Revitalizing industrial cities through cultural tourism

Abstract

Several once‐declining industrial cities in the United States—including Lowell, Massachusetts, Paterson, New Jersey and Birmingham, Alabama—have regained a measure of prosperity by reclaiming and promoting their cultural and architectural heritage to attract small business investment and tourism. In the process, these communities’ leaders have forged new collaborative links to help control the quantity and quality of the resulting development. Cities attempting to emulate their success must achieve genuine consensus on the kinds of tourism that are appropriate, avoid compromising existing residents’ recreation and transportation needs, monitor the environmental impacts of their plans, and persuade all segments of the community that the investment in tourism growth will be manageable and beneficial.