5

The arts-related tourism
product

Introduction

In the previous chapter the nature of arts-related tourism was discussed and a framework was developed to explain why there might be tourists in audiences: the demand. In this chapter the focus is shifted towards the supply: what is on offer to these tourists and what might attract them. The discussion in the previous chapter pointed out how there have been shifts in holiday-making so that there has apparently been an increased interest in culture-related and arts-related tourism. Despite this, most tourism remains sun and sea based and holiday-makers seek diversion on holiday. There is discussion of seaside resorts in this chapter as these, in the past, have been the most obvious and important places to offer entertainment to tourists – usually as arts-peripheral tourists. They continue to be the places (both domestic and international) to which most people go on holiday though the popularity of particular places, states and countries has changed. Arts and entertainment elsewhere, such as in cities, have been less aimed at tourists though this is now changing.

The chapter includes:

  a classification of arts and entertainment according to how far they aim at tourists and how far they are successful in attracting them;

  entertainment associated with holidays in the past and how that influence lingers; this extends the historical discussion in Chapter 4;

  a consideration of the current holiday entertainment situation especially with respect to seaside holidays;

  an examination of the importance of local government in holiday-related entertainment;

  arts festivals as recent developments with significance for tourism.

Classification of products

There is no particular form of the arts or entertainment that is specific to tourism and it is difficult to identify what will and what will not have an appeal to tourists, whether arts-core or arts-peripheral. The seaside variety show is, however, often thought of as being a typical holiday tourist form of entertainment. This includes a range of different acts such as dancers, magicians, ‘comics, singers, sand-dancers, conjurors and men who balanced girls in swimsuits on their noses’ (Hudson, 1992: 55) and is ‘light’ and undemanding. Even this, though, has not been confined to the seaside and derives from the music-halls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century cities. Much has been made of the decline of this form of seaside entertainment but it is still a common feature of many seaside holiday towns especially in Britain (see later this chapter). Nonetheless any arts performance in any location may have tourists in the audience. Two simple reasons for tourists being in audiences were identified in Chapter 4. They were a decision to travel to see a production (arts-core) and as part of some other experience such as a sun and sand trip or business trip (arts-peripheral).

From the production side, events can be classified according to whether or not they set out to attract such tourists – their orientation – and according to their likely success in attracting tourists – their drawing power. These two aspects are shown in Figure 5.1.

Tourist orientation may be:

(a) strong: in seaside towns, shows (such as variety shows) will be deliberately designed for a tourist audience that is already in a destination. A wide range of productions, and not just the variety show, may however appeal to holiday-makers and a strong tourist orientation is not confined to seaside towns. The theatrical scene of long-playing musicals and classic plays in London’s West End and New York’s Broadway is partly due to a strong tourist presence. Some productions may be established in areas that are not usually associated with tourism in order, partly at least, to encourage tourism. This may be particularly true in the case of old industrial cities that hold festivals.

Figure 5.1   Classification of arts products by tourist criteria

A strong tourist orientation may exist too in the sense of arts managers wishing to widen catchment areas. Productions may be mounted that will appeal to a wide geographical audience without the concept of tourism as such entering into the consideration (see Chapter 6).

(b) weak: a production may be completely artistically-driven rather than established as a tourist attraction. A company may wish to produce a rarely performed opera simply because it has not been performed before. A company in a large city may also have little concern to satisfy a tourist audience as the size of the local population is such as to provide adequate audiences and revenue. Part of the mission statement of many is the desire to serve the local population. Community arts groups, by definition, will have little interest in tourism.

Is there a link between the ‘reasons’ for tourists being in an audience (Chapter 4) and tourist orientation? Productions with a strong tourist orientation are also likely to be those that audiences choose to see as part of the arts-peripheral holiday experience. The assignment of type of tourist to type of production is not, though, quite that simple. Some of the strong tourist-oriented productions in holiday areas may be unique and provide the only opportunity for certain performers or productions to be seen and thus some in the audience may have needed to travel if they wish to see them (arts-core). Other productions with a strong tourist orientation may be aimed at ‘distant’ markets rather than at holiday-makers and attract non-holiday-makers (arts-core, non-holiday).

In some cases there may be a change in orientation. Some of the productions in the weak orientation category may, in fact, need or desire to attract audiences from a widespread catchment area and in this sense they come to have a tourist orientation. An arts festival may be established in order to provide an opportunity for local plays and music to be performed and to encourage all forms of local community participation. Over time, there may be financial pressures that drive the organizers to look to a wider audience. This however was not their initial rationale, unlike entertainment in seaside resorts. Regardless of orientation – i.e. their initial rationale – the influence on tourism could be quite significant in practice in either case. Some will be more successful than others in drawing tourists (see Figure 5.1):

Tourist drawing-power may be:

(a)  weak: it is quite possible that productions with a strong orientation may, in fact, have limited drawing power in isolation. The significance of entertainment amongst all of the many attractions of a seaside resort or any other holiday destination may be limited even though it is aimed at a tourist audience.

