ABSTRACT
This chapter explores retailing within town and city centres as a major tourist attraction, a magnet that can be used to draw tourists to other attractions of the area. The first part explores the tensions within town centres’ historical and modern developments, and the second part offers a number of focused solutions to enhanced tourist retail viability, particularly in respect of perceived tendencies towards ‘clone towns’, in order to maintain vitality as tourist magnets. Town centres allow the visitor to combine cultural and leisure activities with retail. Retail can be seen as a leisure activity in itself but it is difficult for centres to compete on retailing alone, when there are many similar centres. The development of a vibrant shopping area with the town centre can lead to increased tourism and subsequently increased investment in other aspects of the town, ranging from ambient leisure, through decorative accoutrements such as hanging baskets, to major attractions. The historical development of the UK coastal port city of Southampton is used as a case study to further explore aspects of these issues as they have arisen over time to the present day.
