Tamara Rátz

Head of Tourism Department, Professor of Tourism Kodolányi János University of Applied Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

During the last decades, in parallel with the globalisation of mass tourism, a new trend has appeared in the global tourist market: specialisation as opposed to homogenisation. The increasing ratio of experienced travellers has brought about new demand patterns, and has influenced the services offered by many destinations and companies. The importance of creative tourism products has been increasing: the role of imagination, creativity and innovation has become central, leading to the creation of financially profitable products based on site-specific features.

The European Capitals of Culture project has been one of the most successful European Union initiatives in the fields of culture and creativity, urban development, social cohesion building and tourism. Each participating city organised and experienced their year slightly differently, starting from the interpretation of the European dimension of their programmes through defining a wide range of goals and objectives in the fields of cultural development, economic regeneration or tourism promotion, to experiencing different problems with regard to the planning and delivery of their activities.

In 2010, Pécs in Hungary, Essen (together with the Ruhr region) in Germany, and Istanbul in Turkey shared the ECoC title. The three cities were characterised by highly different population sizes, socio-economic history, political status, cultural reputation or destination image, but they all aimed to transform their identity and image in order to become more attractive places for residents, investors, and visitors. The presentation will explore the issues of creativity, co-creation and co-opetition with relation to urban tourism development, based on examples from Pécs, Essen and Istanbul as well as other ECoCs.

Key words:Creativity, competitiveness, city tourism, European Capital of Culture

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