20518 - CITIES, CULTURAL TOURISM AND URBAN LIFE

This workshop is primarily addressed to ACME students. Other students interested in attending the course as an elective should have a strong interest in tourism, urban and cultural policies, and destination management.

It is well known that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities where various social, economic, political and cultural functions interact to create unique urban environments. In this global urbanization process, the role of cultural, recreational and tourism activities requires to be sized and understood: although tourism is frequently viewed as less important to cities than other economic activities, it has played a major role in the development and redevelopment of cities around the globe. As a matter of fact, cities catalyze cultural and social innovation and are among the fastest growing tourism destinations worldwide, however this does not happen without side effects and implications for urban management and planning. In addition to this, the high competition among cities to attract tourist flows and capitalize on tourism spending requires that decision makers adopt effective strategies and calls for community engagement and smart approaches. The mission of the course is to analyze the vital, and in some cases controversial, relationship between cities and tourism and to acquire specific competencies and tools for approaching a sustainable tourism development in urban areas.

The main contents of the workshop are:

• The global relevance of cities and of urban tourism investments in the contemporary world.
• Trends (supply and demand) of urban tourism: experiential and lifestyle tourism, cultural and creative tourism, events and congress tourism.
• The creative an the smart city: regeneration and renovation projects through tourism.
• Key principles and issues in tourism urban governance and development.
• Urban visitor marketing and management.
• Tourism and its discontents: impacts of the ‘consumer city’.

• Know and interpret how tourism, culture, and entertainment have transfromed urban centers during the recent decades.
• Understand how the investments of the tourism industry shape urban contexts.
• Identify key characteristics and trends of diverse urban tourism segments (supply and demand).
• Apply relevant strategic approaches and tools to leverage the tourism potential of cultural assets and creative industries in urban regions.
• Evaluate the impacts of tourism on cities and identify proper respones.

• Adopt proper methods and strategies to assess and promote the tourism value of urban destinations.
• Identify and address relevant tourism segments for specific urban districts.
• Apply appropriate tools of destination management and governance.
• Conduct a real market analysis of the hospitality industry of a city and elaborate appropiate responses for the industry and for the tourist public institutions (within the STR EMEA market study competition)
• Deal with first-hand critical issues in the tourism promotion and management of relevant cultural assets and events in an urban area.
• Develop feasible tourism projects for a city in collaboration with tourism companies/insitutions.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Company visits
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Participation in external competitions

The course is based on a mix of face-to-face lectures, guest speakers’ speeches and company visits, and group assignments. The mix enables students to apply concepts to real-life situations. Students gain the most from class participation.

• Guest Speakers' talks and company visits provide students the opportunity to get in touch with leaders of the sector and confront on specific policy and managerial challenges faced by tourism professionals and decision makers.
• Case studies and class discussions are fundamental to achieve a better knowledge of the topics covered within the course and ensure a proper understanding of different issues. They support the students in achieving better interaction in class and develop critical thinking over the course topics. 
• A field project (group assignement) is developed through the course and submitted at the end of the semester. Students work on a concrete tourism case and develop a proposal to address related key issues. A practical approach supports the ability of students in applying the best methodology and achieving successful strategies. The field project will be develop within the context of the STR EMEA competition. 

With the purpose of measuring the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, the students’ assessment is based on two main components:

• Final written exam (60%)
• Group field project (40%)

The written exam consists in essay questions referring to the concepts, models and cases discussed in class. Essay questions test students' ability to apply broad concepts and principles related to urban tourism discussed in class, as well as students' ability to generalise, analyse and support arguments with evidence both from the literature and from concrete cases.

The field project is an opportunity to tackle first-hand critical issues in tourism and it consists of developing a real tourism project and presenting it to an industry discussant. This allows to verifiy (a) the ability of students in applying the knowledge acquired in class, (b) their ability to develop a feasible tourism project and (c) to present it effectively. Tha assessment includes a peer evaluation.

Please note:

• Both evaluations must be sufficient (grade ≥ 18).
• Attending students must take the exam by January 2023.

The assessment method for non-attending students is based on a final exam in written form. It will be made up of open-ended and multiple-choice questions referring to the concepts, models and cases contained in the textbooks and exam materials. The open-ended and multiple-choice questions are mainly aimed at verifying learning of the analytical and management abilities and their correct comprehension. 

The reading list is provided in the syllabus at the beginning of the course and it is a mix of papers from academic journals, reports, and slides.

In accordance with intellectual property rights rules, different materials are available in different ways:

• On the Bocconi Bboard platform of the course
• On the ad hoc web course reserve, provided by the Library

The reading list is provided in the syllabus at the beginning of the course. It consists of textbooks.