OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

4. THE CULTURAL FABRIC OF CITIES
and enjoying the place. Yet as soon as we consider its more precise attributes,
a monument, say, or an archives collection, the impact of numerous visitors on
the quality of the service can quickly become negative. It is the city as a
destination, an environment and an atmosphere that has this nature of a
collective good. The main challenge for the art city and for its capacity to draw
tourists and serve as a lever of development will depend, then, on its “carrying
capacity”: how many tourists can it handle before the quality of the visit
deteriorates? Can it, if necessary, move that limit back, or alternatively keep
the number of visitors below that limit permanently? These thresholds, which
are hard enough to set, are often exceeded because visitors who come for
strictly cultural reasons will be joined by others who will come without having
a real need. In the case of Venice, we may speak of “non-cultural demand for
cultural sites”, a demand that is clearly stimulated by the city’s hotel and
transportation capacities. There are a number of forces, particularly on the
business side, that profit from such inflows and that will push to have the
carrying capacity exceeded, or at least insist that there should be no limit
placed on admissions to cultural sites.
Several solutions have been proposed to keep the number of tourists to this
carrying capacity.
- These include introducing rules governing waiting lines or admissions, but the
things that can be done to limit admissions to an exhibition and protect its quality
cannot be done when it comes to a city.
- Again, replicas might be considered, but while this is possible for a cave like
Lascaux it cannot be done for a city.
- Redirecting non-cultural demand for cultural sites by offering a greater variety
of recreation and entertainment services can also be considered, but not
everyone agrees with turning culture into a Disneyland in this way.
- Art cities constitute a joint product with multiple users. They offer a whole series
of closely related services: an attractive site for tourists, a comfortable environment
for residents, models and know-how for certain crafts and businesses. Thus
some resources, and in particular land and buildings, can be exploited by being
put to alternative uses, and this can generate conflicts. Moreover, users may find
themselves in competition over some resources: a museum or a garden may offer
both aesthetic satisfaction to tourists and an amenity for local residents. This
diversity of demands will show up in prices, as the difference of motivations should
produce a difference in the fees charged (Greffe and Roche, 1998). But it is not
clear that the prices charged can maximise the surplus both for tourists and for
local residents. These conflicts will grow with the nuisances created by the
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 143