(b)  strong: some productions will have a tourist appeal because of their uniqueness and limited availability and people have to travel in order to see them. Those productions and events to which no idea of tourism was attached when they were conceived (i.e. weak tourist orientation) may, in reality, attract a widespread audience and tourists.

The case where the arts or entertainment are of less importance than some other attraction may represent many coastal towns to which tourists are primarily attracted by sun and sea or, in the case of urban destinations, by heritage. It is difficult to be certain about what attracts tourists to many holiday destinations but it is likely that arts and entertainment are secondary considerations in most cases: arts-peripheral (see Chapters 6 and 7 for further discussion of this). The arts and entertainment are, however, a major or sole reason for travelling for some tourists and in these cases they are therefore ‘primary’ tourist attractions. This may be so in, for instance, London or New York where some tourists are motivated solely or largely to see a play or concert despite the attractions of the city being many and diverse: arts core. Categories of production are not so easily identifiable or separately classified in practice. Any classification of the arts by tourist orientation and drawing power and allocation of type of tourist to each will therefore be arbitrary.

Elements of the product

Any play, show, concert, festival etc. that has the potential to attract audiences from a geographical area that is non-local (arts-core or arts-peripheral) is an element of the arts-related tourism product (see Table 5.1). Some may be more likely than others to attract non-local audiences but all have the potential to do so.

Table 5.1   Types of arts-related tourism product

  Plays, shows, concerts

  Arts festivals

  One-off performances and tours by ‘stars’

  Buildings: theatres, concert halls, arenas

  In-hotel entertainment + bar and club entertainment

  Arts and entertainment-holidays (hotels, cruises)

  Related: entertainment in museums and heritage centres, theme parks; historical re-enactments

  Associated: entertainment on streets and in shopping malls

  ‘Holiday shows’ in seaside resorts will have a high proportion of visitors in the audiences. This includes shows in foreign countries deliberately aimed at holiday-makers or tourists, such as flamenco shows and mediaeval banquets in many coastal parts in Spain.

  Festivals that include a number of events and performers over a short period of time may be particularly successful in attracting such audiences.

  The occasional one-off concert by a star will have the same effect.

  Tours by pop and rock stars and groups to a limited number of towns and cities.

  Open air summer concerts and plays in Central Park, New York: they may not be decisive factors in drawing visitors to the city but there will nonetheless be a sizable proportion of visitors in the audiences.

  Concerts and productions in holiday areas: such as the summer programme at Saratoga Springs (New York State) which, in 1999, included the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Buildings themselves (theatres, arenas and concert halls) can also be tourist attractions in their own right. Tours around theatres and of back-stage areas in particular can be very popular. This appears to be especially the case for new, distinctive or particularly famous buildings. London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (dating from 1663) advertises hour-long behind-the-scenes tours led by professional actors. The significance of many theatres is reflected in the fact that they have been identified as having particular architectural or historical importance.

  The recently opened (1997) Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London, reconstructed as it is believed to have been in Shakespeare’s time, is itself a tourist attraction separate from the plays that are performed there.

  The De la Warr Pavilion in the small seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea (Sussex) is considered to be of great significance in the development of British Modernism architecture (Foster, 1999). This was built 1933–35 and includes a 1000 seat theatre.

  Some modern theatres would appear to be equally significant: the new 500 seat theatre in the seaside resort of Ilfracombe, Devon, (opened 1998) is housed in one of two white-brick cones.

Theatres and opera houses frequently feature in tourist guide books as buildings to see:

  Vienna’s State Opera House: visitors are advised in the Michelin Guide to Vienna (1997) to ‘admire the fine neo-Renaissance facade’ of this 2200 seat theatre, originally constructed in 1869 (re-constructed 1956). Tours of the interior are also available.

  Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, which is home to American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, etc. The Center, built in the 1960s, is, according to the Insight Guide to New York (1996), somewhere that ‘even visitors with no interest in classical music should visit … especially at night’.

  The Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona): the largest opera house in Spain (built in 1844) was burnt down in 1994 and prior to that had, according to the AA Baedeker Guide to Barcelona (1998), a ‘plain facade’ but ‘magnificent auditorium’. A page of the Guide is devoted to this theatre and includes the observation that even the absence of the building is an attraction! The building re-opened in 1999 but the re-building programme itself attracted many visitors.

