Strategic Aims and Objectives of the UK City of Culture - Coursework Example

Strategic Impact - UK of Culture Table of Contents Introduction 3 Critical Evaluation of the Strategic Aims and Objectives of the UK of Culture 4 Showcasing Arts and Cultural Legacies of the Local People and Communities 4 Developing UK’s Tourism and Hospitality Industry 5 Utilisation of Theories and Research Evidence in response to the Aims and Objectives of the UK City of Culture 5 Determining the Impact of the UK City of Culture on Community Spirit, Civic Pride and Tourism Development 8 Impact of the UK City of Culture on Community Spirit 8 Impact of the UK City of Culture on Civic Pride 9 Impact of the UK City of Culture on Tourism Development 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Bibliography 17 Introduction The significance of tourism industry has been observed to gain a considerable growth over the past few decades (Hall & Lew, 2009). Maintaining pace with the rapid developments observed in the national tourism sectors around the world, the tourism destinations in the UK has also been observed to accomplish major attention of the visitors across the diverse global destinations (Langen & Garcia, 2009). In this regard, Swansea can be identified as one of the major UK destinations enriched with numbers of cultural legacies that are determined to achieve growing interests of the global visitors across the different regions. The city of Swansea comprises strong set of cultural heritages that have long been experienced to fascinate the attention of the global population. The abundance of wide ranging attractive locations and visiting places has also been recognised to provide extensive support to ensure economic stability of the city and the nation as well (Douglas-Jones Mercer, 2014). With reference to the current tourism attractions along with cultural legacies of Swansea, from a critical point of view, the report tends to evaluate the strategic aims and objectives of the UK City of Culture through using different theories and research evidences. Moreover, the report also explores and evaluates whether the short-term event has a positive impact on the development of the community spirit, civic pride and tourism development of Swansea. In order to assess the impact, the report further tends to assess the influence of the UK City of Culture on community spirit along with civic pride of the communities surrounding the city of Swansea. Critical Evaluation of the Strategic Aims and Objectives of the UK City of Culture The UK City of Culture is one of the celebrated honours or designations, intended for a city in response to its exhibition of cultural heritage along with credibility as a host to global tourists (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013). In the past few years, there were a few UK cities, which have been recognised and honoured with the title of the UK City of Culture, being competent enough in representing their unique cultural and artistic performances. The competition of selecting the first UK City of Culture was announced in the month of July 2009 with a total number of 14 UK cities. The festival is led by the UK Culture Company 2013, which announced Derry-Londonderry as the nation’s City of Culture 2013. There are a set of aims, which can be apparently recognised as related with the UK City of Culture festival (City of Culture 2013, 2013). Few of the major aims and objectives of the festival have been briefly highlighted in the following discussion. Showcasing Arts and Cultural Legacies of the Local People and Communities The primary aim of the UK City of Culture is to promote the national and cultural heritage of each UK cities as tourism destination hubs and conserving the artistic legacy of the people, community and environment of the nation overall. In this regard, the objective of this festival generally focuses on showcasing the cultural diversity of the city along with the talent of the local participants through arts and cultural festivals that can promote to an exceptional image of a particular city in the UK. Hence, it can be affirmed that the festivals help the local communities along with people to represent their unique artistic and cultural characteristics and make them understand by the global population (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013). Developing UK’s Tourism and Hospitality Industry Among the other means, the objective of the UK City of Culture is to bring cultural scenes of the UK cities out onto the streets that can attract the global tourists and let them clearly understand the artistic and cultural heritage of the people and communities of the nation. Making continuous and remarkable developments of the tourism and hospitality industry in the UK is also a major aim of the UK City of Culture. The conveyance of the festival has been witnessed to attain growing interests of the global visitors that significantly empower the current tourism and hospitality industry of the cities located in different provinces of the UK. With reference to the competition in the UK City of Culture 2013, the nation had to experience massive inflow of the global visitors and overwhelmed development in tourism and hospitality industry of the nation. It is worth mentioning in this context that the declaration of Derry-Londonderry as the UK City of Culture 2013 has been observed to convey a major economic output and development in the UK’s tourism and hospitality industry (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013; City of Culture 2013, 2013). Utilisation of Theories and Research Evidence in response to the Aims and Objectives of the UK City of Culture The aim taken by the UK City of Culture