Place Making and Tourism Logistics in Timișoara: Facing the Tasks of the Newly Appointed European Cultural Capital for 2021

ABSTRACT

In September 2016 Timisoara was awarded the title of European Capital of Culture (EcoC) 2021. This paper is a critically interpretative narrative which examines preparations for ECoC 2021 award focusing on the importance of place making and participatory governance as an interface between our institutions and public policies meant to support touristic activities. With a mix of qualitative methods such as participant observation, interviews, and critical evaluation of public documents, this research assesses the actions that need to be taken to support tourist infrastructure.

The conclusions drawn by the paper show that the touristic networks, the actors and policies fail to meet the expectations of the award so far. The failure is caused by the absence of dedicated urban policies and practices and coherence between public and private sphere of interests.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Duncan Light for his helpful advice and comments. We would like to extend our thanks to Dr Margareta Lelea for comments and English Language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Florentina Popescu

Florentina Popescu is Lecturer of Human Geography at the Department of Geography, West University of Timișoara, Romania. Her research is focused on tourism geography.

Sorina Voiculescu

Sorina Voiculescu is Associate Professor of Human Geography at the Department of Geography,West University of Timişoara, Romania. Her research is focused on gender studies, urban geography and cultural geography.