad...Welke actoren gaat U nog aanspreken? Je krijgt telkens een ander verhaal." 64 Original:" Wij zijn ook voor toerisme. Wij weten dat er hier toeristen moeten zijn. Het is een bron van welvaart en van welleven in de stad. Maar wij zitten in een dienst die moet pogen om... Kan de stad nog gemanaged worden? Is dat nog verdraagbaar? Welke andere waarden moeten we in ogenschouw houden? Worden die niet verdongen? Daarvoor staan wij. Wij zij ook voor toerisme, pas op!" 65 Original:" Het is positief als het in toom gehouden is." 66 Original:" Anders, voor de rest ben ik zeker niet tegen toerisme. Dus men moet ook hier acceuilant blijven tegenover de toeristen, maar je moet het op zo’n manier doen dat het op zijn plaats blijft. Dat het niet ongunstig is voor ander aspecten van de stad." 67 Original:" Au dessous d'un certain seuil, c'est positif. Au delà d'un certain seuil, c'est négatif."


the more nuances it puts in its answer. For instance, out of the 36 developing towns that answered, 7 that is to say, about one fifth the respondents (three did not answer this question) slightly tuned down their optimism. One mentions that tourism is positive if it answers to a sustainable and regulated planning, one states that it is mainly positive but that there are sometimes negative impacts, one declares that it is only positive if it is implemented and planned properly, one claims it is both positive and negative and one underlines that it only remains positive up to a point where the city does not feel overwhelmed by visitors, and one insists that it is "in general" positive, thus not always.

In the sample of mature towns, 8 of the 17 towns, thus more than half of them, show concern. One states that tourism is "vaguely positive," 2 insist on the "in general," one claims that it is only "economically positive," one "essentially positive," one "pretty positive," one "overall positive" and one says that "positive impacts prevail but there are also negative impacts."

The same evolution can be found among our experts' interviews. Experts from developing towns tended to insist on the expected economic benefits of tourism while experts from mature towns or who work with heritage protection at national or supranational level insisted on the need to manage tourism in order to protect the socio-cultural and environmental aspects of the "places of interest" at the basis of tourist developments. Without this, not only do you risk killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, but you also risk seeing everybody fleeing from a nest that has become, for instance, a motorway.


9 Positive and Negative Impacts Why does the image of tourism coming out of our survey appear as so positive? Where do the towns questioned and the experts interviewed locate the positive and negative impacts of tourism. Since the aim of this workpackage was to draw a picture of the different pôssible impacts, positive and negative, short term or long term, reversible or irreversible, we asked pointed questions regarding impacts of different kinds. This also allowed us to go beyond surface level. In the questionnaires, we first asked open questions asking about direct and indirect consequences, to prevent stereotypical answers and to have an idea of short term and long term. These questions allowed us to identify what first comes to mind when one thinks of tourism impacts. The same questions were asked to our experts and their results will be found under "spontaneous answers." We then asked pointed questions in the questionnaires regarding different kinds of impacts, that can be divided into three fields: on built heritage, on mental representations and cultural practices, and finally on the economy. In the questionnaires, towns were given a table with a list of factors and asked whether, in their mind, tourism played a positive, negative or no role in this domain. They were also asked to provide an explanation. During the interviews, the method chosen was to let experts speak and ask their opinion on some consequences if they did not mention it. These results can be found under "tables."

9.1 Spontaneous answers 9.1.1 Economic benefits dominate the positive picture

Clearly, for small and medium-sized towns, the advantages of tourism lie in an economic benefit. "Direct consequences are economical."68 (Liège, tourism) or "the positive effect is naturally that about 10% of the population finds a job related to tourism"69 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges"). All but two of the respondents spoke of economic benefits as a direct consequence of tourism, either in general terms, either by mentioning job creations, side effects for shopkeepers, hotel owners, restaurants, etc. As one expert puts it "the balance is clearly leaning on the positive side, because of wealth and employment"70 (Badajoz, tourism).

One interviewed expert even plainly states, that even though cultural tourism can have negative impacts on a site, it remains positive because of its financial impact.

In cultural tourism, impacts on the site can be negative but they remain positive because of money.71 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

Another one identifies tourism as an important tool towards economic reconversion :

We are convinced that cultural tourism can be part of this economic reconversion and be an economic sector on its own. Thus, we are working at the development of tourism, not

68 This is our personal and unofficial translation from an original text that read: " Les conséquences directes, c'est économique" 69 This is our personal and unofficial translation from an original text that read: " de positieve effecten zijn natuurlijk dat er ongeveer 10% van de bevolking werkverschaffing vindt in het toerisme." 70 Original:" la balanza está claramente inclinada hacia el lado positivo, por riqueza y empleo." 71 Original:" Dans le tourisme culturel, les impacts peuvent être négatifs sur le site, mais cela reste positif à cause de l'argent."


only because it is pleasant and we have things to show, but also because it is a job creator...72 (Liège, tourism)

Strikingly however, when asked how much income tourism generates within their towns, many cannot give clear numbers.

A: Do you have an idea what part tourist activity represents in your town's economy?

B: That is very difficult to tell you.

A: A percentage?

B: I couldn't tell you. I cannot tell you.

A: OK.

B: What I do know is that we give it very little money from the budget (laugh). Euh well, a couple of millions, but, well this is for advertising as well as staff, and it goes over, well what it brings is much higher than the town's investment so far. Thus, it is simply difficult to measure, you have economical side effects, in the hotel restaurant cafe sector as well as business, euh, and you cannot measure this easily.73 (Liège, urbanism).

Or

A: Do you have an idea of the revenues that tourism is generating at the moment?

B: No.

A: No?

B: No (laugh)

A: In relation to an economic activity?

B: No, it is a calculation we still have to do. We can estimate, in a very intuitive and empirical way, but there are extremely direct side-effects on the market square, for the retailers, and of course, an image of quality, naturally.74 (Mons, tourism, culture and economy)

72 Original:" Nous sommes convaincus que le tourisme peut faire partie de cette reconversion économique et être un secteur économique à part entière. Et donc, on oeuvre pour développer le tourisme, non seulement parce que c'est agréable, parce qu'on a des choses à montrer, mais aussi parce qu'il est générateur d'emploi." 73 Original:"

A: Vous avez une idée de la part de l'activité touristique dans l'économie de la ville?

B:Ça, c'est très difficile à vous dire.

A: Un pourcentage?

B: Ca, je ne saurais pas vous dire, je ne peux pas vous dire.

A: D'accord.

B: Ce que je sais, c'est qu'on y consacre peu, dans le budget (rire). Hein, heu, c'est quelques millions, mais, pff, aussi bien pour la promotion que pour le personnel, hein et que ça dépasse, que l'apport dépasse l'investissement que la ville fait pour le moment. Donc, c'est simplement difficilement mesurable, vous avez aussi bien des retombées économiques, aussi bien que dans le secteur Horeca, que le secteur commercial, heu, et ça, vous ne pouvez pas mesurer si facilement." 74 Original:"

A: Vous avez une idée des revenus que le tourisme génère en ce moment?

B: Non

A: Non?


The idea that tourism generates benefits seems so strong that these do not need to be evaluated, as if this assertion cannot be called into question. Yet, if for instance, tourism gives a job to 10% of a town, it still means that 90% of employment does not come from tourism so that it does not live from tourism. One of our experts takes the example of Bruges to show that this image is actually just an image, that Bruges, even if it is very touristy, does not have tourism as its only source of income.

Mainly, when people visit Bruges, they visit the centre and they think that we live here just from tourism. That there is nothing else. This is a wrong image. Bruges has 120.000 inhabitants. Bruges is 13.000 hectares. It is a harbour that employs about 40.000 people, directly and indirectly. It is a town, with, well yes indeed, 7 or 8 industrial areas, some small some big. There is a lot here. We don't have a university but we have other types of higher education and a lot of high schools. The College of Europe. We have the services of the province and all the things that I forget. This brings employment if you put it all together. A big hospital where 2000 people work. There is a lot. This means that there are 90% other job possibilities than in tourism.75 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

In order to justify falling for this image and not assessing the economic benefits of tourism, a call is made to image transformation, or a feeling of belonging as in the following the quote "it is economical, it is more than that. It can also reinforce the feeling of belonging of a town. And I think it is something we should not neglect.76" (Liège, tourism)

Tourism developments are aimed at making money, but socio-cultural justifications come in handy when the results cannot be measured or do not answer the expectations. However, it has also been shown that image can create an interest from companies to locate themselves in one place rather than in other, on the basis that soft location qualities can attract highly qualified employees. Image could thus really matter to local authorities and bring economic benefits in the long run.

9.1.2 Image improvement and increased notoriety come second on the positive list

Improvement of the image of a town or a better notoriety also come as second in the questionnaires' respondents' answers, but it only arrives far behind economic consequences since only four out of fourteen mature towns mentioned it and seven out of thirty-four developing municipalities. One developing town hesitates between positive and negative, and one casts this aspect as negative, because of a fear of being "stuck" with a bad image. One of

B: Non. (rire)

A: Par rapport à une activité économique?

B: Non, ce sera un calcul qui nous reste à faire, on peut estimer de façon un peu intuitive et un peu empirique, mais il y a des retombées extrêmement directes sur la Grand Place, chez le commerçant, puis une image de marque, bien entendu... 75 Original:" Meestal, als men Brugge bezoekt, bezoekt men dat centrum en men denkt dat men hier uitsluitend van toerisme leven. Dat er niets anders meer is. Dat is een verkeerd beeld. Brugge is 120.000 inwoners. Dat is 13.000 hectaren. Het is een haven die 40.000 mensen tewerkstelt, ongeveer rechtstreeks en onrechtstreeks. Het is een stad met een, ja toch wel, zeker 7 of 8 industriegebieden, sommige groter, anderen kleiner. Er is hier zeer veel. Het is een onderwijsstad. We hebben wel geen universiteit, maar we hebben hogescholen en zeer veel middelbare scholen. Het Europa collège. We hebben de diensten van de provincie en wat weet ik allemaal. Dat maakt veel werkverschaffing, als je dat allemaal samenrekent. Een zeer groot ziekenhuis waar 2.000 mensen werken. Er is veel. Dat maakt dat er 90% andere werkplaatsen zijn dan in het toerisme." 76 Original:" c'est économique, c'est plus que ça. Ça peut aussi renforcer le sentiment d'appartenance et de fierté d'une ville. Et je crois que ce n'est pas quelque chose à négliger."


our interviewed experts illustrates this feeling, of fear that a town might give a wrong impression and thus lose potential visitors:

This is one aspect. There is another one that we find preoccupying seen from the point of view of the town, it is when visitors can bring an image that, at times, has become stereotypical, on the basis of the famous "drinking scene" or an excess of "leisure at night," or even a town that can have a lot of frontages damaged with "paintings," by a whole species of "urban culture."... 77 (Caceres, tourism).

In fact, we have more than 90% of towns speaking of the economy, and about 25% speaking of the image or identity. Improvement of infrastructure and surroundings also comes to light but in even smaller numbers.

9.1.3 No clear agreement on indirect positive impacts but tending towards image and money

The answer rate for indirect positive impacts was of 25 out of 39 for developing towns and 11/17 for mature towns. There seems to be little agreement as to where they are located, even if improvement of image and economic benefits come out timidly, followed by improvement of infrastructure, re-exploitation of existing heritage and creation of accommodation. A bit more than one third (9/25) of developing towns mention the impact on the image of a town and its notoriety and the tendency towards a healthier economy (attractiveness, investments, higher incomes) (9/25). A bit less than one third of them (7/25) speak of the improvement of services such as creation of new infrastructures. Some also bring to light the benefits for neighbouring towns (1/25), an increased level of education for the local population (1/25), an incentive for a more active local government (1/25) or a stimulation for heritage protection (1/25), more respect for one's town or again, an increase in cultural exchanges (1/25). Strangely, only one mature town speaks of economic benefits. They mainly concentrate on the state of preservation or degradation tourism brings along. Nearly half of mature towns (5/11) also concentrate on the improvement of infrastructure, arguing that tourism constitutes a drive to protect and clean, and can even lead to an "upgrade of standards." One third (3/11) also mention changes in the image and reconstruction. One also speaks of creating new attractions (1/11), another of developing solutions for transport situations (1/11) and still another one, of cultural exchanges (1/11).

