Us and Them: Thoughts on Placemaking and Tourism

I’m often asked if tourism and placemaking can really coexist in a place. It’s an important question as many destination cities and wannabe destination cities depend on visitors to supplement or as the backbone to their economy. But often building place for “them” comes at the expense of place for “us.”

Indeed tourism is ALL about a sense of place. People can get generic attractions in a lot of places so the question becomes why would they come to your place to vacation OR is building all those features just happening at the expense of place? Visitors want a place experience these days, not just attractions. And best tourism strategies are capitalizing on that trend.

There are places that have realized they sold out their sense of place for tourism. We all could name some. Now residents don’t use the amenities that bring the visitors there, like the beach for example, because that’s for visitors and it’s an atmosphere that residents don’t really want to be a part of. But at the same time, they don’t know who they are without those defining amenities. Yet, they certainly don’t want to bite the economic hand that feeds them. It’s a tough spot.

This is what happens when you do old school tourism at the expense of place. Now they have to work hard at keeping the visitors coming, getting local talent to stay and stop residents from leaving. They are getting hit on all fronts. And there is deep regret that is hard to undo.

Fact is the staycation is probably one of the few bright spots in the economic fallout. Many people can’t afford to go somewhere else for vacation and have to rediscover their own place. Cities that are placecentric are reaping the rewards of this and the attachment of their residents often increases. (“Hey, I didn’t know we have this. This is great! Beats the TSA line…”). Not only that, attached residents are asking others to come visit them there so they can show off their place. Realize this trend and focus on the staycation as a new economic revenue stream. But remember, doing it right means complementing the place, not working against it.

If you know your narrative, capitalize on it through the physical landscape and culture of the place and communicate that effectively and broadly, you inherently become a more interesting place to visit in today’s market. Remember, today people seem to want more of a full place experience, not just attractions. Take a look at the comments on Trip Advisor page for any place and you’ll see people evaluating destinations much more comprehensively these days.

Just as your narrative is the basis from which all good placemaking ideas come, not seeing the connection between tourism and place will be a critical flaw from which all bad ideas will come. Not to mention the pushback from residents if development primarily for tourists jeopardizes sense of place and to then add insult to injury, it does not necessarily mean tourists will be more attracted to come. You will have just felt like you sold your place’s soul for not much return. And nothing good comes from that.