  Sydney Opera House, Australia: this building is widely recognized and has become a signifier of Australia as a whole as well as of the city. It is described in the AA guide Essential Australia (1998) as ‘an architectural masterpiece; … one of the world’s most distinctive and unusual buildings’. There are guided tours around the building.

In addition, entertainment is often provided in hotels for many reasons (see Chapter 7) and is a further element of the product. A very large proportion of holiday entertainment may now be experienced in hotels, clubs and bars. Other holiday entertainment in many seaside resorts includes outdoor ‘band’ concerts and children’s beach entertainers.

Entertainment may also feature as an element of other tourist resources such as theme parks, museums and heritage centres. These, such as Wigan Pier (Lancashire) and the North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish (County Durham) often include ‘animated experiences’. They are provided by staff dressed in period costume and also by costumed staff participating with customers in ‘mock’ school or eating situations, for instance, that reproduce those of the historical period concerned. Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia, USA) is one of the earliest examples of this. It is made up of over a hundred original eighteenth and early nineteenth century buildings and has operated as a ‘living museum’ since 1932. Costumed historical interpreters re-enact and explain this period of US history.

Arts and entertainment are essential parts of many other ‘tourist’ products such as sports events (including the Olympic Games), conferences and trade exhibitions. They are not the main focus of the event but they are often considered to be valuable and necessary additions to the main activity.

Enactments of historical events such as battles are now quite common and, although not usually staged as tourist attractions, they may have that effect. The ‘Grand Encampment’ at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia attracts over 1500 participants. The Fortress is a reconstruction (North America’s largest) of an eighteenth century community and includes costumed ‘actors’ as part of the everyday scene of residents and soldiers. This is bolstered by the Grand Encampment, which includes volunteers from all over North America re-enacting ceremonies, parades and battles.

‘On-street’ entertainers similarly do not always have a tourist-attracting purpose but contribute to the animation of an area, especially in shopping centres and malls. This is not, of course, confined to tourist areas. Perhaps the most well-known in the UK are the entertainers at London’s Covent Garden. This old market area in the centre of London, adjoining the Royal Opera House, has been transformed into a tourist zone of specialist shops and market stalls, cafes and restaurants and is regularly animated by fire-eaters, jugglers, living statues and the like.

Entertainment and early tourism

Travel before the twentieth century was largely done out of necessity, for trade, war, government, worship, etc. rather than for the ‘non-instrumental’, pleasure purposes of today. Some of these early journeys were however associated with the arts. Religious festivals in ancient Greece drew a large number of travellers. In addition to sacrifice and prayer, the festivals included athletics ‘games’ as part of the dedications to the gods (Casson, 1974). The most significant was probably the Olympic Games, held in honour of the god Zeus, at which spectators could also listen to readings and view works of art. The annual festival in honour of Dionysius was largely music-based and literature-based and with no athletics at all. Drama became increasingly important and theatre as such may well be considered to have started here. These larger festivals attracted audiences from outside the local area.

Even where the object of the trip was not to experience the arts, most tourism since its earliest days has been characterized, incidentally, by entertainment as a distraction along the route or at the destination itself (Feifer, 1985). For instance, pilgrims to the ‘Holy Land’ (from the thirteenth century onwards) would be entertained at inns by travelling performers who sang or recited. Those who went on the later Grand Tours (sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries) found many diversions from their serious purpose, both en route and at their destinations. Theatres and concert halls in Italy and in Paris, for instance, were popular with tourists. Some Grand Tour journeys were planned so as to coincide with festivals and events of various sorts including religious festivals in Rome and carnival in Venice. For nineteenth century Grand Tour visitors to Paris, the Louvre was a major attraction but during evenings there was an active social life including literary salons and visits to the theatre as well as public promenading and display in pleasure gardens, boulevards and the ‘new’ restaurants (Withey, 1998).

Tourism in the early resorts, the inland spas such as Bath and Tunbridge in the UK and Saratoga Springs and White Sulphur Springs in the USA, existed under the pretext of the health cure. Bathing in and drinking spa water were believed to cure a great many ills. In reality, especially in the eighteenth century, there was considerable social activity based on coffee houses, gaming, theatre, etc. which was likely to have been a major attraction. ‘Most successful spas served pleasure as well as health needs’ (Towner, 1996: 54). The prime function of spas was to cater for leisure of their upper class clientele.