9.1.4 Direct negative impacts hard to discern. Only traffic stands out as a major problem

The picture of direct negative impacts does not come out very clearly in the open answers. Many towns did not mention any, so that 20 out of 39 for developing towns, and 7 out of 17 mature towns also remained silent on the question. Out of the 9 answers for developing towns, nearly half (9/19) spoke of traffic, congestion or parking problems. It is also the case of more than half of all responding mature towns (6/10). One interviewed expert explains that this does not simply happen at the level of coaches, cars and parking spaces. When the number of tourists in a town becomes too high, it does not only become impossible to use one's car but also one's bicycle, as the following quote illustrates.

77 Original:" Ese es un aspecto. Hay otro que nos preocupa visto desde la ciudad, y es cuando nos visitantes pueden llevarse una imagen que a veces se ha estereotipado, a base del famoso "botellón," o de un exceso de ocio nocturno, o incluso de una ciudad que puede tener muchas fachadas estreopeadas por pintadas, por toda una especie de "cultura urbana" ..."


The number of tourists is just too big. The people who work in Bruges, like me, and I go home on my bicycle, it happens repeatedly that you need to stop. You cannot go on with your bicycle. Thus, you cannot go through with a car either.78 (Bruges, urbanism)

Damage or destruction of heritage or environment comes second as around one fourth of developing town that answered the question (5/19) and nearly half (4/10) of mature towns put it forward. Then developing towns speak of increases of prices (2/19) in real estate, crafts, "musealisation" of the historic centre (1/19) and conflicts between the desires of residents and those of tourists (2/19). In an interview, an expert explains that the use of public spaces also differs. Tourists tend to browse, while residents want to get somewhere quickly and mind their own business.

... the streets are full and they all looking around and these people think of their holidays, they have time and they don't know that there are people who are still working. 79 (Bruges, urbanism)

Tensions between tourism services and urbanism services sometimes mirror this situation. One expert explains that he feels that tourism needs to adapt to a town, while tourism people think a town needs to adapt to tourism.

The Tourist Office thinks that the town needs to adapt itself to tourism. It is as simple as that. And we think that tourism needs to adapt itself to the town.80 (Bruges, urbanism)

One expert also speaks of tensions between people living in a place and people commuting there to earn their living. The latter are experienced as using the city as a product and not as a place to live.

There is a conflict between the people who like to live in Bruges and love the town and those who come here just to make a living.81 (Bruges, protection of buildings)

The answers of mature town focus more on towns' services and infrastructures and the difficulty (practical and financial problems) that an increased rate of tourism can pose to their organisation and maintenance (5/10). One for instance spoke of towns and transport infrastructures becoming deficient because of increased traffic, one mentioned the money that needs to be invested in keeping everything clear, two mention problems of conciliation with other activities than tourism and conflicts between locals and tourists. Two also mentions a cost for the community or difficulties for the budget of a municipality (2/10). Degradation on architectural and natural heritage (1/10) and image (1/10) come to the fore once. One town plainly spoke of "nuisances of mass tourism" in general, thus making a difference between mass tourism and other forms of tourism.

9.1.5 Image of indirect negative impacts, even more blurry, if existing at all.

Indirect negative impacts do not seem very present in the minds of our respondents as only 16 out of 39 developing towns and 9 out of 17 towns answered this question. Strikingly though,

78 Original:" het aantal toeristen is te groot. De mensen die in Brugge werken, zoals ik, en ik ga naar huis met mijn fiets, dan gebeurd het herhaaldelijk dat je moet stoppen. Je kan niet meer door met de fiets. Dan kan je natuurlijk ook niet meer door met de wagen." 79 Original:" ...de strapen lopen vol en ze kijken allemaal zo en die mensen denken aan hun vakantie, hebben tijd en ze weten niet dat er nog mensen zijn die werken." 80 Original:" De Dienst van Toerisme vindt dat de stad zich moet aanpassen aan het toerisme. Daar komt het op neer. En wij vinden dat het toerisme zich moet aanpassen aan de stad." 81 Original:" Er is een conflict tussen de mensen die graag in Brugge wonen en die ook een liefde hebben voor de stad en dan diegenen die hier komen om hun boterham te verdienen."


the more mature in tourism a town becomes, the better our answering rate becomes, thus indicating that they appear after intense confrontation with tourism. Half of the developing towns that answered mainly stress the increased cost for maintenance and for the community (8/16) and prices increases in general (3/16) as well as changes in the social organisation (3/16). One speaks of damage to the environment and another one of criminality and prostitution. Mature towns rather speak of increased demands on a town in terms of infrastructure, cleaning, maintenance (5/9), of higher costs related to that (1/9), of the problem of balance between tourism and other activities (1/9) and one spoke of vandalism and increase in crime (1/9)


9.2 Tables In order to be sure that some impacts would not be left out in the spontaneous answers, towns were also given a list of different possible consequences. They were asked whether they saw different situations as potential impacts of tourism, and in that case whether they gave it a positive or negative connotation. The tables hereunder give us a schematic representation of their answers.


Table 1: Results for towns identifying themselves as "in development"

None Positive Negative Explanation Traffic (in a broad meaning)

2 11 18 7 hesitated between positive and negative, rest did not answer

Urban landscape(s)

4 24 3 Two between positive and negative, two did not answer

Cultural offer(s)

1 28 1 One between positive and negative, two did not answer

Cultural practices

4 27 0 One between positive and negative, rest did not answer

The image of a town 0 32 2 Two between positive and negative

The visibility of a town 0 28 2 Two between positive and negative, rest did not answer

The identity of a town

0 27 2 3 between positive and negative, 2 did not answer

Local traditions and values

3 27 1 Two did not answer

Public spaces

2 24 6 Two between positive and negative, one did not answer

Job opportunities

0 28 1 2 between positive and negative, one put a question mark

A town's economy

1 25 2 2 between positive and negative, one put a question mark, two did not answer

A town's expenditures 0 7 18 4 between positive and negative, rest did not answer

Neighbouring cities

4 29 2 2 between positive and negative, 1 between none and positive, one did not answer

Prices of real estate

5 8 15 2 between positive and negative, one of the positive explains (only if u think that the price of houses rising is a good thing), two did not answer

Other(s): Civic Pride

Elected people become aware of the importance of tourist development

1 1 Civic pride of local population, rest did not answer


Table 2: Results for towns identifying themselves as "mature"

None Positive Negative Explanation

Traffic (in a broad meaning)

0 4 13 2 think it is both positive and negative. One town states that railways are positive while cars are negative.

Urban landscape(s)

0 13 3 3 think it is both

Cultural offer(s)

1 16 0

Cultural practices

1 14 1 1 hesitates between none and positive

The image of a town

13 One did not answer, 3 hesitate between positive and negative

The visibility of a town

15 One did not answer and one hesitates between positive and negative

The identity of a town 1 14 1 One did not answer, one between positive and negative


2 13 One did not answer, one hesitates between positive and negative

Public spaces

1 16 1 One thinks it’s both pos. and neg.

Job opportunities

2 13 0 One hesitates between positive and negative and one put a question mark

A town's economy

2 13 1 Two hesitates between positive and negative

A town's expenditures 1 2 13 2 hesitated between positive and negative and one did not answer

Neighbouring cities

3 12 2 did not answer


4 4

8 4 said negative or positive, depending on the point of view

Other(s): Environment

1 1 Environment


The answers do not differ greatly between "developing" or "mature" towns, but they prove interesting compared to spontaneous answers, since, they allow us to discern clearly where small and medium sized cities locate the negative impacts of tourism and how these representations evolve. Once again, we can see an evolution in the answers, in function of the state of development of tourism.

9.2.1 "Traffic is the worst" negative impact

Traffic, is identified as particularly problematic in mature ("the worst is traffic") and developing towns. "One of the various aspirations, just like in any historical town, is to reduce or eliminate traffic."82 (Avila, tourism).

We witness here a rising curve, the more visited a town becomes, the more negative the impacts of traffic become. If 2 developing towns still see no impact, 11 see it as positive and 7 hesitate between positive and negative, 18 clearly identify it as negative. Those who insist on its positive aspect mainly put forward the advantages of a better connectivity of a town with the rest of the world and of being on a traffic axis to lure visitors. One, mitigates its answer by saying it can only appear positive if parking are made for coaches and one explains its answer on the basis that "it highlights the need for better traffic management!" The need for traffic management has clearly entered the minds of mature towns since only four chose the positive option, and this on the grounds that "more traffic forces you to care more for your city" and "it forces you to organise the flows. We will build three new bridges and launch a traffic plan." Two could not choose between positive and negative because "being on a main route helps" and "the traffic increase is compensated by the construction of new infrastructures", and one argues that it depends on the type of traffic, trains being deemed positive but cars negative. Yet, the vast majority of mature towns (13/17) do not enjoy the need to organise and mention the need to find parking spots, and the existence of local residents' complaints at the inability to park, the creation of pedestrian zones, etc.

Traffic, it appears, is one of these impacts of tourism that clearly needs specific management. Historic cities have played a pionnering role in the development of soft mobility modes of transport and a series of innovative strategies have been developed throughout Europe under this regard (Barçon & Gaudriault, 1999 ; Mega, 1997). Although considerable efforts have been made to document and benchmark these strategies (see the works of COST UCE Action C6 and the activities of the European network “Living and Walking in Cities”), it does not seem to have had much echo among local authorities that were interviewed.

9.2.2 Under closer scrutiny, negative consequences on town's expenditures come to light

If the spontaneous answers had not insisted much on an increase in the prices of real estate and in town expenses, the closed questions bring them to light as strongly negative for all respondents, even though the evolution curves of these two aspects vary. For towns' expenditures, we clearly see a steady evolution, evidencing that the more mature in tourist terms a town becomes, the more it seems to see tourism as having a negative impact on its expenses. Four respondents of developing towns, for instance, put a negative cross but also a positive one, thus stating that negative impacts on expenses can be evened up by positive ones. Seven see it as plainly positive, and more than two thirds of all who responded that

82 Original:" Una de las varias aspiraciones, como en cualquier ciudad histórica, es la de reducir o eliminar el tráfico."


question (18/25) see it as totally negative. As for mature towns, two hesitated between positive and negative, two stick with positivity but the rest all insist on the negative impacts.

9.2.3 Real estate prices go up

"when there is a lot of tourism, prices rise."83 (Avila, tourism), all agree on this but some say this can also prove positive for some people. Fifteen developing towns brand it as negative, and if 8 of them claim it as positive, one explains that it depends on the point of view taken (positive for owners, negative for people trying to find a home) and another one comments his answer with "only if you think that the prices of houses rising is a good thing!" Among these two groups, then, the majority agrees that tourism leads to an increase in the prices of real estate, even if some of them see it as positive, depending on the point of view. Within mature town, though, three say it is positive for owners, three claim it can be positive or negative according to the point of view taken and only eight see it as negative. Four even claim it makes no difference since "real estate is already expensive." In fact it could be that after a time of prices soaring, a limit has been reached and they remain at a high price but stop rising.

