Vol 3 - Issue 1

City and Tourism

List of Articles

Tourism, heritage and crafts are intertwined to shape the tourism economy, culture and identity of territories. This third volume of Cité et Tourisme, City & Tourism explores these themes through two European studies exploring the links between urban cultural tourism and crafts. Caught between modernization, globalization and health crisis, territories benefit from the opportunities offered by tourism and events, while being forced to adapt. The importance of preserving know-how to maintain authentic local production requires adapting the means of training and craft sales. In this issue, heritage is associated with sustainable mobility and the rehabilitation of historic buildings. The image of the destination is a challenge for European metropolises that must reconcile the fact of being ever more attractive while being respectful of their environment, their history and local craft resources. Finally, innovation and training are the pillars of the return to authenticity in a redesigned heritage framework as for the restoration and reopening of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in December 2024 showing the heritage and sociological stake of national pride. Cultural identity is valued and by ricochet becomes an instrument to think about new sustainable mobility and the fact of rethinking the financing of architectural rehabilitations. This volume brings new issues and analyses concerning the risks and the relevance of sustainable solutions committed to tangible and intangible heritage, this for a local development of small towns and the emergence of a circular artisanal economy generating economic growth.

This article looks at the changes taking place in the urban crafts, against a backdrop of a drastic increase in cultural tourism in Cordoba (Spain), spurred on by its four UNESCO nominations. The city also boasts a jewellery industry that has been the city’s flagship since at least the Middle Ages. After summarizing the development of jewellery craft, I show the fragility of this intangible heritage, which is supported by local players, and the delicate relationship between the craft, which is struggling to survive, and luxury industrialization, while highlighting the difficulties faced by these professionals in the face of tourism, which is changing the physiognomy of the city and the activities of these craftsmen.

The article examines territorial and urban development through the prism of the “European Capital of Culture” label, with a particular focus on the tourism strategy, and in particular the adaptation of cultural tourism in a context of ecological transition. The candidacies of four French cities for the title of European Capital of Culture for 2028 are analyzed: Rouen, Bourges, Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier. For these medium-sized and smaller cities seeking to assert themselves on an international scale, a new urban imaginary is proposed by those involved in the bid. In the age of the Anthropocene, the tourism narrative is part of this dynamic, with a common positioning for the four cities, through the notion of “slow tourism” and a focus on natural heritage. The case of the winning city in the national competition is explored in greater depth : Bourges and its cultural project based on the idea of a capital on a “human scale” outside the dynamics of metropolization. This discourse, rooted in the concept of “happy frugality”, raises questions about the urban policies implemented and the repositioning of the tourism offer.