This social life was later copied in the seaside resorts that developed during the nineteenth century. These resorts had also developed as centres for health cures except that now it was sea water that was considered to have the curative qualities. The resorts initially differed little from the inland spas and facilities and activities mirrored those of the spas. Brighton, for instance modelled itself closely on Tunbridge. They included Assembly Rooms and a promenade for display and socializing. ‘From the beginning the seaside, like the spas, catered for seekers after pleasure, recreation, novelty and status as well as votaries of health and rest’ (Walton, 1983a: 156). The nature of the seaside resort has altered over time with, very broadly, their main customers shifting from being predominantly the wealthier classes in the early years through to a mainly working class clientele in the mid twentieth century. Each resort however has its own distinct nature. Some have an image of older and middle class holiday-makers whilst others are associated with a more working class holiday-maker. As a consequence, the entertainment in each has differed and still does differ but nonetheless most were characterized by a unique amount of entertainment (and other leisure activities). The facilities were not too different from those available in home towns but resorts were towns that specialized in opportunities for pleasure, and they were in locations free from the grime and congestion of industrial towns and free of the overtones of work.

Significance of the entertainment

What was established during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries persisted through until seaside resorts began to lose tourists in the latter part of the twentieth century (see Chapter 3). Holiday-makers in the 1920s and 1930s through to the early 1950s would find the same range of entertainment on offer with little change. The variety show, which developed from the concert party show, remained ever popular. Live entertainment remained a feature of the seaside resort in most countries right through to the early 1960s. During the 1950s and 1960s the ‘traditional’ forms of seaside entertainment began to wane as a result of many influences including television and pop music. Since this time, resorts have had to re-think their entertainment strategies (see later this chapter). The significance of this entertainment has been considerable:

  Much of the entertainment in seaside resorts is likely to have been ‘incidental’ since it would not have been the main reason for going on holiday. Audiences would be arts-peripheral. On the other hand, its significance could have been considerable in so far as it appeared to constitute a major form of diversion during the holiday. ‘Throughout the period … the quality of a resort’s range of commercial entertainment was an important competitive weapon’ (Walton, 1983a: 157). Even in Monte Carlo, a place so obviously geared to the one function of gambling, it was necessary that developers should build ‘superb hotels and sumptuous restaurants. They organised princely entertainments for which Europe’s finest artists were engaged’ (Pimlott, 1947: 200).

  From a different perspective, the seaside resort has been a key component of the arts and entertainment. An indirect assessment of the significance may be derived from the fact that, for instance, in the early 1980s professional theatres in English seaside resorts accounted for 40 per cent of theatre capacity in England outside London (ETB, 1982). Ominously, however, twelve of the eighteen theatres in England that closed between 1975 and 1982 were at the seaside, as were only five of the forty that opened.

  Regardless of any altered expectations that tourists now have of holiday entertainment, many resorts are left with a legacy of theatres and halls built with a very different market in mind. Many of the theatre and concert hall buildings were built in the early part of the twentieth century. They may well have an attraction in themselves as being particularly appealing in their design, structure and decor but the facilities are not always appropriate to meet the expectations of present-day audiences. The age of many of these buildings has also presented problems in terms of maintenance, heating and air conditioning as well as technical problems in stage production.

Entertainment and seaside resorts’ decline

It is believed that there has been a decline in seaside entertainment since the 1960s. In England, for instance, a tourist board study of seaside entertainment reported in 1984 that the traditional summer show (large star-centred and theatre-based) was disappearing. In nineteen coastal tourist towns surveyed, the number of summer shows had fallen from 30 in 1974 to 21 in 1983 (English Tourist Board, 1984).

The decline in seaside entertainment has been associated with a general decline of the seaside resort in the UK as a long-stay destination (see Chapters 6 and 4). There has been a similar decline in other countries, which has been associated with shifts in holiday destinations. As ‘old’ coastal destinations have declined in popularity so too has the provision of entertainment. In the case of the UK and several other European countries this affected the country as a whole as the old destinations were domestic but the new ones were in foreign countries. In other places such as USA the shifts have been internal. As some resorts have declined so, inevitably, has the audience for seaside entertainment (see Figure 5.2). Entertainment is provided in new resorts and destinations but even here there has been a change in the type, quantity and quality of the product.