Interviewed experts confirm that prices rise due to tourism and that this can lead to a desertification of a town, as the following quote illustrates:

By letting a change happen from living places to all sorts of stronger functions like tourist functions, there is also a mechanism on price formation. At the moment, Bruges outshines all other cities on that aspect. It is here no longer payable to come and live in Bruges. If you compare with Leuven, Hasselt, other cities. Some time ago, a study was published in the Standaard (local paper) with a graphic with prices. And we're speaking of the whole of Bruges, not just the inner city. Because, in the inner city, this is really going beyond limits.84 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

This can be thought of as positive for landowners. However, drastic price increases lead people to move out of towns so that they eventually risk becoming ghost towns.

9.2.4 Money still dominates the positive picture, but nuances appear

The positive effects identified in the table concord with those brought to light in the spontaneous answers, but the ratios appear slightly different, especially for mature towns Spontaneously, more than 90% of the towns mentioned economic benefits but the tables show a slightly less optimistic result. 28 towns mentioned that they saw a positive impact but many display concern about the type of jobs created (low waged, seasonal) and stress the difference between theory and practice (are there so many jobs created? Or does it mainly work for volunteers?). 25 of them also identified a positive impact on the economy, but three could not really decide and two identified a negative impact. They do put forward an economic growth and an increased prosperity for local businesses but also warn that if there are new fields for commercial activities, there is also less space for "other things."

83 Original:" cuando hay mucho turismo los precios suben" 84 Original:" Door het laten omschakelen van woningen naar allerlei andere sterkere functies zoals toeristische functies, is er ook een mechanisme op de prijsvorming. Brugge schiet op dit ogenblik wat dat betreft boven alle andere steden uit. Het is hier niet meer betaalbaar om in Brugge te komen wonen. Als je het vergelijkt met Leuven, met Hasselt, andere steden. Er is zeer onlangs in De Standaard een studie over gemaakt met een grafiek erbij van de kostprijs. Dan spreken we over gans Groot-Brugge, dus niet alleen over de binne"nstad. Want in de binnenstad, daar is het werkelijk de pan uit aan het swingen.


In one of our interviews, one expert agrees and highlights the danger of a monosectorialisation of the economy. He claims that a town can only offer a good quality of life when different functions are fulfilled. If one of them takes more importance than others, then, he argues, one can no longer speak of a balanced situation.

The side effects are in one word, how shall I put it, the fact that tourism becomes all encompassing. That it nearly receives a monopolistic function, in the inner town. Naturally, in its diverse forms: hotels, restaurant, lace shops, Belgian chocolates stores, souvenir shops, it is very diverse. But they are all directed towards tourism and if tourism was not there, they would not be there either, that is obvious ... the liveability of such a town can only be guaranteed through a balanced multiplicity of functions. As soon as one function begins to take precedence over the others and begins to push them away, you can no longer speak of a balanced society.85 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges").

And even if one does choose for tourism, one expert highlights the need to pay attention to the type of development chosen, in order to favour local businesses and not foreign. He gives the example of hotels and explains that he prefers small family hotels than big 4 or 5 star hotels because the latter work with foreign capital, foreign suppliers, foreign managers, etc.

And, another aspect of employment, is that these big boxes (hotels) are finally all foreign capital, with foreign workers, foreign management. It was said there too that we are after all tending towards family businesses.86 (Bruges, protection of buildings)

Another one confirms by presenting local managers as feeling more responsible for the place they work in and favouring more the local economy through partnerships with local companies.

Because of the responsibility that a CEO from Bruges need to take. S/he is responsible for his/her staff. The multiplication factor seems to big bigger with little hotels that also wash sheets, buy jam, name it you have it, than with big hotels. The responsibility that the owner and manager have towards their staff as they are from Bruges is completely different and bigger than in international chains where somebody from Bruges can only be executive worker.87 (Bruges, urbanism)

If 13 out of 15 respondents for mature towns see a positive impact on job creation, 2 see tourism as having no impact on job creation and 2 hesitate. Again, they stress the difference between theory and practice, with comments such as "in theory, yes, but when it comes to walking the walk..." "we should have more job creation but there is little offer, most of it is small and family businesses" or "there is very little truly local employment." As for the

85 Original:" Die neveneffecten zijn in één woord, hoe zou ik het moeten zeggen, het feit dat het toerisme allesoverwegend wordt. Dat het bijna een monopoliefuncite verkrijgt, in de binnenstad. Natuurlijk in zijn veel diverse vormen: hotels, restaurants, kantwinkels, pralinewinkels, souvenirwinkels, het is zeer verscheiden. Maar het is allemaal op het toerisme gericht en moest dat toerisme daar niet zijn, zou dat daar ook niet zijn, dat is duidelijk ...de leefbaarheid van zo’n stad alleen maar gegarandeerd wordt door de evenwichtige veelvuldigheid van functies. Van zodra één van de functies begint te overwegen en de anderen begint weg te duwen, kun je niet meer spreken van een evenwichtige samenleving." 86 Original:"Plus nog een aspect van tewerkstelling, dat die grote dozen (hotels) uiteindelijk allemaal vreemd kapitaal zijn, met vreemde werknemers, vreemd management. Daar heeft men toch ook gezegd dat dus wij zijn toch wel geporteerd naar familiale bedrijven." 87 Original:" Omdat de verantwoordelijkheid die een Bruggeling die bedrijfsleider is moet nemen. Die is verantwoordelijk voor zijn personeel. Het multiplicatieeffect bij een klein hotel, dus ook de lakens wassen, confituur kopen, noem maar op, blijkt groter te zijn dan voor de grote hotels. De verantwoordelijkheid die de eigenaar en uitbater heeft ten opzichte van personeel als hij Bruggeling is, is heel anders en groter dan een internationale keten, waar de Bruggeling alleen werknemer kan zijn."


economy of a town, two mature destinations see absolutely no impact, two hesitate and 13 out of 15 choose for positive. The ones hesitating speak of the dangers of an economy relying only on one sector, of weird taxation systems and the high costs of maintenance for towns.

9.2.5 Image, identity and visibility: positive impacts dominate

On the contrary, a vast majority marked the impacts on the image, identity and visibility of a town as positive, indicating, that if it does not always come to mind spontaneously, when it is mentioned, it enjoys positive connotations. Only two destinations mentioned negative sides for identity, visibility and image and one or two could not choose. For mature towns, none chose negative for image and visibility but one did for identity, and another identified no impact. Three hesitated between positive and negative for image, one for visibility and identity; and finally, one did not answer any of these questions. A potential problem put forward lies in being associated with a particular ("unwanted" form of tourism) and a recurring fear, discussed extensively in the literature, concerns a possible loss of "original identity." Literature presents us with an example of a town suffering of a special kind of image: Amsterdam. According to the authors of Tourism and Cities of Art, its "tolerant image" would lead to a high rate of crime.

9.2.6 Urban landscapes and public spaces: changes also experienced as mainly positive

Impacts on urban heritage, such as urban landscapes and public spaces were also mainly experienced as positive, mainly on the premises that an increased tourism calls for a better preservation, valorisation and maintenance and that it can lead to urban regeneration. 24 developing towns chose the positive option for impact urban landscapes, 2 however hesitate between positive and negative, and 3 see it as totally negative, mainly because of potential vandalism and damage. About two-thirds of mature towns (13/16) do not share these fears and deem it totally positive. Three think it is both positive and negative and three share the opinion of the town afraid for damage. They also stress the need for global harmony, pointing out that too many signs can destroy the global vision.

The need to curb the spreading of commercial street signs and advertising is also put forward by an expert who claims that the more space you give them, the more space they will take, since the aim is to be bigger than the neighbour.

We need to protect it against pollution, among other visual pollution of neon advertising, advertising boards, teasing boards ... It is rather a fear on our side, because they often promote, and they want to attract people's attention with all sorts of flags and boards. We are trying to curb this and put some order into this.88 (Bruges, urbanism)

Surprisingly enough, more developing destinations experience the consequences on public spaces as negative than mature ones. Indeed, 6 developing towns insisted on the negative side of tourism, arguing that some people prove disrespectful of their environment or that mass tourism can create problems of maintenance and damage. Three fourths (24/32) of all respondents however, chose for positive, and put forward an image of tourism as an incentive to provide better care for a town and create better urban landscapes. Two respondents could not choose between positive and negative. Mature destinations, on the contrary, mostly see the impact on public spaces as positive (16/17), except for one that sees it as negative. One does not see any impact and one hesitates between positive and negative. This difference

88 Original:" We moeten deze beschermen tegen vervuiling, waaronder visuele vervuiling van lichtreclames, uithangborden, aandachttrekkers ... Het is eerder de angst van ons, want zij promoten vaak, willen de aandacht trekken met allerlei vlaggen en uithangsborden,... Wij proberen daar paal en perk aan te stellen."


might be explained by different understanding of the term "public spaces," some respondents seeing in it the buildings they can (partly) be made of, some others thinking more of the way all different urban elements can be organised. Some national differences also emerged regarding fear of damage, suggesting that some types of tourists might be, or be experienced as more negative than others.

Interviewed experts also brought up problematic points regarding public spaces that were not voiced in the questionnaires. One concerns the privatisation of public spaces. One expert explains that she is disappointed to see that the town invested a lot of money in making public spaces pleasant and nice to live in but tourists and members of the private sectors enjoy this much more than residents who actually paid for the changes. She even speaks of commercialisation of the public domain.

A third thing that I also find, is that a lot of actions were taken in the 80ies, begin of the 90ies in order to make the public domain pleasant, friendly for walkers. But what happens? All this public domain was in fact taken over by terraces, umbrellas and becomes in fact privatised in function of commercial activities. The commercialisation of the public domain cannot be slowed down, in spite of the attempts that we make to control, limit, regulate that in a qualitative way.89 (Bruges, architecture)

Another one gives different examples hotel constructions that required the destruction of heritage buildings; in order to show that tourism development sometimes destroys what it is meant to bring to light. One is given hereunder.

I don't know if you know it, this hotel that you have seen on the Burg. Thus, if you turn your back on the city hall, you have a Crowne Plaza hotel next to the square. To build this they have first of all destroyed a series, of mainly buildings along the side of the Burg, early 18th century empire houses, but also on the backside, a whole series of old 16th-17th century knocked down. We have held an action there, because we thought, well, they will never be able to build there, because they want an underground parking there for which they will need to open the ground. People will see that the complete foundations of the old St Donatian Cathedral are present there. You cannot imagine that they will allow building there. But they did. With combined efforts of councillors, or a councillor in urbanism and the mayor, it was finally allowed. 90 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

89 Original:" Een derde zaak vind ik ook, men heeft ook in de jaren ’80, begin jaren ’90 enorm veel maatregelen getroffen om het openbaar domein aangenaam te maken, voetgangersvriendelijk. Maar wat gebeurd er? Al dat openbaar domein wordt in feite ingenomen door terassen, parassols, en wordt uiteindelijk opnieuw geprivatiseerd in functie van commerciële activiteiten. De commercialisering van het openbaar domein is niet te remmen, ondanks de pogingen die we houden om dat kwalitatief te beheersen, af te bakenen, in te perken." 90 Original:" ik weet niet of je dat kent. Dat hotel dat je hebt zien staan op de Burg. Je hebt dus, als je met je rug naar het stadhuis staat, juist naast het plein heb je daar een CrownePlaza hotel. Om dat te bouwen hebben ze ten eerste een aantal, vooral gebouwen langs de kant van de Burg, vroeg 18de eeuwse empire-huizen, maar langs de achterkant een hele reeks oude huizen, 16de –17de eeuwse huizen met de grond gelijk gemaakt. We hebben daar actie gevoerd omdat we dachten, ja, dat gaan ze toch nooit kunnen bouwen, want ze willen daar een ondergrondse parking, ze willen daarvoor de grond openleggen. Men zal daar zien dat de volledige fundering van de oude St Donaaskathedraal daar aanwezig zijn. Ju kunt dat toch niet denken dat ze daar zullen toelaten om daar te bouwen. En toch, met gemeenschappelijke inspanningen van ambtenaren, of een ambtenaar op stedenbouw en de burgemeester is dat dan toch toegelaten geweest."