of building strong position of the cultural heritage and representing the UK cities on a global platform can be regarded as few of the major factors leading to the overall improvements of the current tourism and hospitality industry of the UK. In relation to a theoretical understanding, it is widely accepted that the continuous development of the cultural legacies play a crucial role for a particular city to accomplish radical improvements of the socio-cultural, economic and relatively the political environment of a nation. Moreover, the festivals held in the UK City of Culture are often observed to improve the demographic condition and empower them to conserve their range of exceptional artistic and cultural legacies (City of Culture 2013, 2013). According to the recent observation of the cultural heritages in Swansea, this particular city was also recognised as one of the leading bidders to claim the award as the UK City of Culture 2017. The effective blend of artistic and cultural aspects in Swansea has long been observed to draw a large attention to the UK Culture Company 2013, which formed its base to bid for the award. The wide range of performing arts and festivals of the local communities in Swansea are the major attractions that can portray the conventional ideologies of the UK. Moreover, the multitude of ethnic customs involved in the cultural background of Swansea city can also be regarded as a central part that can also reflect its exceptional cultural variance and attract a large number of global visitors to a considerable extent (Swanseabay 2017, 2014). In addition, the city of Swansea is also widely accepted for its unique and creative connection that links communities from multiple ethnic backgrounds and ensures to represent their variety of traditional and modern music, dance along with theatres and arts. From a critical perspective, it is likely that based on these comparative factors, the city may win the bid this time and host the festival in 2017. In this context, it can be effective for the city to grasp significant attention of the UK Culture Company 2013. Moreover, the blend of conventional and modern musical and dancing events can also educate the global population and learn different unknown facts about the City of Swansea (Leicester City Council, 2013). Correspondingly, the exhibition of events including dance, contemporary music along with arts and performance of the locals in Derry-Londonderry has been observed to play a major role for the city to be claimed as the UK City of Culture 2013. The events that were performed had also been observed to encompass a wide variety of concerts reflecting the world-class talents available in different communities of the city. The process has also been observed to attain the interests of the global visitors and helped to gain major economic output for the tourism and hospitality industry of the city of Derry-Londonderry (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013; City of Culture 2013, 2013). In the similar context, the process of animating the most prestigious attractions including buildings, forts and other monuments can also be a few of the major factors to motivate the UK Culture Company 2013. With reference to the evidence of Derry-Londonderry, the strategy of ‘Lightening the City Project’ and animating historical building and iconic structure has also played an important role for the city to achieve the title of the UK City of Culture 2013. Moreover, participation of the most famous artists from the city in cultural showcasing event, also had its major support to the city of Derry-Londonderry to be entitled with the honour of ‘the UK City of Culture 2013’ (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013; City of Culture 2013, 2013). Accordingly, the strategy of identifying different historical and cultural attractions and conserving their liveliness can play a major role for a particular city to represent its cultural and artistic aspects (Richards & Wilson, 2004). Therefore, it can be asserted that the innovative and persuasive idea of animating most famous attractions including buildings, monuments, iconic structures and historical foundations located across the different communities in the city of Swansea would also play an important role to achieve the title through the bid. Determining the Impact of the UK City of Culture on Community Spirit, Civic Pride and Tourism Development The cultural heritage of the visitor attractions has been recognised as the key factor for the cities in the UK to build its strong economic presence in competition with other UK cities to win the bid. It is worth mentioning in this context that the recent integrated planning of urban attractions and steering government interests has radically influenced the overseas visitors to attend this festival, further rejuvenating the growth pace of the UK tourism industry to a substantial extent in the global forefront (Dale, 2005). As per the recent observation of the UK City of Culture 2013, the nation has been able to gain significant value and recognition from the global countries for exceptionally showcasing the range of artistic and cultural aspects to a wider global platform. The festival has been observed to have major impact on the socio-cultural factors such as community spirit along with civic pride of the UK cities (European Communities, 2009). Moreover, the emergence of the UK City of Culture has further been witnessed to impose radical influences on the economic performance, especially in the tourism and hospitality sector of the UK, which have been observed to gain rapid economic developments. In this context, few of the major impacts that can be ascertained from the