Figure 5.2   Entertainment and seaside resort decline

In the resorts the entertainment product declined for many reasons (see Figure 5.2):

  a fall in staying visitors resulting in falling audiences;

  falling audiences led to reduced income from which the product and the theatres could have been upgraded;

  theatre (and cinema) generally have experienced the effects of direct competition from television since the 1960s so that people stay in for their entertainment rather than go out. To some extent this has happened in resorts in the same way as it has at home, though live entertainment and ‘going-out’ are unlikely to have been replaced entirely by television as a holiday experience;

  the influence of television has been more indirect though considerable. Holiday-makers often expect to see shows performed by ‘stars’ with whom they are familiar from television. The fees required by such stars for appearing in summer shows are, however, considered to be excessively high. Performers who previously would be willing to commit themselves to a full summer season may be less willing to do so now because of opportunities elsewhere. At one time the summer season was a major source of employment and income for many performers. Television has also altered the public’s expectations of entertainment and encouraged them to expect ‘quality’, professionalism and technologically-based productions;

  costs of providing the traditional spectacular show have risen greatly;

  local governments have had a considerable role to play in the summer show but have experienced overall financial difficulties. As a result, they have been unable to finance the type and quality of show that holiday-makers now expect and have been unable to contribute to the renovation of old theatre buildings;

  all this has been combined with a certain degree of inertia and reluctance to change. The nostalgia for the traditional show amongst many policymakers has inhibited their willingness to adapt the product to new tastes.

As well as the decline of resorts leading to the decline in entertainment, it is possible that there has been a reverse effect. The change in entertainment has itself contributed to the decline of holiday destinations (Figure 5.2). Resorts no longer provide ‘spectacle’ and the ‘extraordinary’ and it is this that might have contributed to their decline. Resorts were, at one time, unique, distinct places where entertainment and pleasure were concentrated (Urry, 1990). This is no longer the case as cities have developed as places of leisure consumption rather than of production. In addition, the development of theme parks and of home-based entertainment through television, video and computers have reduced the attractiveness of resorts as places for leisure. In the past, the distinctiveness of resorts lay in being the places of leisure and pleasure that contrasted with inland towns and cities, which were places of work and production. Live entertainment and shows in seaside theatres and concert halls contributed to that uniqueness.

The outcome has been a continuation of poor quality shows (and theatres) which, in turn, has continued the spiral of decline in terms of failing to capture audiences. At the same time there has been considerable growth in other forms of competing entertainment in resorts such as cabaret and variety-type entertainment in hotels themselves and in clubs and pubs. The overall picture is one of a ‘vicious circle: a cumulative effect of fewer visitors causing smaller audiences leading to less income and therefore poorer product and deteriorating theatres which in turn led to smaller audiences and to fewer visitors.

The re-establishment of the special extraordinary nature of the older seaside tourist town is a difficult task but there has been a feeling that restoration of holiday entertainment is important in this. Concern in the 1980s about the continuation of live shows as part of the tourist product led the English Tourist Board to establish a Working Party to identify problems and provide suggestions for the way forward. Their view was that live shows were in decline and facing ‘a major crisis’ but that ‘it is essential for the well-being of the resorts that this expectation (of live entertainment) is fulfilled’ (English Tourist Board, 1984: 11).

Current situation

Some form of live entertainment aimed at the holiday-maker does survive however in most seaside holiday towns. There was, for instance, a programme of entertainment offered in 60 out of 69 UK seaside resorts during the 1994 summer season (Hughes and Benn, 1997a). The entertainment took many forms but most common were ‘variety shows’ and ‘children’s shows’ (see Table 5.2).

A visit to the theatre to see a summer show has been a traditional part of family holidays. This does not however mean that holiday entertainment should not change nor that the holiday show is necessary for the well-being of seaside resorts. It may be that the live show or the theatre-based show are no longer sufficient. Spectacle and the extraordinary are sought in other forms such as funfairs, theme parks, amusement arcades and inter-active virtual reality galleries with their associated technological products. There may, in fact, be only a limited role for the live show or theatre-based show as part of the holiday in the future.

Summer entertainment in resorts is in the process of change, though given the inter-relationships identified earlier (Figure 5.2) it is proving difficult to carry through. The ‘traditional’ variety show does continue especially in those resorts that cater for the more traditional holiday-maker. It is noticeable however from Table 5.2 how a number of other types of entertainment are offered during the summer season.

Many seaside theatres, concert halls and arts centres are able now to draw upon a wider audience base than previously. Car ownership means the catchment area for any one resort theatre is larger and as a consequence many have re-programmed to aim at a target audience that is not specifically holiday-makers. Being in relatively isolated locations (at least not in large urban conurbations), resorts provide the only theatre or concert hall within a considerable radius and thus they can act as centres for the surrounding populations. Seasons of classical music, drama and musicals are as much aimed at a ‘local’ audience (including day-visitors) as at staying visitors. In some cases the year’s productions are programmed and budgeted largely on the basis of audiences who are non-holiday-makers. Theatres are regarded by management as receiving theatres that happen to be in a resort and programming is planned on the basis that they are year-round venues, with the summer season as a relatively minor consideration.