10 Prediction and evaluation of Impacts If literature on tourism generally agrees on the stages of tourism development, planning and impact assessment, we must admit that they are generally ignored when towns embark on tourist developments. Many simply see it as an obstacle, as a waste of time. Impact assessment is experienced as a waste of time, as an obstacle in many cases. As one expert puts it, impact assessment is often put off till "things go very well" to use his words, which often means till it is too late in conservation and preservation terms:

Listen, we will start thinking of impact ... I answer, I answer, we will think of negative impact if it works really well. At that moment, it will still be time. Let us not put obstacles in our way when we are trying to be positive in our strategy. 91 (Liège, tourism)

10.1 Prediction: nothing systematic and mainly focusing on economical aspects

First of all, not all cities develop a structured planning of tourism development and rarely study potential impacts in a systematic way.

Three developing destinations did not answer this question but nearly 45% of all towns (16/36) developing tourism do not engage in any form of prediction of evaluation. One said "yes and no" and one explained that they were starting to realize it is important. The other towns that said they evaluated often limit themselves to an assessment of profitability, thus privileging the economic over socio-cultural and environmental effects. The town that identified itself as not developed in terms of tourism, for instance mentions that they study the possibilities of return on investment, the financial impacts and the number of visitors visiting a place. Another speaks of "forecast, benchmarking with other destinations," two others of "feasibility studies," another of "statistics of number of people"

Mature towns seem to have understood the importance of assessment. One did not answer that question, but of all 16 answers, 15 answered yes. The only one that answered "NO" explained that it was because their town was not the owner of its heritage that belonged to the state, suggesting that they did not want to make any effort for something that was not theirs. All however, seem to focus first on economical impact, feasibility studies and assessment of ways of communication rather than impacts on quality of life, social structures, urbanism or cultural representations. Only four mention an evaluation of social or environmental impacts. The tools used so far bear the name of surveys, statistics, economical analyses, study of the occupancy rate, benchmarking with other destinations, ratio investment/economic consequences, exchanges with similar cities and "trying to learn from the mistakes of others." However, only one mature town speaks of a systematic assessment (creation of a research department to evaluate the impact with local authorities).

If towns study the numbers of visitors for profitability purposes, they significantly don't think of a carrying capacity. Not a single town among our respondents had defined a limit, above which the flows of tourists would create more damage than good to the places they visit. Some are more aware than others of its need, and some mention some kind of limitation through the number of beds available. This example, evidencing the analysis of a minimum

91 Original:" Ecoutez, on pensera à l'impact... je vous répond, je vous répond, on pensera à l'impact négatif si ça marche vraiment très bien. A ce moment là, il sera encore temps. Ne venons pas nous mettre des obstacles alors qu'on veut être positif dans notre politique."


limit in the amount of people to make profit without any correlative limit above which heritage becomes destroyed, highlights the priorities of impact management. It seems that it is important to know whether one is going to make money but not whether one is going to destroy the very thing money is coming from. We could also say that the short-term is privileged over the long term, or once again, money against socio-cultural and environmental characteristics. One expert explains he has to fight in order to fight developments that would be detrimental to his town, because they are also considered as being likely to bring more people to town.

It is quantity against quality. The tourist office thinks in numbers: so many numbers, so many visitors, so many nights, ... Our service for museums also thinks in numbers. Before they thought in qualitative terms, now they think in quantitative terms: they need numbers of visitors, the more the better. All means are justified for this end. They don't have many second thoughts about it. This can be seen in the means they use to make promotion. What we keep on noticing now is that they want to use and apply means that cannot be accepted in terms of urbanism. 92 (Bruges, protection of buildings)

10.2 Follow-up, if any, also based on quantity and not quality

If impact assessment seems very limited before the implementation of a project, about 38% of developing (15/39) and 52% of mature towns (9/17) claim to engage in follow-up procedures. They are nonetheless very terse on how they proceed. When explanations are given, they refer more to satisfaction surveys, statistical information or occupational rates, tools that serve more to analyse the tourist demand rather than to assess impacts.

One expert, member of a body that gives subsidies to projects in tourist developments explains that follow-up consists of checking that the project keeps its tourist role during 15 years.

Yes, because they are legally obliged to keep the tourist purposes for 15 years, if not, they have to reimburse subsidies and moreover, they have to keep the tourist purposes... euh, the object receives a subsidy for 15 years, in all cases.93 (Tourism, working at regional level)

When asked specifically whether impact was studied instead of just whether the project was still running, the answer given refers to an augmentation of number of visitors, thus once again giving voice to a quantitative approach instead of a qualitative one.

The impact of the project has been evaluated in the sense that, well, the visitor centre has experienced an increase in the amount of visitors, in 2003 we went from 3000 to 4000 visitors.94

92 Original:" Het is kwantiteit ten opzichte van kwaliteit. De Dienst voor Toerisme denkt in cijfers : zoveel aantallen, zoveel bezoekers, zoveel overnachtingen,… Onze dienst voor Musea denkt ook in cijfers. Vroeger dachten ze in kwaliteit, nu denken ze in cijfers : ze moeten bezoekersaantallen hebben, hoe meer hoe liever. Daarvoor zijn voor hen alle middelen goed. Ze zijn daar niet scrupuleus over. Dit geeft weerslag op de middelen die ze aanwenden om promotie te maken. Wat men tegenwoordig herhaaldelijk vaststellt, is dat zij middelen willen aanwenden en willen gebruiken die op stedenbouwkundig vlak niet toelaatbaar zijn." 93 Original:" Oui parce que la législation leurs impose en tout cas qu’ils maintiennent l’affectation touristique pendant 15 ans, sinon, ils doivent rembourser le subside et de plus ils doivent maintenir l’affectation touristique…, enfin, l’objet a été subsidié pendant 15 ans en tout cas. 94 Original:" L’impact du projet a été évalué dans le sens où bon, le syndicat d’initiative à peut-être vu son taux de fréquentation augmenter en 2003 on est monté à 3.000 visiteurs ou 4.000 visiteurs."


11 Improvement and Compensation 11.1 Not many suggestions for compensation coming

from questionnaires Strikingly, concrete and thought of suggestions for improvement and compensation do not abound. 56% (17/39) of developing towns did not give any suggestion on how to reduce negative impacts and 39% ignored the question on how to favour positive impacts (24/39). Contrary to all expectations, nearly 30% (5/17) of mature towns also ignored it. When given, replies on how to maximise positive impacts and minimise negative impacts were mostly very short, beside the point, or tautological. When asked, "what do you suggest to reduce or compensate the negative consequences of tourism? Do you find these proposals satisfactory? What additional measures would you suggest?" one town answered for instance "try to reduce the negative impacts to a minimum." The answer on maximisation of positive impacts displays the same amount of solipsism since when asked about measures to achieve that aim, the reply sounds, "support measures increasing the effect of tourism."

No matter how vague and abstract these answers, they try to take some distance. Most of the other towns actually concentrated on specific points, like for instance "a new bridge, cycle paths" or "participations in exhibitions" without putting that in a larger picture or explaining why this would reduce negative and favour positive impacts.

11.2 Need of planning not mentioned in questionnaires but brought to light by some experts.

Significantly, careful planning or impact assessment or management is very rarely identified as a key factor for diminishing negative consequences in the questionnaires. Only 10% of all respondents actually mention it in one way or another. Experts react differently though, and insist on this aspect. One expert explains clearly though, that many negative consequences do not come from tourism in itself, but from a lack of management of tourism:

These are in fact all side effects that cannot be blamed on tourism but on a lack of vision from the public authorities. A laisser aller, laisser faire in all its glory.95 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

Our expert interviews might explain this lack of long-term vision and management. It seems that, lured by the image of tourism as a source of economic benefit, towns considering themselves as developing put all their effort into attracting more people rather than impact assessment or careful planning. There is a sensation that it will still be time to act when the limit will be reached, thus ignoring the "better safe than sorry," and choosing for something of the kind "better sorry than nobody."

Well, I think that there should be more changes and that we could do even more and that it would be even better ... You know, I have the feeling that tourism is still embryonic in Liège, that when it will be more important, for instance, when it will have doubled, we

95 Original:" Dat zijn eigenlijk allemaal nevenaspecten, waarvan men de schuld niet op het toerisme moet werpen, maar eigenlijk de schuld van een gebrek aan visie van een openbaar bestuur. Het laisser aller, laisser faire in al zijn glorie."


will start thinking a little bit of impacts but at the moment, I think, that we only have one thing to do: make it double.96 (Liège, urbanism)

Impact assessment appears as a waste of time in the race for more tourists, especially in developing towns where tourism enjoys a positive image.

A: And for a tourist event, a tourist strategy is set up, do you think some type of impact assessment is carried out or...?

B: No, at present, it is not the case ... it is better to spend a lot of time organising rather than assessing, really.97 (Liège, urbanism)

11.3 Promotion seen as a solution by many respondents of the questionnaire

Public relation work and promotional work appears as one of the strategies most often quoted by developing towns (9/24) in order to maximise the positive impacts of tourism. This follows the line of economic development and what our experts said above about attracting people. Other strategies standing out in pool of developing towns bear the name of diversification or improvement of the offer (8/24) spreading of the season (3/24), or striking new partnerships (3/24). Consultation with relevant groups or the population also comes to their mind of at least 41% of them (7/17), but especially when it comes to reduce negative impacts. Cultural tourism also strikes one as a sustainable form of tourism allowing maximisation of positive impacts since one third of respondents insisted on the creation of cultural activities as a from of improvement and compensation. Close follow-up of private partners and accommodation possibilities in order to face the "market laws" is also mentioned twice. "consideration of the multi-ethnicity of the region" is also mentioned once and so is "developing short stays" and "depend mainly on financial sources and appropriate subsidies."

Mature towns insist more on the need to find solutions for traffic management since more than half of our respondents (5/12) speak of traffic aspects in their answers, may it be the creation of a diversion road, stimulating "soft traffic," "increasing the number of parking spaces" or "improving access." More budget and response from the administration also comes to light once, so do the need to make sure that local people enjoy benefits from tourism.

11.4 Expert highlight the gap between private need of profit and public need of long term

Many experts stress the gap between private and public, between short-term and long term.

We are all in an economy of the free market, everybody does what s/he wants.98 (Bruges, urbanism).

96 Original:" Ben, je pense qu'il devrait y avoir plus de changements et qu'on pourrait encore en faire beaucoup plus et que ce serait encore mieux... Vous savez, j'ai l'impression que le tourisme est encore tellement embryonnaire à Liège que quand il sera plus important, par exemple, quand il aura doublé, on va commencer à se soucier un peu des impacts mais pour le moment, je trouve qu'on a qu'une seule chose à faire, c'est le faire doubler quoi." 97 Original:" A: Et quand pour un événement touristique, une stratégie touristique est mise sur pieds, est-ce que vous pensez qu'il y a une évaluation des impacts qui est réalisée ou...?

B: Non, pour le moment, ce n'est pas le cas... Il vaut mieux passer beaucoup de temps à organiser plutôt qu'à évaluer, quoi!"


