Business Improvement Districts and the Visitor Economy (original) (raw)
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European Urban and Regional Studies, 2012
In many countries across the world, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are seen as a new model of sub-municipal governance to secure private capital for improving the attractiveness of a city’s central spaces. Originating from North America (Canada and the United States), this model of self-taxing districts, often based on public–private partnerships, has spread to other continents, including Europe, Australia and Africa. This theme issue explores the internationalization and the contextualization of the BID model in both Northern countries (the United States, Canada, Germany and Sweden) and Southern countries (South Africa). The collection of articles focuses on key debates surrounding BIDs and presents different theoretical perspectives as well as lines of argument in relation to these debates. Relying on approaches based on political economy and local governance regimes, Foucault-inspired sociology of governance and governmentality studies or critical discourse analysis, the a...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify development strategies for Business Tourism in territories where this segment is not always given due consideration, especially at the level of local and regional development policies. Design – The paper discusses the concepts of Business Tourism and analyses the characteristics of a delimited territory in the Central Region of Portugal that encompasses the cities of Coimbra, Aveiro and Viseu, located between the main Portuguese cities, Lisbon and Oporto. Methodology – A Delphi study was conducted to explore the prospects of destination stakeholders, with the aim of identifying proposals and product development measures in this territory. Findings – Despite the lower urban density and lower load capacity, when compared with the main urban centres of Lisbon and Oporto, this territory presents a qualified and diverse tourism offer that combined with the existence of differentiated venues and quality accommodation can contribute to provide a valued tourism experience associated with the Meetings Industry. Originality – The study presented here allows us to reflect on the potential of Business Tourism in territories with lower urban density and lower supply of facilities and services, when compared to the major cities that usually take the leading positions in international rankings. This is especially true, if we consider that smaller urban centres that are relatively near each other (as is the case of Coimbra, Aveiro and Viseu) may find interesting strategic advantages in joint action, taking into account that these three geographic areas complement each other in the integrated supply of tourism products, experiences, services and facilities.
Tourism and Local Economic Development: Three Case Studies
Fast growing tourism industries have provided a focus for policymakers and academics concerned with regional and national economic development in periphery areas. General and, in the context of this paper, event tourism, comprise an important development platform for both periphery rural areas facing a bleak future due to depressed agriculture conditions, and for post-industrial and urban areas seeking new industries to replace traditional employment in manufacturing and slow growth service industries. The promotion of tourism and leisure service industries as a regional growth driver, particularly in peripheral regions, may ignore certain underlying industry characteristics. Often tourism features low wages and unskilled labour, lessening income-related demand effects, and, further, militating against the development of a highly skilled workforce. Moreover, external ownership of large tourism concerns, together with an underdeveloped local tourism infrastructure can limit the contribution of new tourism activity to regional growth prospects. This paper compares and contrasts the impacts of three very different cases of tourism development in Wales. The first case examines the sustainable visitor related impacts of Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, an exceptionally well-preserved industrial heritage site in the South Wales coalfield. The area has recently received World Heritage Site status, and is to undergo significant preservation works and development of visitor facilities in the next few years. The second case is the now well-established annual Brecon Jazz festival in mid-Wales. This internationally renowned event attracts 50,000 visitors per annum to a rural setting which faces increasing difficulties in traditional agricultural activities, and is searching for diversification opportunities. The third case examines the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The event was hailed as the world's fourth biggest sporting event and was hosted by Cardiff, the capital of Wales in the autumn of 1999. The local economic effects (forecast in the case of Blaenavon) of each development are examined and compared within the framework of Input-Output tables for Wales, augmented by tourism sector data. The paper examines the very different patterns of visitor spend associated with each case activity, and how far the effects of the activities being promoted square with local economic development needs. Implications for tourism development policy are examined in the context of the research findings.
This regional spotlight paper debates novel approaches to the way urban destination management is being undertaken by DMOs against a dynamic operational context. The rationale behind is the scarce literature on change in the domain of destination management, particularly in today's post-austerity era. In times when DMOs are forced into revisiting their modus operandi, entering partnerships with organisations representing the wider destination network and having an interest in destination development, could be the way forward. This multi-phase qualitative study is drawing on both primary and secondary data sources and involved policy analysis, group observations, and semi-structured interviews with executive and other senior personnel of case-specific organisations. Findings provide evidence that the wider destination management network engaging proactively in developing the visitor economy is crucial to the future sustainability of DMOs across England. The focus is brought to exploring and exploiting alternative alliance opportunities in an attempt to fill in the funding gap left by the public. Building on the limited empirical evidence on the topic to date, outcomes of this study shed light on such cross-organisational alliances. The latter may be of practical relevance to visitor-oriented, urban DMOs seeking to acquire additional funding in post-recession times.
New Trends in the Tourist Bidding Case Study-Brad Area, Romania
A greater part of the Earth's population increasingly wants to spend their free time outside their residence towns. Therefore, travel agencies are trying to meet the needs of potential tourists. This paper presents a form of bidding emerged in major travel agencies, namely the block of tourism. For a better understanding, this paper presents a possible block of tourism with the centre in Brad, Hunedoara County, Romania with attractions located in nine adjacent localities focusing on satisfying tourists' wishes. This block of tourism is an alternate tourism bidding with a high degree of interest due to its choice of several variants of stays.