Table 5.2   Types of live entertainment at seaside
resorts in the UK (1994 summer season)

	Per cent of resorts in which performances of each were offered during 1994
Variety shows	64
Childrens’ shows	61
Plays	58
Musicals	52
Jazz	45
Folk/country music	44
Classical music concerts	44
Comedy	41
Pop/rock concerts	25
Cabaret	25
Pantomime	23
Opera	23
Circus	17
Ballet	16
Contemporary dance	10

Source: Hughes and Benn, 1997a

Local government

Local government has long had a role to play in the provision of the arts and entertainment (see Chapter 2) and in seaside resorts this role has been critical. The English Tourist Board Working Party (1984) implied that local authorities had an important role to play in ensuring live entertainment was provided in seaside resorts. The 1994 survey referred to earlier in this chapter asked about local government support for entertainment in seaside holiday towns (Hughes and Benn, 1997a). The provision was often a mix of local government and commercial but in just over half the towns with any theatres or concert halls (33 out of 60) it was only local government that provided such facilities. Commercial provision as the only form occurred in only in a small number of seaside towns (8 out of 60). Local government was itself directly responsible for planning the entertainment programme in some theatres and concert halls. This was the case in two-thirds of seaside towns with some live entertainment.

Local government support for arts and entertainment is not a requirement. In the UK it remains discretionary and is usually a net cost. Throughout the country, income was only about 50% of current expenditure on performance venues during the 1980s (Audit Commission, 1991). The Audit Commission (1991) reported that ‘on average only 32% of seats in resort theatres owned and managed by local authorities are sold’ (p.20). Most seaside holiday towns subsidize both promotions and the fixed costs of venues. The link between entertainment and tourism has long been recognized by seaside local governments and they have felt justified in using public finances to support arts and entertainment in this link (see Chapter 2).

In the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, for many towns and cities it was often a matter of civic pride for local government to provide theatres or encourage the arts for the benefit of local residents. In nineteenth century British seaside towns, however, the motive of local government was usually more related to generating tourists for the resort and was thus more commercially oriented than that in cities. Entertainment was considered necessary to attract visitors and therefore local governments either provided it directly or encouraged others to provide it as an investment rather than solely as a service for local residents (see Roberts, 1983 and Walton, 1983b for discussion of Bournemouth and Blackpool respectively). The resort towns were in the forefront of seeking parliamentary permission to provide entertainment prior to legislation that granted a universal but limited right to provide. This was itself the result of pressure from tourist local governments (Hodson, 1986).

The tourism dimension has therefore always featured strongly in the arts or cultural policies of local governments at seaside towns. More recently the governments of inland urban areas and cities in particular, have also encouraged cultural policies with a tourism angle. This development in many cities has been, in part, a response to economic decline. Tourism and cultural policies have both been regarded as means of regenerating cities and the tourism potential of the arts and entertainment has been recognized as having particular significance (see Chapter 8).

Festivals

Tourism has been a consideration, at least in part, in the formation and early development of a number of arts festivals. The term ‘festival’ is applied to many activities but essentially festivals are ‘special events’ where there is a particular concentration of activities over a short period of time. This is most often over a weekend but also, in the case of larger festivals, over several weeks. They are often regular in that they occur every year though some are less frequent. Festivals take many forms, including rock, pop, folk and world music festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, WOMAD and Guildford. It was estimated that there were about 520 festivals with an arts focus in the UK in 1991–92 (Rolfe, 1992). Many of these include a range of arts such as music, plays and film but most are concerned with a single art form. A fifth of UK arts festivals in 1991 were ‘folk music’ festivals and others focused on jazz, classical music or opera, etc. Because of their short-term nature, most festival organizations rely heavily on unpaid volunteers for their functioning.

The nature and size of festivals ranges greatly. The Notting Hill Carnival, an annual two-day event in London, attracts between 1 million and 2 million spectators (Smith and Jenner, 1998). Audiences at the 1996 Edinburgh International Festival numbered 400,000 with a further 900,000 at the Festival Fringe (Jones Economics, 1996). The 1996 Adelaide Arts Festival (South Australia) had a total attendance of 700,000 (Smith and Jenner, 1998). The majority of festivals however operate on a much smaller scale with, for instance, over 60 per cent of arts festivals in the UK having ticket sales of less than 5000 (Rolfe, 1992). Half of all festivals include non-arts activities such as talks and social and recreational activities and 70 per cent occur during the May–August period, the conventional tourist period. A very large number are located in rural or coastal parts of the country (rather than inland cities) and in areas that are already attractive to tourists because of heritage or natural scenery.