The problem is that the sector of tourism is a private sector; public interventions are very small and public activities scarce. It works according to the law of offer and demand that works according to the law of short-term profit (that is return on investment within three years, even for cultural tourism) and of the renewing of products.99 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

A long-term vision that would go against the short term needs to make profit quickly appears for experts as a way to develop a sustainable form of tourism.

Public-private partnership does appear as a key factor of success.

There are no positive experiences if the public and private sector do not work together.100 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

Yet, this should not mean that the public sector loses its independence or all control. Besides the development of a vision and a long term plan, the importance of some kind of control by public instances is put forward by many experts, even though sometimes sarcastically.

A: Well, then, what can we do against this law of the Market that you are talking about?

B: Nationalise everything, madam, nationalise everything. That's the solution.101 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

The importance of having houses of one's own for a town, for instance, appears as a way to control real estate inflation in the mind of one expert. This control of real estate prices would prevent that people move out, that tourism becomes the only industry and that a town would become a "ghost town."

We bought 500 houses in the inner city of Bruges in the 70ies. There was actually nearly not owner of any house, except what it needed for the administration. They were all empty houses. ... Thus around 500 houses. There were also about 500 homes of the OCMW (Public Centre for the well-being of society), where older people were hosted and that where regularly modernised and where distance was taken from the evolution that was going on before, of the type, let us sell this, a nice week-end house, etc. An end was put to that. And thirdly, via the social housing department, regular attempts were made to build first new houses in town and secondly to renovate existing houses. The second part was a bit more difficult, but it started going after a while. Even if it was for 500-600 houses. Thus, we thought, with between 1500 and 2000 houses out of the 8000 of the inner city, that we would have a relatively large word to say, which is a nice way to say some control on what happens in these houses and we will make sure that it is only houses to live in and control the rents.102 (Bruges, representative of local residents, fighting for a "liveable Bruges")

98 Original:" Wij zijn allemaal in een vrijemarkteconomie, iedereen doet wat ze willen." 99 Original:" Le problème, c'est que le secteur du tourisme est un secteur privé, les interventions du public sont très petites et les activités publiques très réduites. Il fonctionne selon la loi de l'offre et de la demande qui fonctionne selon la loi du profit à court terme (c'est à dire retour d'argent sur 3 ans, même pour le tourisme culturel) et du renouvellement de produit." 100 Original:" Il n'y a pas d'expérience positive qui fonctionne si le secteur public et privé ne sont pas associés." 101 A: Ben justement, alors que peut-on faire pour faire face à cette loi du marché dont vous parlez?

B: Tout nationaliser, madame, tout nationaliser. C'est la solution." 102 Original:" Wij hebben in de jaren ’70, 500 huizen aangekocht, in Brugge-stad. Ze was eigenlijk bijna geen eigenaar van huizen, buiten hetgeen ze nodig hadden, voor de administratie. Dat waren allemaal leegstaande huizen. ... Dus een 500 huizen. Er waren er daarnaast ongeveer 500 Godshuizen van het OCMW, waar bejaarden in werden gehuisvest en die ook stelselmatig werden gemoderniseerd en waar dus ook werd afgezien van een evolutie die voordien op gang was, van ja, laat dat ons maar verkopen, moie weekendhuisjes enzovoort, dat is


Having families and people not having anything to do with tourism living in a city centre also prevents monosectorialisation, one of the dangers of tourist development.

If there exist a call for a certain amount of independency from the public sector, many experts also call for a certain amount of independency of the administration from politicians who can be influenced by voting powers, money, etc.

10% of all jobs in Bruges are related to tourism. It is less than what people think. But they are all voters and the political management is very sensitive to its voters. Some more than others. The representative of the middle-class (UNIZO) are well represented and defended in this management.103 (Bruges, protection of buildings)

One expert gives a concrete example of a "mobility plan" that was called into question and not finished after some elections because it was unpopular with local entrepreneurs. She argues that this proves detrimental to heritage since this plan also aimed at a valorisation of public spaces.

11.5 Involvement of locals allows better cooperation Even though, most of the towns answering our questionnaires haven't developed any mechanism of participative action, public involvement appears of utter importance to our interviewed experts.

Thus, we should start with the beginning, with the basis ... sensibilise the citizens.104 (Badajoz, tourism).

This appears necessary if one wants to see them helping with tourism instead of fighting against it.

Programs like "know your town" aimed at different groups: taxi drivers, house people ... anybody who can walk in the street and be stopped by a tourist who wants to ask something. With this we have succeeded in making the town not see tourism as an aggression.105 (Avila, tourism).

11.6 A case study A municipal councillor even gives concrete examples of how he went about in order to maximise the positive consequences of tourism. First he identified the strong points of his city and decided to capitalise on them. He identified his town as mystical, historical and cultural and started a cultural programming around this.

dus stopgezet. Een derde was dat via de sociale huisvestingsmaatschappijen dat er regelmatig pogingen werden ondernomen, om eerst nieuwe huizen te bouwen in de stad en ten tweede om bestaandehuizen te vernieuwen. Het tweede was wat moeilijker, maar dat is toch beginnen lopen na een tijdje. Al waren dan nog een 500-600 woningen. Dus wij dachten, met een tussen de 1.500 en de 2.000 woningen op de 8.000 van de binnenstad, dat we een tamelijk goede zeggingsschap, om niet te zeggen greep op wat in die huizen gebeurd en wij zullen er dus voor zorgen dat alleen maar bewoning is en welke huurprijzen er zijn." 103 Original:" 10% van alle jobs in Brugge zijn gerelateerd aan toerisme. Het is minder dan men dacht. Maar het zijn allemaal kiezers en het politiek bestuur is gevoelig voor hun kiezers. De ene al meer dan de anderen. De vertegenwoordigers van de middenstand (UNIZO) worden goed gegangmaakt en verdedigd bij het bestuur." 104 Original:" Entonces, deberíamos de empezar por el principio, por el basico .. sensibilisar al ciudadano." 105 Original:" Programas como “conoce tu ciudad” dirigido a los distintos colectivos: taxistas, amas de casa… cualquiera que pueda andar por la calle y le pare un turista y le pregunte por algo. Con ello hemos conseguido que la ciudad no vea el turismo como una agresión."


Avila, mystical town. Avila, historical town. Avila, cultural town. The result is that there is a fixed programming from the cultural council: theatre cycles, polyphonic days (the best polyphonics of the world come), Gregorian days, alternative music in the month of July.106 (Avila, tourism).

Besides sporadic and varying events, he also decided on fixed dates (1st week-end of July, 2nd week-end of September) for some activities so that people could remember and make space in their agenda easily.

With this, we succeed in having the tourist making a cross in his diary. It is very easy to remember that the first end of week of September, there are the medieval days, the medieval market, it is very easy to remember that the last week-end of June we have a contest "Avila in tapas; ..."107 (Avila, tourism)

Basing itself on the principle that tourists who spend a night somewhere spend more money than those who come for one day and leave, he also developed different strategies, such as free representations on Thursdays. Since they happen fairly late, people usually sleep at least one night in town and give out more money than if they just had come for the representation. This also gives arguments to hotel owners who can give a feeling of privilege to people who come on Thursdays.

Novelty of the year: Thursdays are free for everybody. With that, the hotel owner has another excuse to sell him/herself or to make his customers happy: "look, if you come and spend the night on Thursday, I invite you to a free theatrical visit of the city walls."108 (Avila, tourism)

He also wants to focus on different kinds of tourism, usually seen as quality tourism. For instance, he is surfing on the wave of religious tourism and business tourism. For religious tourism, he speaks of events around Saint Teresa of Avila, around Easter Week, a centre of congresses and documentation about mysticism, etc.

We are positioning ourselves in religious tourism: foreign people come and visit the sites of Saint Teresa. Thus, we are trying to be open not only to these people who come because they are interested in Saint Teresa or San Juana ... What do we want to do with the centre? Well, handle mysticism like it has never been before, at global level. We've had little visitors so far but the valorisation is excellent; it is excellent thanks to the artist, from people who have nothing to do neither with Catholicism, nor with the Christian religion, or any of these things. This thinking has pleased. We've also got support because Avila city council started the international centre of mystical studies many years ago, where, even if only two events happen per year in terms of conventions or congresses, people from the whole world come, as speakers or conference participants, like students, but interested in the mystical phenomenon. A documentation centre has been created with at least 5000 references; it is going to share space in a building at the side of the Mystical Centre- it has not moved there yet, but it will-. We also receive support from the Carmelites that have chosen to place their Mystical University in Avila, International Teresian Centre. Its is planned to be finished in two years and it seems that

106 Original:" Ávila ciudad mística. Ávila ciudad histórica. Ávila ciudad cultural. Resulta que desde la concejalía de cultura hay una programación fija: ciclos de teatro, jornadas polifónicas (vienen las mejores polifonías del mundo), jornadas de Gregoriano, ... música alternativa durante el mes de julio." 107 Original:" Con esto consigues que el turista se haga un hueco en su agenda: es muy fácil de retener que el primer fin de semana de septiembre se tienen las jornadas medievales, el mercado medieval; es fácil de retener que el ultimo fin de semana de junio se celebra el concurso “Ávila en tapas”; ..." 108 Original:" Novedad de este año: los jueves es gratis para todo el mundo. Con lo cual, el hostelero abulense tiene una disculpa más para venderse o para contentar a su cliente: “mire, si viene usted el jueves a dormir yo le invito a una visita teatralizada gratis a la muralla."


people from all over the world will be coming, Carmelites, people normally religious, from all over the world, coming to get educated here on the mystical phenomenon. These are solid arguments. Seeing our potential, it is sensible to take advantage of it without any complex.109 (Avila, tourism)

For business tourism, he explains that they are building a centre for exhibitions and congresses, designed by a famous architect in order to attract even more people.

Finally, we are very well located, and we want to take advantage of it. For congresses, this is ideal. We have planned –the works will start in January 2005- a Main Centre of exhibitions and congresses. Not like a gigantic work, it is very well re-dimensioned, it is made by Pachi Mangado, who made the "baluarte," and the idea is to go two steps forward from what Avila is.110 (Avila, tourism)

And last, but not least, tourism proposals are only accepted in his town if they answer the three criteria of sustainability, i.e., economically viable, environmentally liveable and socially equitable.

I listen to any suggestion, I study it and if it is viable politically, socially and economically, well, we accept it.111 (Avila, tourism).

Money does not obliterate socio-cultural and environmental aspects, so that long term and short term can cohabitate, profit and culture and environment.

109 Original:" nos posicionamos en el turismo religioso: El extranjero viene a ver los sitios teresianos. Entonces intentamos abrir no sólo a esa gente que viene interesada a la mística teresiana o sanjuanera...Qué pretendemos con el centro? Pues abordar la mística como no se ha hecho nunca, a un nivel global. Reivindicarnos como ciudad mundial de la mística avalados por santa Teresa. ... Nos hemos dirigido primero a todos a los intelectuales a nivel global. Ha tenido aún pocas visitas pero la valoración es exquisita; es exquisita por parte del artista, por gente que no tiene nada que ver ni con el catolicismo ni con la religión cristiana ni cosas de esas. Ha gustado ese planteamiento. Y estamos avalados también porque el ayuntamiento de Ávila puso en marcha hace bastantes años el centro internacional de estudios místicos, que aunque hace dos cosas al año, digamos de congresos, viene gente de todo el mundo, bien como conferenciantes, bien como alumnos, pero interesados en el fenómeno místico. Se ha creado ya un centro de documentación que cuenta con 5000 ejemplares, y va a compartir espacio en un edificio al lado del Centro de la Mística –no se han ido todavía pero se van a ir-. Avalados también por los Carmelitas, que han fijado en Ávila su universidad de la Mística, Centro Internacional Teresiano. También proyectado, en dos años estará terminado y parece ser que vendrá gente de todo el mundo, Carmelitas, gente, normalmente religiosos de todo el mundo, a formarse aquí en el fenómeno místico. Son argumentos sólidos. Viendo nuestro potencial, sencillamente es aprovecharlo sin ningún complejo." 110 Original:" En fin, estamos muy bien situados y queremos aprovecharlo. Para los congresos es ideal. Tenemos proyectado –se empezarán las obras en enero del 2005- el Centro principal de exposiciones y congresos. No como obra faraónica, está muy bien redimensionada, está hecha por Pachi Mangado, el arquitecto que hizo el baluarte, y bueno, pues la idea es dar dos pasos por delante de lo que es Ávila." 111 Original:" escucho cualquier propuesta, la estudio, y si es viable políticamente, socialmente y económicamente, pues la aceptamos."


