ΠΠΑ615: Cultural Tourism, Urban Regeneration and City Branding

The Module, ΠΠΑ615, "Cultural Tourism, Urban Regeneration and City Branding", discusses the emerging issues on the use of culture for social and economic development on a local and national level.

In particular, it refers to the planning, prospects and evaluation of cultural tourism (cultural, religious, ecotouristic), and the assessment of its influence on local economies. It also covers the most prominent theoretical approaches of urban revival and regeneration, the planning implementation in specific cities or urban areas, the prediction of their viability, and the evaluation of that implementation. Finally, it covers key issues of city and nation marketing and branding, principles, rules, evaluation, and implementation methods. The module highlights the importance of assessing local particularities, in connection to cultural tourism. It explores the overall plan for tourism development, as well as proposals for urban regeneration. The applied part of the Module deals with real life examples and case studies from Cyprus, Greece, and the world.

The Module focuses in particular on:

• The main features of tourism and tourism policy and the new trends in the field (for example e-tourism).
• The main features of Cultural Tourism and other special forms of tourism.
• The concept of Cultural Heritage and its relation to tourism, as well as the importance of UNESCO Cultural Routes and Monuments of World Heritage.
• The importance of cultural tourism planning at national, regional and local level and the concepts of Urban Tourism and Urban Destination Management.
• The presentation and evaluation of strategies by examining specific cases.
• The importance of urban regeneration strategies, as well as their potential negative impact.
• Typical case studies of urban regeneration based on culture (museums / cultural industries), such as Bilbao, and the process of building clusters of culture in cities, such as the Temple Bar in Dublin or the museum district in Vienna (Wien Museumsquartier).
• The importance of City and Nation Marketing and Branding, and the modern trends and practices.
• Researching appropriate marketing strategy and implement it with specific proposals for target groups.