Aims

Even though there some long established festivals such as the Three Choirs (1713) the majority have appeared since the 1960s. Arts festivals have been established for many different reasons including (see Figure 5.3):

  ‘artistic vision’ reasons include a desire to ‘celebrate’ and to promote awareness and increase understanding of a particular art form or culture. This may be especially so when opportunities for performances are otherwise limited;

  to enable arts attendance by local residents in small towns or rural areas where there are few other opportunities;

  the drive to establish a festival may come from enthusiasts across the country wishing to come together to share a common interest;

  for many of the more recently developed festivals the tourism potential has been an important consideration. Two festivals in Ireland, for instance, the Temple Bar Blues Festival (Dublin) and the Clifden Country Blues Festival (Galway), were established with a view to attracting visitors to their respective locations. In both cases ‘music … is simply packaged into the most tourist-friendly product possible’ (Quinn, 1996: 392).

Figure 5.3   Festivals: features that attract tourists

As with the arts and entertainment generally, many festivals receive financial support from local government and would be unlikely to exist without it (Rolfe, 1992). This once more reflects the views of local government about the role of the arts generally but also specifically in tourist areas. The object may be:

  to provide opportunities, that would otherwise not be available, for locals to attend arts events;

  to improve locals’ access to the arts;

  to encourage community coherence through participation;

  to foster a community spirit and the ‘feel-good’ factor;

  to develop residents’ pride in the town or city;

  to increase awareness of the town or city outside;

  to improve its image outside.

These two latter ‘external’ objectives are associated partly with tourism. Awareness and improved image will attract tourists not just for the festival itself but at other times also. The awareness and image factors are also, however, aimed at making a town or city attractive enough to encourage businesses to locate there and people to live and work there. These issues have been of particular importance to cities that have been anxious to develop strategies for economic regeneration: to find solutions to unemployment and low incomes and their related social problems (social deprivation, physical environment, crime, housing, etc.). Although many cities now host annual festivals of varying degrees of significance, some of the more significant have been one-off festivals such as Glasgow’s designation, by the European Union, as European City of Culture for 1990. Unlike most other such cities Glasgow decided to hold a large number of events over the entire year. For the year 2000, the European Union designated nine ‘Cities of Culture’ as representing the rich diversity of culture of Europe. The nine were Reykjavik (Iceland), Bergen (Norway), Helsinki (Finland), Brussels (Belgium), Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Republic), Avignon (France), Bologna (Italy) and Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

Tourist appeal

Not all festivals have a tourism dimension and some are anxious to preserve a more community-based focus. For many festivals however, attracting tourists has often become a consideration even though it was not an initial one. By their very nature arts festivals are usually short-term, ‘special’ events offering unique opportunities to see and hear performances, activities and performers under exceptional circumstances. This critical mass is the essence of a festival:

  a relatively large number of artists and performances,

  together in one place,

  over a concentrated period of time.

For the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, bands such as Manic Street Preachers, REM, Fun Loving Criminals, Beautiful South, Super Furry Animals as well as Lenny Kravitz, Ian Dury, Fat Boy Slim and Courtney Pine and many others were brought together over three days. Reykjavik’s year as City of Culture (2000) includes Bjork, the San Francisco Ballet, ‘Icelandic Music in the Twentieth Century’ and a jazz festival.

In addition to such distinctive combinations of artists and events on the one hand and place and time on the other:

  for certain performances (or artists), festivals may be the only occasion when they are seen or heard;

  the particular rationale of some festivals may be to introduce music or plays that are not commonly heard or seen and may appeal only to a limited local audience, e.g. contemporary music. By placing them in a festival concept (such as the annual Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music in Yorkshire) they may succeed in appealing to an audience from further afield and make their production more viable. The Brighton Festival (Sussex) also has a philosophy of introducing new artists and works;

  major artists, orchestras or companies may not be seen in small towns or rural areas because they cannot generate the audiences. Holding festivals in such locations may expand the potential audience (and local residents benefit).

Festivals are therefore likely to raise more awareness than an on-going arts or entertainment programme in a theatre, arena or concert hall and they come to the notice of a widespread number of people. Festivals can exert considerable drawing power and attract large numbers of non-locals to the audiences (Figure 5.3). They are then frequently actively promoted as tourist attractions if not by the festival management then by others such as local tourist boards.

Levin (a well known author, playwright and critic), in his descriptive and anecdotal consideration of festivals, inextricably linked festivals and tourism. He considered that most festival towns are in places pleasant enough to visit any time and are of a size small enough to be dominated at festival time by the festival. Apart from the attractions of the location, he saw festivals as having a special attraction for tourists because of the holiday atmosphere generated. ‘How much sweeter music sounds at the end of a day of walking, bathing, sunning, sipping, than of a day of working! Music, of course, is a holiday in one crucial sense: a holiday from the mind’ (Levin, 1981: 14).

