ABSTRACT
To revitalize historic urban quarters, many cities are attempting to attract new activities; a key new activity has been tourism and associated cultural activities. Strategies for tourism or culture-led revitalization have encouraged the exploitation of the area's historic legacy for tourist development. Such development has usually meant a partial or extensive diversification or restructuring of the area's economic base. Tourism is used to combat a quarter's image obsolescence by introducing new uses that take advantage of its historic character, ambience and sense of place. A commonly cited precedent for tourism-led revitalization in urban industrial areas is Lowell, Massachusetts. This rundown textile industrial town was successfully revitalized via tourism development becoming — in the process — the first National Historic Urban Park in the USA. As Falk (1986, p. 148) states: ‘The key to its transformation was seeing its heritage as an asset and not just as a liability.’ Lewis Mumford in The Culture of Cities (1938) noted that one of the functions of a city was to act as a museum of itself, however, many cities are seeking to avoid replicating the example of places such as Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg offers a pastiche history with replicated houses and peopled with ‘actors’ in period costume. As Greiff (1971, p. 7) states: ‘The clock has stopped and the past has been enshrined behind glass … having put history in its niche, one can admire and forget it. There is no spillover of history or art as a living presence able to enrich our lives.’ Thus, in the process of revitalizing historic quarters it is necessary to integrate the historic legacy, inheritance and sense of place with the demands of contemporary economic, political and social situations.
