engleski

Planned diversification of cultural offerings in cities: territorial and functional aspects

Many cities which focus on cultural tourism experience peaks demand in terms of space (major attractions) and/or time (major events such as festivals). It makes sense for them to plan and implement a diversification of cultural offerings offered to tourists and citizens in order to increase destination attractiveness, revenues and sustainability. This paper proposes a framework for such a diversification and explores a dichotomy of place-based cultural tourism versus attraction- based. Namely, cultural offerings alone cannot act as dominant visitors` attractors in a sustainable manner. Instead, widening the scope of tourism planning from cultural tourism products alone to destination identity and its sense of place, allows visitors to experience the cultural attractions immersed in everyday destination life. “Cultural products” often engender pseudo environments, whereas enriched interpretations of such attractions lead to more authentic and diverse experiences, also enabling social bonds between locals and tourists. If the city has a historical core, the planning process should start with a historical core management plan. Such a plan should be aligned with a tourism strategy and general urban planning. Diversification of cultural offerings can be done through several steps: restoration of existing cultural heritage, design of tourist experiences for restored buildings, design of new cultural events, placemaking and even community planning. Such a process should be implemented in a partnership with civil society, local citizens and interested entrepreneurs. The City of Šibenik is used as an example of the proposed approach.

cultural tourism ; peak demand ; planning ; diversification ; placemaking

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