achievement of Derry-Londonderry, as the UK City of Culture 2017 have been briefly discussed in the following section (Wilson & O’Brien, 2012). Impact of the UK City of Culture on Community Spirit According to Richards & Wilson (2004), it has been empirically observed that major cultural events like the UK City of Culture have major influence on the cities, especially on their community spirit. The use of major cultural events within the cities has also been witnessed to be widely practiced by the nations to improve the image along with stimulate urbanisation and gain the attention of the global visitors and their investments (Sadiq & et. al, 2003). The primary aim of the cultural events is therefore concentrated on grasping the attention of the global visitors along with stimulating cultural legacies among the cities (Richards & Wilson, 2004). In relation to the recent empirical evidence, the UK City of Culture has major impacts on the cities along with their community spirits. In this context, the emergence of this event has been observed to build a strong mechanism through which, the communities are likely to form a cooperative relationship by demonstrating individual talents along with artistic and cultural aspects. In case of Swansea, the use of cultural event would enable the city to gain a major development on its wide-ranging communities along with the people from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds (Garcia & et. al, 2008). It is worth mentioning in this context that the creative connection among the communities would significantly enable the communities in the city of Swansea to reveal their exceptional cultural heritage along with creative talents of the local people. The variety of representing conventional musical events, dance along with arts and performance would further enable the city to reveal its inherent artistic and cultural aspects. It is quite likely that the process would also increase the capability of the city of Swansea to attract the interests of the visitors along with potential investors from different regions of the world (Devlin, 2001). Impact of the UK City of Culture on Civic Pride The use of major cultural events, are often regarded as a major tool for the nations to promote the existing value of the cultural heritages and encourage continuous development of people and their innate talents (Devlin, 2001). It has been widely observed that the implementation of major cultural events often helps to gain major insights for the cities to strengthen their cultural legacies and make them renowned across the national boundaries. In this regard, the cultural festivals and events play an essential role to educate global population to gain significant knowledge and understanding. With reference to the recent research evidence, the use of the UK City of Culture was observed to play a major role for Derry-Londonderry to deliver major insights about the people along with the city’s major socio-cultural aspects to a wide extend of the global regions (1Dale & Oliver, 2005; Guetzkow, 2002). As observed in the event of Derry-Londonderry 2013, the cultural festival has been observed to promote the talents from diverse communities of the cities in different cultural events including music, drama, dance and sports activities that helped people to endorse their civic values. Therefore, the use of cultural festival i.e. the UK City of Culture can efficiently help the city to facilitate tourism by promoting its cultural legacies across the globe. In this process, the communities within the city would be leveraged in terms of representing their unique talents across the global regions, which can further encourage the civic values of the communities of Swansea. Impact of the UK City of Culture on Tourism Development In relation to the emergence of cultural festivals, tourism can be considered as one of the major sectors that has achieved significant benefits due to a wide range of cultural events (Derrett, 2003). In relation to the theoretical context, the cultural events or festivals of a particular city are likely to increase the interests of the global visitors and help to increase performance of the tourism and hospitality industry (Nickson, 2013; McCabe, 2009). Based on the recent observation, the UK City of Culture Derry-Londonderry 2013 has been observed to improve the tourism sector of the city by obtaining visitors from diverse geographical locations. The city has also experienced an extensive inflow of global visitors by conducting range of cultural events and programmes. In this context, it can be stated that the use of major cultural festival and events can substantially improve the present tourism and hospitality sector of Swansea city. The creative events along with the presence of numerous cultural and historical attractions can also attract the interests of the global visitors to a considerable extent. Moreover, the ownership of numerous musical and theatrical events associated with the conventional culture of the community can substantially improve the annual inflow of the global visitors and enable the tourism sector of the city to gain a sustainable positioning within the international tourism industry (Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013; City of Culture 2013, 2013). Conclusion With the continuous evolution of the UK City of Culture, the creative events and wide range of cultural programmes can be observed to have a major influence on the cities to empower its socio-cultural and economic developments. The research evidences associated with the impact of the UK City of Culture Derry-Londonderry has been observed to promote the cultural legacies of the city with the exhibition of