Pre World War II, the Salzburg Festival (Austria) was actively promoted to foreign visitors and has continued to be so ever since. In the 1920s and 1930s American and European tourist agencies were encouraged to prepare Festival packages and special arrangements were made by the Austrian government to ensure foreign visitors obtained visas. As early as the 1920s there were complaints about the artistic integrity of the Festival being sacrificed for the purposes of attracting tourists (Gallup, 1987). The founders of the Edinburgh Festival, 1947, desired to establish ‘a centre of world resort for lovers of music, drama, opera, ballet and the graphic arts’ (quoted in Bruce, 1975). This was not a strategy to encourage tourism as such but was a deliberate attempt to reinstate civilized values and foster understanding and peace through the arts in the aftermath of the Second World War. The appeal was to be, therefore, to the widest possible audience. Cheltenham was the first of the post-Second World War festivals to emerge in the UK (1945), though with less grand ambitions than Edinburgh. It too was intended as a festival that would bring in visitors from all over Britain, if not from abroad, to listen to English music in a holiday environment and atmosphere (Howes, 1965).

Pros and cons of festival tourism

If a festival does succeed in attracting non-local audiences it is usually considered favourably:

  Audience spending by tourists is a net injection into an area (Figure 5.4). Most spending by locals on tickets and associated services adds nothing and may only be diverted from spending on other local goods and services. It is a re-circulation of local money unless it can be shown that the locals would have spent that money outside the area (see Chapters 6 and 8).

  The festival may also create good publicity and create a good image for the area – with two possible effects (see Figure 5.4):

–  tourists at non-festival times;

–  encouragement of other non-related businesses to locate in the area (inward investment).

There are, however, a number of potential problems associated with festival tourism:

  Not all festival tourists are an ‘addition’ to an area. Some visitors may have visited anyway (their expenditure is ‘deadweight’) and others may have brought forward their visit (time-switching) (see Figure 5.4). The festival has brought no real benefit here.

  Some regular visitors to the area may have been put off coming by the event and the festival tourists are therefore only replacing them, with little or no addition to overall numbers.

Figure 5.4   Possible influences of festivals

  Tourism during festivals may sometimes be less than anticipated, partly because of people’s beliefs that it would be over-crowded or that they would be unable to obtain tickets or book accommodation. The very popularity of a festival may be counter-productive.

By their nature the impact of festivals would seem to be short-lived. As a result there are issues relating to the productions and to the influx of visitors. There may be performance spaces available for a festival as many theatres will be ‘dark’ during summer months and may welcome the extra business. The use of existing venues appears logical but they do not always exist or they are inadequate. Some festivals may therefore require additional venues if performances are to occur:

  The building of new venues for short-term events such as festivals could only be justified if long-term use could be assured. The restoration of a theatre, such as the Opera House at Buxton (Derbyshire), with a view to it being the focus of a festival has led to problems relating to its long-term future and use at other times. Nonetheless in that particular case, the Buxton Arts Festival can claim some credit for initiating the restoration of this 1903 Matcham theatre prior to the first festival in 1979. This has enabled local residents to have access to a local receiving theatre ever since.

  No-one will develop additional performance capacity simply to cope with a short-term increase in demand and a problem may remain if capacity does not exist:

Festivals frequently use existing unconventional buildings such as stately homes, churches, museums, art galleries, market halls and assembly rooms as performance spaces or they resort to temporary buildings including marquees. Performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Trial by Jury’ were held in Bow Street Magistrate’s Court during the 1999 BOC Covent Garden Festival in London.

Open-air performances are common especially in the grounds of stately homes and as such require only temporary performance and audience facilities. In many cases, audiences are required to bring their own seating (or not as they wish).

Street performances obviously reduce the need for venues. Some festivals are entirely street based.

Similarly there needs to be sufficient accommodation (and other associated tourist facilities) for any extra tourists. Problems with accommodation are often alleviated by relying on hotels in nearby towns and villages, by recommending guest houses in addition to hotels and by encouraging local residents to host visitors in the residents’ own homes.

Nonetheless for most festivals, audiences are primarily local or regional and are not drawn from a wide catchment area. This is the case for even the largest festivals. Jazz and folk festivals in the UK are those most likely to have nonlocal audiences (Rolfe, 1992). For further consideration of festival audiences and drawing-power see Chapter 6. For a view on the wider issues of the impact of festivals see Chapter 8.