12 Role of the European Union The vast majority of our respondents think that the European Union has an important role to play in tourism development. As one of our experts phrases it: "reducing the border effect makes it obligatory to reinforce, indeed to adopt regulations and common ways of operating."112 (Liège, archaeology)

Only about 10% of developing towns did not answer that question (4/39) and only one mature town says it has not identified its role so far.

12.1 Funding and promotion of networks, exchange of good practices

Most cities also agree on the role the Union should play. They locate it on, the one hand, in the promotion of networks, exchanges, good practices at supranational or supraregional level and, on the other hand, in funding. About 57% (20/35) of developing towns mention funding, and nearly half (8/17) of mature towns. An expert, mayor of a town declared world heritage by UNESCO, confirms this feeling and explains that he spent the first three months in his position looking for European Funds, and that it is thanks to these Funds that have allowed him to foster a sustainable development of his town.

I devoted every minute of my first months to a search for European funds. We succeeded in getting some for the rehabilitation of the left side of the river –bring the river closer to town- a project of 1000 millions (pesetas), and the plan terminates exactly in the creation of the future convention centre. Alarza bridge, the convention centre, the environment centre San Seguno, the Hipica, the aim is to regain a lot of things. And the "INTERREG" of accessibility to the historical centre is something else we worked on.113 (Avila, tourism)

Promoting twinning, networks, exchanges between towns with similar typologies, disseminating good practices, experience and expertise in general appear nearly as important. It is brought up by 37% of developing (13/35) and more than half of mature (9/17) towns. As one expert phrases it "A network can help to establish an experience network - Un réseau peut servir à établir un réseau d'expériences" (Amiens, heritage).

12.2 Tourism Promotion and Procedural Advice. Tourism promotion, mainly the sustainable form of tourism, as well as technical and procedural advice also come to light but to a lesser extent. About 20% of developing towns (7/35) insist on the need of directives, support, help and assessment programmes, and a

112 Original:" le fait d’atténuer l'effet de frontière n’oblige qu’à renforcer, justement qu’il y ait adoption de règlements ou de modus operandum communs" 113 Original:" Mis tres primeros meses los dediqué mañana y tarde a buscar fondos europeos. Conseguimos para esa recuperación de la margen izquierda del río –“acercar” el río a la ciudad- un proyecto de 1000 millones, y termina precisamente la actuación en la creación del futuro palacio de congresos. El puente Alarza, el palacio de congresos, el centro ambiental San Segundo, la Hípica, en fin es recuperar un montón de cosas. Y el “INTERREG” de accesibilidad al centro histórico, otra cosa en la que estamos trabajando. El tema de accesibilidad, aquí hay dos cosas que son pioneras y no os puedo decir. Y luego la sostenibilidad, he comenzado con la instalación de energía solar en las dos piscinas municipales y una próxima actuación va a ser intentar que el centro de visitantes obtenga el titulo de edificio sostenible. Para ello, en la obra se han utilizado materiales ecológicos, y en el techo hay sitio para instalar unas placas solares."


slightly lesser (18,75%) percentage of mature town (3/16) agree and mention technical advice. Yet, mature towns seem to take some distance, put everything into perspective and argue for a European tourism strategy.

This appears for them as a sine qua non condition in order to be able to reach a sustainable form of tourism. In this, they agree with two of our experts who insist on the difficulty to reach an agreement on tourism strategies within Europe, since member states hold the competency over tourism, not the European Union.

You know, the European commission is not competent for tourism. Today, it's like this, well, there was a little bit of tourism before, I think it is presently in the article 158 of the Treaty but it has been cancelled in the new constitution.114(Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

There is no specific competency for tourism so their role risks being very, euh, little.115 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

It should still be noted that tourism falls under the scope of numerous European policies, like Structural Funds & Regional policy or Environment, Enterprise or Culture policies. It has been estimated that, in France, some 10% of Regional Funds for the period 2000-2006 will directly benefit the tourism sector (Guicheney & Rouzade, 2004).

Tourism is framed by alternative routes at the moment, through directives about culture or about transportation. It appears possible to influence some aspects of tourism but not to deal with tourism as a whole.

So, there is no delegation of the member states of the European Community. On the other hand, there exists one for culture, as for instance, for cultural exception. Through that, there is a possibility to touch tourism.116 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

And transportation, it is also possible to touch tourism through transportation, that's a little bit of the problem with the European Union and all the different institutions: tourism comes in a bit from everywhere.117 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

One of them explains moreover, that even if the industry of tourism is the first provider of jobs in Europe, its structure (mainly small and local entrepreneurs or retailers) does not allow it to easily reach a strong representation so that he thinks that the industry proves weak at lobbying games.

The first employer of Europe, it is the tourism sector, 7% of the BNP, the biggest sector in Europe. More than agriculture. Or than Asia. Or than China. Thus ... there is (hesitation), maybe because they are small and medium sized enterprises, euh, because it is a very diffuse sector, that there is no representation, or very little, that it is not recognised. Unskilled employers, small businesses, small retailers ... that have more

114 Original:" Vous savez, la commission européenne n'est pas compétente pour le tourisme. Aujourd'hui, c'est comme cela, hein, il y avait un petit morceau de tourisme, je crois que c'est dans l'article 158 du traité pour l'instant et dans la nouvelle constitution, il a été supprimé." 115 Original:" Il n'y a pas de compétence spécifique au tourisme, donc leur rôle ne peut être que vraiment, heu, très petit. 116 Original:" Donc, il n'y a pas de délégation des Etats Membres de la Commission européenne, par contre il y en a dans le domaine de la culture, par exemple pour l'exception culturelle. Par ce biais là, il y a moyen de toucher le tourisme." 117 Original:" Et le transport, il y a aussi moyen de toucher le tourisme par le transport, c'est un peu le problème avec l'Union europénne et toutes les différentes institutions: le tourisme rentre un peu partout"


trouble in making themselves heard than ARCELOR or SOLVAY or whatever.118 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

The vision offered here strikes one as highly political, arguing for a role based on representation and directives. Another expert asks questions about whether this really constitutes the most efficient or desirable method. .

A: OK, how can the European Union then play its role?

B: But, but I think that the efforts have not only been European but international, at world level, through charters and so on, there is already an effort, but well, obviously the problem is that it needs to work administratively. There, we arrive at a problem of, in a way, level of jurisdiction and reglementation... And to know whether we need to translate these recommendations into laws, including national laws, that's another problem. I can hardly make a comparison; it is (hesitation) how to make something we produce efficient. Euh, well, if we need to do it that way in order to make it efficient, I don't know and actually, I am not sure about it.119 (Liège, archaeology)

He rather argues for diffusion and promotion, thus agreeing with the respondents of the questionnaire and referring to the aim of the project.

Thus, I think that the main role, to start with, is the diffusion of that type of thinking, if, I don't know what form you'll choose to present your final document but it is the diffusion of that final document to all the instances that can be reached. And there, I say, with the mode of diffusion, that is another problem. It is the work of a specialist to see what is the best way. We just talked about translating into legal texts, is this, well I don't know, diffusion in the form of a support centre for local institutions, I, I, I don’t know.120 (Liège, archaeology)

118 Original:" Le premier employeur d'Europe, c'est le secteur du tourisme, 7% du PIB, le plus gros secteur d'Europe. Plus que l'agriculture. Ou que l'Asie. Ou que la Chine. Donc... il y a (hésitation) peut-être parce que ce sont des PME ou heu, parce que c'est un secteur très très diffus, qui n'a pas de représentation ou très peu, ... qu'il n'est pas reconnu. Des employeurs pas qualifiés, des petites entreprises, des petits commerçants ... qui ont plus de mal à se faire entendre que ARCELOR ou SOLVAY ou compagnie." 119 Original:" A: OK . Et comment elle peut arriver jouer son rôle, l’Union Européenne ?

B: Mais, mais je crois que les efforts n’ont pas seulement été européens mais internationaux, mondiaux, au travers des chartes et ainsi de suite, il y a déjà un effort mais bon, évidemment le problème c’est que il faut bien qu’administrativement on s’en sorte, quoi, hein. Là, on arrive à un problème de, quelque part, de hauteur de juridiction et de réglementation.... Et de savoir, heu, si on doit transposer ces recommandations sous forme de juridictions y compris juridiction nationale, c’est un autre problème. Je peux difficilement rapprocher , c’est (hésitation) comment rendre efficace quelques chose que l’on produit. Heu, bon, s’il faut passer par là pour le rendre efficace, je ne sais pas et je n’en suis pas certain d’ailleurs. 120 Original:" Donc, je pense que le rôle principal dans un premier temps c’est la diffusion de ce genre de réflexion, si, je ne sais pas sous quelles formes vous présenterez votre document final mais c’est la diffusion de ce document final auprès de toutes les instances qu’elle peut toucher et là, je dis avec le mode de diffusion c’est un autre problème. C’est un travail de spécialiste de savoir quelle est la meilleure manière. On vient de le dire, transposition sous forme de textes légaux, est-ce que c’est, heu, la diffusion, heu, sous forme je sais pas, moi, heu, d’antenne auprès des institutions locales, je, je, je ne sais pas, je n’ai pas d’idées."


13 Tool expectations 38% of developing towns (15/39) and 17% of mature towns (3/17) did not answer the questions regarding the tools due to be produced through Picture Project. We are wondering whether this moderate answer rate comes from a lack of understanding of the problematic and the advantages of management or from a lack of interest in the tool. The interest in management and the tool, however, rises with maturity in tourism, again suggesting that the more mature a town becomes the harder and more necessary it becomes to manage the impacts of tourism.

If the answers prove rather unified when speaking of support, they show a wide range of diversity when it comes to content or public. No one-fits-all or one-pleases-all solution emerges.

13.1 Support The best thing would be Internet, but you need first a paper contact.121 (Tourism, working at regional level)

In terms of support, nearly all respondents (21/24, 10/14) claim to prefer multiple support, thus having a choice between a paper version and a digital version, preferably available on the Internet. Only two developing and one mature towns thought that a digital support would be sufficient. Two towns mature towns also mentioned CD-ROMs but one developing town explained that CD-ROMs are not often used because of a lack of equipment, etc. Already in their answers on support, a couple of towns voice the valued-addedness of a forum or of meetings, round-tables, study journeys, etc.

Most of our experts agree on the multiple support, explaining that a digital version would be more practical but that not everybody would use it:

Euh, well, the problem (laugh) is money, availability, euh fro problems of geographic proximity but well, these days, I would see at least two ways, one paper version and I would also easily see, euh, that could be anything, a version that can be spread easily.122 (Liège, archaeology)

I think we are having illusions on the idea of computer as media.123 (Liège, urbanism).

One gives the idea of a customised paper version, with different cardboard pages, which can be taken out, each one dealing with one specific aspect.

