Transformation of global cities - urban tourism and branding: Prague perspective
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Prague, a metropolitan city, has the predominant position in inbound tourism in the Czech Republic. Prague as a capital city with international status offers variety of services for urban tourism, MICE tourism and mega-events. However, the privilege of Prague can be seen in its historical and cultural heritage (since 1992 on the UNESCO heritage list) that makes Prague attractive in eyes of visitors. Tourism is an important part of Prague’s economy and therefore tourism impacts are reflected in life of residents, in urban planning, in marketing (destination branding) etc. The paper presents how considerably Prague has transformed since 1990s. The first part of the contribution introduces the political and economic transition in 1990s (Williams and Baláž, 2000) and highlights the major implications of the political-economic regime change in field of urban tourism (Simpson, 1999; Sýkora, 1999; Rátz, Smith and Michalkó, 2008). The research focuses on the development of the nature and structure of tourism demand (tourist flows) and at the same time on the policy of urban planning. The effects of “the urban tourism strategy” (changes in the functional-spatial structure of the tourism supply) describe a survive covering the historical core of the city. Undoubtedly, since 1990s Prague’s image has changed. Considering the life cycle of destination (Buhalis, 2000), Prague reached the saturation and policy-makers and responsible authorities in tourism have to come up with a new marketing strategy that makes Prague competitive of the future. Thus, the aim of the second part of the paper is to cope with this situation. Based on the knowledge (analysis) of the process of globalization and new trends in tourism, especially in global cities, and on the local conditions the solutions for creating new destination branding strategy are indicated (Morgan, Pritchard and Pride, 2011). |