Current issues

Maximizing tourism potential A tale of four cities

Charles Owen

Methods by which towns can attract more visitors need not be dramatic or expensive. Charles Owen, Principal of the Tourism by Design Consultancy, analyses the success of four Euro- pean cities as tourist resorts and con- cludes that making the most of what you already have may be the best way to attract more visitors.

Charles Owen is Principal of the Tourism by Design Consultancy and an established travel writer. He may be contacted at 25 Montagu Street, London Wl H 1 TB, UK.

‘With just over two million overnight visi- tors in 1988, Zurich beat Geneva by a short head. Source: Swiss National Tourist Office, London, UK.

When a town or resort sets out to gain

more visitors enhancement of the tra-

ditional character and way of life of

the place, and the well-being of its

inhabitants, should be the first consid-

eration. This involves taking careful

stock of existing assets and deciding

how to present these to better effect.

Improvements to the prevailing facili-

ties will help and, in many csses, may

prove to be enough. Examples from

comparable towns which have become

successful with tourists, while remain-

ing true to their original raisons JP- tres, may point the way to new and

often inexpensive measures.

Ziirich

Consider Ziirich, Switzerland, a city

well known as a financial and commer-

cial centre with above-average shops,

restaurants and hotels but otherwise,

on the face of it, a quite ordinary kind

of place. Bahnhoj3rrusse - what could

be more prosaic and practical than to

call the high street of an important city

Station Road? Yet this quiet boule-

vard connecting two of Ziirich’s key

facilities, the rail (and air) terminus

and the lake, is the heart, the very life

force, of Switzerland’s most successful

tourist destination.’

Almost everything that matters is

on this street or visible from it or near

it - the banking district, river, student

quarter, cafCs, most leading hotels,

principal shops, all in neat and cheer-

ful juxtaposition. An inviting pedes-

trian subway leads into it from the

station and the tree-lined street itself,

apart from the trams, is largely traffic-

free, almost to the lakeside - meeting

place as well as thoroughfare.

Ziirich’s fast, silent trams, with driv-

er inaccessible to passengers and no

conductor, maps and well-presented

ticket machines being available at ev-

ery stop, are attraction as well as

necessity. And Ziirich’s success? This

is owed undoubtedly to its ability to

absorb and relax and amuse its visi-

tors, making them so much part of the

scene that no matter how numerous

they become they seldom seem to

overwhelm the local ambiance - those

qualities, mostly low key, which pre-

sumably attract visitors in the first

place.

Dieppe

Dieppe, France, in a less sophisticated and smaller-scale way, invites com- parison. Here is a lively, rumbustuous place - seaport, fishing port, ferry port, as well as seaside resort catering mainly for the short-stay and stopover trade. Its broad and generally tranquil sea front, framed by castle and har-

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‘Dieppe claims half a million arrivals and 70% occupancy in 1988. Source: Office de Tour&me, Dieppe, France. “In 1988, there were 700 000 overnight visitors to The Hague including Scheveningen (and Kijduin) while Scheveningen alone claimed nine million day visitors. Source: VVV Den Haag/ ScheveningeWKijduin, The Hague, Netherlands. 4Edinburgh attracts about two and a quar- ter million overnight visitors a year. Source: City of Edinburgh, Department of Public Relations and Tourism, Scotland.

bour entrance. is the better for curbs on development which would be out of keeping with the modest style and scale of the terrace of buildings, now mostly hotels and flats, facing across the greensward to the sea. In the bustling main street, Grande Rue, just behind these buildings, similar curbs have maintained the character pro- vided by its traditional low-rise build- ings with their balanced array of small shops and cafes at pavement level.

On Saturdays this largely pedestria- nized street and an adjoining square offer the most enjoyable street market in northern France. This market, the casino, the ever-busy port, the unpre- tentious but skilfully marketed hotels and restaurants and, perhaps above all, the way everyday life in an energe- tic working town adds pace and pur- pose to a distinctly French ambiance, are among the attractions which make Dieppe such a popular year-round tourist destination.2

Scheveningen

Scheveningen. Netherlands, a residen- tial suburb of The Hague, is also itself Holland’s leading seaside resort.’ Largely rebuilt since the second world war and mainly in unlovely and some- times high-rise concrete, Schevening- en is saved from mediocrity by its new, mainly under-cover mix of leisure, shopping and entertainment centred on the magnificent old Kurhaus

(pump room), now a sumptuous five- star hotel. The vast lounge of this hotel with its open-to-view catering and palm court orchestra is both rendez- vous and promenade, inviting a steady stream of visitors to wander through to the flanking amenities, all with their sea views.