A good website, with a paper version made out of cards that you can take out and replace in a thick paper file. Each card would deal with one aspect, one state, through asking a good question.124 (Tourism Consultant, at international level)

121 Original:" Le meilleur support, c'est internet, mais il faut un premier contact par papier." 122 Original:" Heu, bon le problème (rire) d’argent, de disponibilité pour des problèmes aussi heu, bon, de proximité géographique mais bon, par les temps qui courent je verrais au moins deux formes une forme papier et je verrais bien une forme, heu, ça pourrait être n’importe quoi, une forme diffusée accessible facilement." 123 Original:" Je pense qu'on se fait des illusions sur l'ordinateur comme média." 124 Original:" Un bon site web, avec un guide papier sous forme de fiches qu'on peut enlever ou remplacer dans un classeur en papier épais. Chaque fiche traite d'un état, un aspect en posant une bonne question."


13.2 Content You need to federate action, reflection. The notion of a resource centre is important.125 (Tourism, working at regional level)

This idea of exchange of information and possibilities of discussion and guidance also comes up repeatedly in the answers on content. It seems that a customizable, adaptable tool with a forum or a database would find more appreciation than a folder on the subject. As one town phrased it the tool would ideally be "adaptable for consideration or application by a variety of decision makers, favour transparency and rigour." The towns that answered showed a lot of interest in practical information and good practices.

A third (8/24) of the developing towns that answered spoke of exchanges and networks and six more (one fourth) spoke of dissemination and exchange of good practices, turning the number of towns willing to have a cooperative tool to 60%. 28% responding mature towns (4/14) also mentioned networks and exchanges and one mentioned the need to give assessment tools.

One aspect that also comes to light in many answers (5/24 developing, 6/14 mature towns) is the quest for sustainable, quality tourism and a desire for awareness raising regarding the different impacts of tourism. One developing town, for instance, suggested to "insist on the notion of sustainable tourism, on the necessary harmony between actions to produce and resources to exploit", another spoke of "assessment methods and sustainable development" and another of "giving an overall picture of tourism impacts, on the economy, life in the city, etc." Mature towns share this opinion as they mention, "heightening awareness of the problem of landscape and not only economic interest," another of "stressing positive and negative impact, risks, how to develop sustainable tourism"

The preferences for the instrument to be produced go towards a lively, adaptable, transparent and easy to use form. As one expert points out, it should be able to evolve over time and adapt itself to local differences in order to avoid being outdated and useless before it has even been produced:

The little brochure, that's already something but it is not enough. It's a step but saying that we produced a brochure and now we can go to sleep, that means there is nothing that moves, that means that nothing moves, that means there is nothing that.... The little brochure will render a cliché situation at a certain point in time. It will give information on what paths to follow, but tourism is a subject evolving very rapidly, because it is a human subject, it is a human activity. Thus, then, if it is not followed or its evolution is followed only with brochures, that will forcibly only state the situation a posteriori. Thus, interesting, necessary, but not sufficient.126 (Mons, tourism)

It should preferably, on the one hand, contain information on the different impacts of tourism and sustainable development in general, and on the other hand give examples of good practices, of cases where problems have been solved and positive impacts have been maximized and negative impacts minimized. Some methodological advice or guidance for

125 Original:" Il faut fédérer des actions, des réflexions. La notion d'un centre de ressources est importante." 126 Original:" La petite brochure c’est déjà bien mais ça ne suffit pas. C’est une étape mais dire on a sorti une petit brochure, maintenant allons nous coucher, y a plus rien qui bouge, y a plus rien qui…. La petite brochure, elle va donner, une situation cliché, à un certain moment. Elle va donner des pistes mais le tourisme est une matière extrêmement évolutive, parce que c’est une matière humaine, c’est une activité humaine. Donc, dès lors, si elle n’est pas suivie et qu’on suit pas l’évolution de ce type de matière uniquement avec des brochures, qui forcément ne feront que constater des situation à posteriori. Donc, intéressant, nécessaire mais pas suffisant."


impact assessment and tourism development is also welcome. All this can happen in a forum or in a database in order to allow maximum customisation and value-addedness.

A database, but not passive data, active data. In other words, receive data, analyse it and in function of these analyses, be able to give advice to project leaders on the paths to follow.127 (Mons, tourism)

What seems important is the possibility to have a "resource" person or institution, somebody who/that offers guidance and support.

Then, we'll have a working group, a group of true specialists who will have an informed opinion. ... It helps because we cannot know everything, we cannot see everything. And, then, I cannot do the comparison with this site, this nature that exists in Poland or in Italy. Within that working group existing within Europe, this would be possible, because all data arrive, and are centralised with a group of specialists, specialists who can analyse, spread the info.128 (Mons, tourism)

The challenge lies in answering all these desiderata and still produce a tool that would remain "simple and usable" (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level), something that would prove practical and not simply theoretical.

One expert stresses the importance of not reinventing the wheel. He explains that taking what exists and making it known available would already prove very helpful, allowing people to know where to go to receive information and guidance.

If there is really something useful to do in this field, it is to imagine a system that would render the information easily available and accessible for those who need it. Because there is information, there is research, there are good ideas a bit everywhere, and as soon as you start looking for them, you cannot find anything.129 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

The same expert even gives the image of the Rubik's cube in order to illustrate his notion of a simple, easy and changing instrument. He says at least people would always have it on their desk, and in digital form, it could replace the well-know game of patience on the computer. Every face or section would give a piece of advice. According to him, if they use at least part of them, it's a success.

It makes me thin of Rubik's cube, ... you just need to turn. That, at least, would be a tool one would have on his/her desk, all managers could play Rubik's cube, that would not be bad... Let's remain simple, if it can be the Rubik's cube, six sides with 9 squares, that

127 Original:" Une banque de données mais pas des données passives mais des données actives. Autrement dit, recevoir des données, les analyser, en fonction des analyses qui sont faites pouvoir conseillers les porteurs de projets sur les pistes à suivre." 128 Original:" Et à ce moment, nous aurons un groupe de travail, un groupe de vrais spécialistes, qui auront un avis conforme ... Cela aide, parce que nous ne pouvons pas tout savoir, nous ne pouvons pas tout voir. Et puis moi, je ne peux pas faire la comparaison de tel site, de telle nature, qui existe en Pologne ou en Italie. Au niveau de ce groupe de travail qui existerait au sein de l'Europe, oui, parce que toutes les données arrivent, sont centralisées dans un noyau de spécialistes, qui peut les analyser, qui peut les répercuter." 129 Original:" S'il y a vraiment oeuvre utile à faire dans ce domaine, ce serait d'imaginer des systèmes qui permettent de rendre l'information facile et disponible pour ceux qui en ont besoin, parce que de l'information il y en a, de la recherche, il y en a, des bonnes idées, il y en a un peu partout et dès qu'on cherche quelque chose, dès qu'on cherche quelque chose, on ne le trouve pas en réalité."


makes 54 pieces of advice for the sector. If they use 15, it is already a success.130 (Tourism Consultant, mainly at European level)

Another expert shares this idea of simplicity and of giving pieces of advice, but he rather puts forward the idea of a checklist, giving the minimum information and then referring to places to go to in order to receive more information. He also insists on the need of monitoring and the possibilities of evolution.

I would go from very simple to complicated. I would explain, well, an accessibility project that is brought on the agenda, what partners and then I would do some kind of, what do you call that? ... Euh, yes, checklists, there you go. When I plan this, I need to, I would need to take this aspect and this aspect and this aspect into consideration. I should not forget this, I should not forget that, so that the newcomer in this subject would at least know the processes generally used. And then I would enter the specific, euh, with the possibility to receive more information on specific points, on a site, but a place will never be another one, a monument will never be another one, a piece of heritage will never be another one, thus you can have heritage management examples that are closer to the one you need to manage, thus, you can enter into specific examples, and then, in this checklist, because this checklist, like it is suggested, with a general plan, well it has something pro-active, anticipative; so we also need to think about everything that is monitoring and follow-up. Thus, that's it, there is something I am thinking of, that could be simple and usable, and that would allow an easy identification of the steps, thus it would be structural as well as chronological.131 (Liège, archaeology)

When asked about concrete advice during the interviews, the importance of impact management comes to light

A: What would be most useful to you?

B: Everything that can help plan, everything that can bring experience from other people, see if they have similar or completely different experiences and what the impacts have been. And speaking of impact measurement ... measure the impact of a decision, a renovation seems important to me.132 (Mons, tourism, culture and economy)

Or

130 Original:" Cela me fait penser au RUBICs cube, ... qu'il suffirait de tourner. Cela au moins, cela serait un outil, heu, on l'aurait sur son bureau, tous les managers pourraient jouer au RUBICs cube, hein, cela serait pas mal cela... Restons simples, si cela peut être le RUBICs cube en six faces, avec neuf carrés, cela fait 54 conseils pour le secteur. S'ils en utilisent déjà 15, c'est un succès." 131 Original:" J’irais du très simple au compliqué. J’expliquerais, bon, un projet d’accessibilité qu’on doit mettre autour de la table, quel partenaire et puis je ferais des espèces de comment on appelle ça ? ...Heu, oui, heu, bon, des "checklist" bon, voilà. Quand j’envisage çà, je de dois, je devrais prendre en considération tels aspect, tels aspect, tels aspect. Je ne dois pas oublier ceci, je ne dois pas oublier cela, heu, au moins pour que le néophyte en la matière connaissent les processus les plus généralement utilisés. Et puis alors j’entrerais dans le particulier, heu, avec la possibilité d’avoir davantage d’informations complémentaires sur des points particuliers, sur un site mais un lieu ne sera jamais un autre, un monument ne sera jamais un autre, un patrimoine ne sera jamais l’autre, donc, il peut avoir des exemples de la gestion de patrimoine qui sont plus analogues à celui qu’il a à traiter donc, on peut entrer dans des exemples plus particuliers et puis, donc, heu, dans cette checklist, parce que la checkliste telle qu’elle est proposée là avec l’organigramme général, heu, elle a quelques chose d’anticipatif, de préalable, il faut aussi je pense proposer tout ce qui est monitoring du suivi... Donc, ça, c’est, il y a quelques chose dans ce que moi je pense qui serait utile de simple et heu, à la fois qui permet d’identifier clairement les étapes, donc, c’est à la fois structurel et chronologique." 132 Original:" A: Qu'est-ce qui vous serait le plus utile?

B: Tout ce qui peut planifier, tout ce qui peut apporter de l'expérience des autres, voir si les autres ont des expériences proches ou tout à fait différentes et quels ont été les impacts. Et en termes de calcul d'impact... mesurer l'impact de décision, d'une rénovation, cela me semble important.


The priority is to ask questions on impacts, on the natural environment and on the population. You first need to work on the awareness of the decision makers.133 (Tourism, working at regional level)

13.3 Public The contents of the instrument will also greatly depend on its public, and here again we witness a large diversity in the answers, ranging from very specific (naming of institutions) to very wide ("people interested in tourism" or "all hurt subjects"). Many towns that answered questions regarding the tools left that part blank, thus indicating the difficulty to define a suitable public for this instrument. One expert even claimed that the tool should concentrate on people whose job lies in tourism and people whose job does not lie in tourism, such as sewage makers, etc.!

Identifying the public also proves quite complex because of local differences, the structure of the tourist industry and the procedures of tourism development can vary from country to country, region, to region, thus giving way to different institutions, scales of power, etc. One town insisted on the fact that "private bodies are often left out when awareness raising is made but this part of the public seems important to around 30 % (8/24 developing and 4/14 mature) of towns that answered this sub question. This represents by far the highest score, since; public institutions or towns in general (5/24 developing, 4/17 mature) come second, followed by elected officials (5/24 developing, 3/17 mature) then by local population (3/24 developing, 3/17 mature). Mature towns seem to have chosen an approach based more since the ratio stressing the need to address local residents or visitors is higher than for developing towns.