numerous events and creative arts of people from different communities. Therefore, the use of the UK City of Culture can also be identified to be an innovative and effective idea to promote the unique set of arts and cultural aspects of Swansea city. Conclusively, it can be asserted that the festival for the creative events would provide adequate opportunity to the city to strengthen the interrelationship among its communities and enable them to represent the exclusive cultural legacies of the people. Moreover, the event can also be considered to bring radical changes within the tourism and hospitality sector and enable it to attract a large proportion of the global visitors and investors to facilitate growth in the UK tourism industry. References City of Culture 2013, 2013. Our Cultural Programme. Summary of Our Bid, pp. 1-12. Culture Company 2013 Ltd, 2013. Derry-Londonderry 2013. Introduction. [Online] Available at: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F89369%2FUK_City_of_Culture_2017_Guidance_and_Criteria.pdf&ei=tWpOU4_PC4izrgeOyYGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNFzUcFHis5IVcexlczw5_V6GI3Xyw [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Dale, G., 2005. BTEC National Travel and Tourism Book 2. Heinemann Publishing. Derrett, R., 2003. Making Sense of How Festivals Demonstrate a Community’s Sense of Place. Event Management, Vol. 8, pp. 49–58. Devlin, G., 2001. Festivals and the City the Edinburgh Festivals Strategy. The Strategy and Objectives. [Online] Available at: http://www.efa-aef.eu/newpublic/upload/efadoc/11/FestivalsStrategy%20edinburgh.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Douglas-Jones Mercer, 2014. Swansea Opens its Doors to Inaugural International Jazz Festival. Discussion. [Online] Available at: http://djm.law.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Swansea-opens-its-doors-to-inaugural-International-Jazz-Festival.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. 1Dale, G. & Oliver, H., 2005. BTEC National Travel and Tourism Book 1. Heinemann Publishing. European Communities, 2009. European Capitals of Culture: The road to success from 1985 to 2010. European Capital of Culture. [Online] Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/pub/pdf/ecoc_25years_en.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Garcia, B. & et. al., 2008. Creating an impact: Liverpool’s experience as European Capital of Culture. University of Liverpool. [Online] Available at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/Papers/Creating_an_Impact_-_web.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Guetzkow, J., 2002. How the Arts Impact Communities: An Introduction to the Literature on Arts Impact Studies. Working Paper Series, 20, pp. 1-26. Langen, F. & Garcia, B., 2009. Measuring the Impacts of Large Scale Cultural Events: A Literature Review. Major Cultural Festivals and Events, pp. 3-10. Leicester City Council, 2013. Illuminating Culture: Leicester’s Bid to be UK City of Culture 2017. A Summary. [Online] Available at: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=193757&type=full&servicetype=Attachment [Accessed April 16, 2014]. McCabe, S., 2009. Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. Elsevier. Nickson, D., 2013. Human Resource Management for Hospitality, Tourism and Events. Routledge. Sadiq, K. & et. al, 2003. Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of Liverpools Bid. European Capital of Culture 2008. [Online] Available at: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Society/documents/2003/06/10/finalreport.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Swanseabay 2017, 2014. What is the Swansea Bay City of Culture Bid 2017? Briefing Notes for Stakeholders. [Online] Available at: http://swanseabay2017.co.uk/download/en/qa.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Richards, G. & Wilson, J., 2004. The Impact of Cultural Events on City Image: Rotterdam, Cultural Capital of Europe 2001. Urban Studies, Vol. 41, No. 10, pp. 1931-1951. Wilson, K. & O’Brien, D., 2012. It’s Not the Winning…Reconsidering the Cultural City: A report on the Cultural Cities Research Network 2011-12. Did Bidding for UK City of Culture 2013 Connect Communities? [Online] Available at: http://culturalcitiesresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Cultural-Cities-FINAL-report-July-2012.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Bibliography Esu, B. B. & Arrey, V. M. E., 2009. Tourists’ Satisfaction with Cultural Tourism Festival: a Case Study of Calabar Carnival Festival, Nigeria. International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 116-125. Getz, D., 2010. The Nature and Scope Of Festival Studies. International Journal of Event Management Research, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1-47. Liu, Y. D. & Lin, C. F., 2011. The Development of Cultural Tourism: A Review of UK Experience. Tourismos: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 363-376. Raj, R. & Vignali, C., 2010. Creating Local Experiences of Cultural Tourism Through Sustainable Festivals. European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 51-67. Rowe, A. & et. al, 2002. Travel and Tourism. Cambridge University Press. Stynes, D. J., No Date. Economic Impacts of Tourism. Michigan State University. [Online] Available at: https://www.msu.edu/course/prr/840/econimpact/pdf/ecimpvol1.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Visit Britain, 2014. Culture and Heritage. Cultural Heritage. [Online] Available at: http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Culture%20%26%20Heritage%20Topic%20Profile%20Full_tcm29-14711.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2014]. Read More