These comprise casino, restaurants, high-windowed leisure pool, shopping mall, and a food court complete, even on Sunday mornings, with live dance band. And just below these attrac- tions, is the broad sweep of beach-side esplanade with appetizing waiter- served food and drink in part open- air, part weather-proofed enclosures, all at popular prices, to standards of design and service which even today seem to elude the equivalent cafeterias in most British seaside re-

TOURISM MANAGEMENT December 1989

Current issues

sorts. Despite its largely forbidding architecture and its bleak setting be- side the cold North Sea. Scheveningen in blending old and new. has created a remarkable chemistry of success in its own right but with the bonus of all the

amenities of The Hague, capital city of Holland, a short tram-ride across the park.

Edinburgh

And so to Edinburgh, Scotland, after London Britain’s most successful tour- ist destination, a capital city of drama- tic beauty which although (or perhaps because) marketed overtly to a fairly urbane type of visitor, with the well- travelled American as a norm, appeals to everyone, the castle alone attract- ing just short of one million paying visitors a year.J And what is Edin- burgh’s version of Ziirich’s Bahnhof-

srrsse? A level street of similar length connecting the former LNER and LMS rail termini with their adjoining North British and Caledonian hotels and here named, not Station Road as well it could be, but reflecting Bri- tain’s more ruritanian values, Princes Street. And in itself, apart from its generous breadth, what an ordinary street it is - everyday shops and stores down one side and, for the most part, just a modest stretch of sunken gar- dens on the other.

What makes Princes Street one of the world’s best-known promenades is, of course, its central location in a cosmopolitan city and its wonderful setting - the gregarious medieval quarter on its soaring heights to the south and the dignified Georgian quarter close by to the north, a vista of generally splendid and occasionally magnificent buildings, plenty of street- side vitality, lacking only the weath- erproof and in summer open-air caf& which add that extra flavour to con- tinental cities, and the sense that throughout history, much more has been going on hereabouts than merely giving pleasure to tourists.

Secret of success

In these four examples, from the visi- tor’s point of view, what are the com- mon factors of success and, for other

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‘Numerous resorts . . .

can produce these facilities by improving what they have’

‘The author’s observations in these four cases are based on personal on-the-spot investigations during visits of several days. ‘For this to be wholly true of Schevening- en, this resort has to be seen as a principal district of The Hague.

towns and resorts, what may be learned?s Each of these places pre- sents itself well to the visitor, meeting if not exceeding his or her expectation - from point of arrival to lodging or other objective. the signing, transport facilities, traffic management and tourist information are well managed and encouraging, while personal ser- vices at every level seem professional and welcoming.

In addition all four places have a well-defined, inviting and well estab- lished hub or focus - Bahnhofstrasse, Grande Rue, the Kurhaus with its closely adjoining amenities, and Princes Street. Each of these provides a convenient and adequately spacious venue for promenade and rendezvous, with road traffic largely separated from pedestrians and enough going on to give pleasure or excitement even when the shops are closed. And each of these venues is at the living heart of a thriving community well able to absorb its visitors into a way of life that has raisorts d’hres other than tourism.6

Famous foci in other places include (and no prize is offered for naming their whereabouts) St Marks Square, Grand Place, La Croisette, Constitu- tion Square, Copacabana, Red Square, Rembrandt Plein, Tivoli Gar- dens, Covent Garden, The Hoe, Las Ramblas. Less widely known but of interest are the quaysides at St Tropez, Bristol and Baltimore, Vallet- ta’s main street, the main cathedral squares of Kijln, Salamanca and Siena, and pedestrianized streets such as those in Bath, Cardiff, Lyon, Munich and, in harness with Scheveningen, the central district of The Hague. Also with a part to play are more peripheral or limited- purpose rendezvous such as Grand

Central, Rockefeller Plaza, Fisher- man’s Wharf, and Raffles.

And the lesson? Numerous other towns and resorts. hiding equivalent lights under a bushel, can produce one or more of these facilities by impro- ving what they have, often largely through traffic management giving more priority to pedestrians. Other- wise, apart from some inexpensive amenities such as shelter from the elements and more street-side shops and catering, little more than cosmetic treatment is required. And any natu- ral landmark may qualify, whether square, precinct, promenade, port, station or, more simply, arcade, van- tage point, hotel or cafe.

In Britain, wielding a pin almost at random, among the many potentially rewarding candidates are - Torquay’s and Folkestone’s ports, Liverpool’s Pierhead, the inshore end of South- end’s pier, Scarborough’s St Nicholas Cliff, Portsmouth’s Hard, South- ampton’s Above Bar Street, the sec- tion of garden between New Road and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and, greatest missed opportunity of them all, London’s Trafalgar Square.

If Zurich, Dieppe, Scheveningen and Edinburgh can do it then surely there is hope for any town or city prepared to make an effort. Clearly, in this context there need be no call for radical public-funded provision just for the pleasure of visitors. A quite modest or limited but well- designed improvement may suffice, at least for a start. If the initial measure is potentially good for business, it could well be financed in whole or part by traders who stand to gain. And whatever its form, the inhabitants, in their everyday life, must feel that it brings credit and added value to their

town.

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