Author: Hughes, Howard; Allen, Danille; and Wasik, Dorota

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

The Polish city of Krakow, designated an ECC for 2000, provides a case study for cultural tourism.

Abstract:

The ambivalence concerning the tourism-culture relationship is especially pronounced in post-communist European countries. Cultural tourism is regarded not only as a source of revenue but also as a means of projecting image. Since its founding in 1985, the European Capital of Culture (ECC) program has implications for tourism and image generation. The Polish city of Krakow, designated an ECC for 2000, provides a case study for examining these issues. Managers in Krakow's tourism and culture sectors were interviewed to elicit their perceptions about the impact of the program. They did not see the effects on cultural life as positive: creativity, innovation, and long-term development were not encouraged. This article examines the implications of cultural policies for other managers in the cultural sector.

This article was published in the International Journal of Arts Management, an essential reading for the arts management community.

According to the authors, the ECC program's successes have been mixed. "[It] has coincided with and contributed to an intensifying debate about urban cultural policies, a debate that has focused on the justification for using such policies to achieve non-cultural ends such as economic regeneration and tourism....The paper locates the ongoing debate relating to the Capital of Culture program within the debates over culture and tourism in the transforming societies of Central and Eastern Europe. These debates, in turn, are part of the wider discussion about the tourism-culture relationship, which is manifested in many forms, and the unidirectional impact of tourim on culture and societies in less industrialized parts of the world."

CONTENTSﾝ
Introduction.
European Capital of Culture.
Outcomes.
Culture and Tourism.
Central and Eastern Europe.
Krakow.
European City of Culture 2000.
Impact of Krakow 2000.
Impact on Image and Tourism.
Impact on Culture.
Discussion.
Conclusion and Management Implications.
References.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Tourism, International