This instrument could also have a boomerang effect on some stakeholders. One expert for instance complains that making elected people more aware of heritage problems resembles a dream ("c'est un voeu pieux"). Yet, another sees an opportunity in this tool. He considers it as a concrete object that could help him justify the need for heritage protection in the face of elected people. Because, at the moment, he explains that he needs to fight for heritage protection, for instance, when deciding on local urbanism plans. He thinks an instrument like this would give him the right arguments.

133 Original:" La priorité est de s'interroger sur les impacts, à la fois sur le milieu naturel et sur la population. Il faut d'abord sensibiliser les décideurs."


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15 Annexes


The GENERAL AIM of this questionnaire is to draw a clear picture (as clear as possible) of the impacts that tourism can have on European towns, with a view to developing an instrument for managing impact. We are looking for impacts of all kinds, positive as well as negative, direct and indirect, reversible and irreversible. In tourist attractions, we do not only include buildings, museums and static elements in general, but also cultural manifestations, festivals, local events and alike (dynamic elements).

16 General

This part of the questionnaire asks questions about your town, and its attractions. Its aim is to get a picture of how many tourists visit your town, why they are attracted to it and the revenues they generate.

General Information about your town: Number of inhabitants............. Number of hotel rooms............. Number of beds in other tourist accommodation ........ Number of places of cultural interest with paid entry : with free entry : Please indicate what events or places are attracting most tourists to your town : Places of interest (built or natural, i.e. buildings as well as hills, etc.)

Events (festivals, etc.)


Or is your town located next to major tourist attraction(s)? Which one(s)? Do you have a tourist/residential tax? What is the average amount per tourist? Estimated contribution of tourism to the economic activity of the town:.........% of GDP What is your town's main economic activity?

17 Tourism strategies

This part of the questionnaire asks questions about the development of tourism within your town, the type of tourism that you focus on and your approach to tourism. Its aim is to give us an idea of the stage of tourist development your town is in, strategies that you use or think should be used in order to develop/manage tourism, and your organisational practices regarding it.

In your town or region, is tourism Developed/ Mature? Developing? Not developed? Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the options you do not agree with. Please explain further.


Do you wish to develop tourism and through what means/strategies/measures? Did you develop a strategic plan for your town? Feel free to add a copy of your tourism strategy or any document that you think relevant. What type of tourism do you focus on (general, cultural, sports, leisure, business, ....)? Tell us more about the evolution of these strategies during the last 5 years. In your town, who or what body defines tourism strategies or policies? Who implements them? Have you set up a mechanism, a specific type of organization that allows easy and good cooperation between the different departments involved in tourism? Are tourism projects mainly initiated by local authorities, local community, private companies, or others? What sources of funding are available to you for tourism development or actions? How much does your town spend on tourism per year? Directly (providing tourism services) and indirectly (e.g.: increasing garbage collection during high season)


What partnerships do you develop in the context of tourism? Is the population involved in the conception or planning of tourism projects or activities? Do you use Information and Communication Technologies in or for tourism? In what way? If you do not use them, what role do you think they could play, if any?

18 Impacts

This part of the questionnaire asks questions about the impact(s) of tourism. Its aim is to get a picture as clear, broad and varied as possible of ALL kinds of impact that tourism can have on a town. The first two questions are very general to give you an opportunity to approach the issue in its broadest sense and to comment on all types of impacts you can think of. The other questions are more specific.

What are, in your opinion, the DIRECT consequences (positive and/or negative) of tourism in your town? Please illustrate, if possible. What are, in your opinion, the INDIRECT consequences (positive and/or negative) of tourism in your town? Please illustrate, if possible. Do you think that tourism can lead to changes in the quality of life of local residents (positive and/or negative)? YES – NO Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option you do not agree with. Please explain further.


For whom? Please list the three categories that you think are enjoying the most positive consequences and three categories of people that you think are suffering the most negative consequences. (e.g.: active population, unemployed people, children, young people, disabled people, shopkeepers, men, women, people living within the heritage/protected area....). You can add explanations if you wish.

Positive Negative

Do you think that tourism can lead to changes in the built heritage (positive and/or negative)? YES – NO Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option you do not agree with. Please explain further. Do you think that tourism can lead to economic changes (positive and/or negative) within your town or town area? YES – NO Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option you do not agree with. Please explain. For whom? Please list the three categories that you think are enjoying the most positive consequences and three categories of people that you think are experiencing the most negative consequences. (e.g.: active population, unemployed people, children, young people, disabled people, shopkeepers, men, women, people living within the heritage/protected area........). You can add explanations, if you wish.

Positive Negative


Do you think that tourism can have a cultural impact (positive and/or negative) in your town? YES – NO Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option you do not agree with. Where do you place the most obvious cultural impacts? Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option(s) you do not agree with. More than one answer is possible. Rediscovery of historical or cultural roots Rise in the cultural offer Cultural exchanges Other(s) : ..................................... Please explain further. What impact do you think tourism can have on: Please put a cross in the column that most suits your answer (none, positive, or negative) and give an explanation in the explanation column

None Positive Negative Explanation Traffic (in a broad meaning)

Urban landscape(s)

Cultural offer(s)

Cultural practices

The image of a town


The visibility of a town

The identity of a town


Public spaces

Job opportunities

A town's economy

A town's expenditures

Neighbouring cities


Other(s)

In the actions you have undertaken these last years in the context of tourism development, where did you notice the most obvious/important changes due to tourism? Do you think that, in general, the consequences of tourism are positive or negative? Please explain further. Among all the negative consequences that you have identified, which are, according to you, irreversible? Please explain, if possible.


19 Prediction and Assessment of Impacts

This part of the questionnaire asks questions about impact assessment. Its aim is to understand whether and how impact assessment is conducted within your town or institution.

Before implementing tourism strategies, do you try to assess and predict their impact? YES – NO Please choose the answer of your choice by erasing the option you do not agree with. Please explain. If YES, what sorts of impacts do you analyse? If NO, what types of impact do you think should be analysed, if any? (economic resources of the town, environment, quality of life, etc.) How do you predict and assess these impacts? Do you find this approach satisfactory? Have you defined a carrying capacity for your town or do you plan to? How is it calculated or do you think it should be calculated? In what way do you assess the demand for tourism within your town? (e.g.: occupancy rate of hotels, number of visits to major attractions, ...). Do you have follow-up procedures? During the implementation of a project? And/or afterwards?


Can you give an example of careful planning that led to the success of a specific action/event? Or an example of a lack of assessment that led to a problem? Please explain further. Is the local population involved in the assessment/prediction? Do local residents have a chance to voice their opinion? In what way?

20 Improvement and compensation

This part of the questionnaire asks questions about attitudes to predicted impacts. Its aim is to bring out strategies used to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts

What policies/measures do you use in order to reduce or compensate for the NEGATIVE consequences of tourism? Do you find them satisfactory? What other/additional measures would you suggest? What policies/measures do you use order to increase the POSITIVE consequences of tourism? Do you find them satisfactory? What other/additional measures would you suggest?

21 Role of the European Union and Tool Expectations

This part of the questionnaire asks you closing questions about the role of the European Union and your expectations for the tool that we will produce in order to facilitate impact management in tourism

Do you think that the European Union has a role to play in urban tourism, and what role? Please explain.


Do you think that the impact assessment instrument that we are due to produce would be useful in your work? Please explain. What are your expectations regarding the tool aimed at facilitating the procedure of impact assessment that is due to be produced through the PICTURE research? In terms of content (what should be insisted on? What are your needs? Etc.) In terms of support (paper, digital, both?) In terms of public (who should be focused on?) Feel free to add some comments to the questionnaire and other aspects of tourism management and guidance not covered by the questionnaire.

22 Identification Questions: Name and Surname Position : Main expertise area : Contact e-mail : This data will of course remain confidential. Your contact details are only required in case of the need for further clarification. Thank you for your time. Let us wish you success in the work you are doing for your town and have a good day!


15.2 Interview Grid PREREQUISITE: explain what picture is about and its aim.

1 General Personal Identification: Last name: First Name: Position (title + description): City or Project Identification: Can you tell me more about your city? Your region? Your project? And your role within it? (possible topics: number of inhabitants, number of hotel rooms, number of rooms/bed, other tourist lodgings, list of places of cultural interest with paid entry, number of visitors per year, number of visitors per year in places of tourist activity with paid entry, estimated part of tourism in the economic activity of the town, principal attractions of the town, principal advantages of the project, ...):

2 Definition of cultural tourism Have you already heard about cultural tourism? How would you define it? Does your definition match the definition given in the project description, i.e. "the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their place of residence with the intention of gathering new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs"?

3 Development of Cultural Tourism In your city or region, is cultural tourism developed, developing or not developed? OR Has the project you are working on been conceived in the context of cultural tourism? Do you wish to develop it and through what means/strategies/measures? What kind of tourism is targeted by your town (mass, specific, cultural, sports, leisure, mixed). Why? Tell us more about the evolution of these strategies over the last 5 years. / OR Tell us more about the evolution of your project over the last 5 years.


4 Organizational Practices In your institution, who defines tourism strategies or policies? Who implements them? How do the different departments of your organisation work on these strategies? Can you speak of cooperation between different departments? Is there a formal structure enabling this co-operation? Are you for it or against it? Why? Have you already met communication problems that have created problems? Are tourism projects mainly introduced by local authorities, local community, private companies, others? What partnerships do you develop in the context of cultural tourism? Is the population, the public involved in the project conception and/or planning?

5 Impacts What are, according to you, the DIRECT consequences (positive and/or negative) of measures taken/strategies chosen in the context of tourism? What are, according to you, the INDIRECT consequences (positive and/or negative) of measures taken/strategies chosen in the context of tourism? According to you, how do the different impacts combine? In your opinion, where can the most obvious/important changes be found? If not touched on during the discussion, questions regarding possible impacts on the following points may be asked: Quality of Life Built Heritage Economic Changes Traffic (in a broad meaning) Urban Landscape Cultural offer(s) Cultural Practice(s) A city's image and visibility Public spaces


Job opportunities Other

6 Positive or Negative? Reversible or Irreversible? In general, do you think that the changes are positive or negative? Among the negative consequences that you have observed, which are, according to you, irreversible? What are the positive consequences that you would like to favour/facilitate? Do you have concrete examples of experiences that worked well? Or experiences that did not work. Explain.

7 Prediction and Assessment of Impacts Before implementing tourism strategies, do you try to assess and predict their impact(s)? How do you predict and assess these impact(s)? Do you find this approach satisfactory? In what way do you assess the demand of tourism within your town? Based on your experience, do you think it has worked well so far? Do you find, within your organisation, formal structures with the aim of assessing possible impacts of tourism strategies/projects? Are you aware of any follow-up procedures? Of any evaluation after a project is launched or finished? Can you give examples of a lack of assessment that led to a problem; or an example of careful planning that led to the success of a project? Is the public involved in the assessment/prediction? Do inhabitants have a chance to voice their opinion? In what way?

8 Improvement and Compensation What do you suggest in order to reduce or compensate the negative consequences of tourism? Do you find these proposals satisfactory? What other/additional measures would you suggest? What are the policy measures that you put forward in order to increase the positive consequences of tourism? Do you find them satisfactory? What other/additional measures would you suggest? Do you think that the European Union has a role to play in urban tourism and what role?


9 Expectations regarding PICTURE-tool What are your expectations regarding the tool meant to facilitate the procedure of impact assessment that is going to be produced thanks to the PICTURE research In terms of content (what should be insisted on? what are your needs? etc.) In terms of support (what would the ideal support be) In terms of public (who should they address in the tool) Thank them and tell them they will receive the tool when it is ready.

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