Analysing Regeneration Of Newcastle Upon Tyne Tourism Essay

Urban tourism has, in one form or other, been with us since Mesopotamia and Sumeria were spawning the phenomenon of urbanization. People with the means and inclination to do so have been drawn to towns and cities just to visit and experience a multiplicity of things to see and do…These (towns and cities) were the melting pots of national culture, art, music, literature and of course magnificent architecture and urban design. It was the concentration, variety, and quality of these activities and attributes … that created their attraction and put certain towns and cities on the tourism map… (Karski, 1990 A. Karski, Urban Tourism: A Key to Urban Regeneration?, The Planner 76 (13) (1990), pp. 15-17. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (7)Karski 1990, p. 15).

Newcastle Upon-Tyne played a great part in the industrial revolution the period between the eighteenth and nineteenth century where there was major change in Western Europe, changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining and transport had adverse impacts on the social economic conditions, Newcastle was prominently dominated by chemical, iron and steel industries. [1] (LAW 1993) cites “In the last 15 years or so urban policy-makers have sought to develop tourism in an attempt to compensate for the contraction of those economic activities, such as traditional manufacturing industry, which have undergone a structural crisis in many West European and North American cities. In order to compete in the new environment created by the process of economic restructuring, urban policy-makers have created new, or enhanced old, tourist attractions and facilities.” State ownership, although originally conceived as a means of safeguarding These provided the ground work for a new approach, in which towns and cities were regarded as multi-functional areas, meeting the demand generated by urban tourists and, indeed, stimulating some of that demand themselves (Page et al., 2001, p336-7).g employment, had become a mechanism of retrenchment and restructuring. Privatization of the basic industries, as part of the Thatcherism “free-market” policies of the 1980s and 1990s signalled the final run-down of these industries (e.g. Hudson, 1989; Robinson, et al, 1987; Tomaney, 2003; Tomaney, et al, 1999).

Today tourism is one of the largest consuming industry consuming substantial amounts of space within the urban destination with Gospodini 2001 stating that large attractions e.g. theme parks/ museums contribute to this consumption. Urban tourism is distinguishable from other forms of tourism by a number of features which, while they are not applicable to all urban destinations and may be applicable to some non-urban destinations, characterize urban tourism destinations as a whole. Significant numbers of tourists in urban areas are visiting for a primary purpose other than leisure, including business, conferences, shopping, and visiting friends and relatives. Local residents (and commuters) are also significant (often majority) users of attractions and of infrastructure which has generally been developed for non-tourism purposes within urban destinations often the number; variety and scale of primary and secondary attractions are large.

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“Men make their own history”, according to Karl Marx, “but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. Newcastle like many European Cities has seen terrible time with high levels of unemployment in the 1970’s in the context of increasing national economic difficulty there was a great decline in the manufacturing industry in the North, demographic trends resulted in a huge influx of young people on to the labour market and the labour force employed in manufacturing continued to decline there were other contributing factors for the decline for example de-industrialisation and technological advancement, the growth of manufacturing in low-cost countries, the outcome was raising unemployment.

De-industrialisation

The term ‘de-industrialisation’ has come into common usage in recent years to describe (and perhaps emotionally charge) what is perceived as Britain’s manufacturing ‘decline’.

As the volume of the employed population engaged manufacturing declined, technological advance served to alter the occupational composition of remaining employment by reducing the number of manual tasks required in production while simultaneously increasing the number of employees in non-production functions, concerned with the processing, compiling and communication of information (CRUM and GUDGIN, 1978; STEPHENS and HOLLY, 1981)

Technological advancement

As the volume of the employed population engaged in manufacturing declined, technological advance served to alter the occupational composition of remaining employment by reducing the number of manual tasks required in production while simultaneously increasing the number of employees in non-production functions, concerned with the processing, compiling and communication of information (CRUM and GUDGIN, 1978; STEPHENS and HOLLY, 1981). This growth in information related activities in manufacturing may be related to both substitution of information for non information labour arising from changes in labour cost differentials, and the substitution of capital for non-information labour (OECD, 1981). Thus technological change may be conceptualised as requiring a rise in skill levels and a ‘technologisation’ (TOFT JENSEN et af., 1983) of the workforce as the remaining jobs become increasingly specialised and technical in nature. However, at the same time as new technologies have led to a shift towards jobs with a high technological content (which we may expect to see reflected in an increasing proportion of employees in managerial and professional occupations),

Manufacturing in low-cost countries

The threat of competition from many of Asia’s manufacturing countries has been a growing concern for many European and Western countries since the early 70’s with the decline of the manufacturing industry in the UK, politicians and policy-makers, and CEOs and line employees have all focused on the perception that Asia’s competitive advantage is based on low wages and an undervalued currency, and that this ‘Juggernaut’ is overwhelming, leaving small European manufacturers with no chance or ability to Compete against them, Asia has various cost advantages:-

Asia’s ready access to cheap labour enables Chinese companies to pay on average 76 cents per hour (1/36th the average labour rate of the E.U.) With nearly 1500 million inhabitants in Asia seeking a better way of life in the East, manufacturing plants provide improved pay and living conditions, including free housing, food, and medical care. This nearly inexhaustible supply of labour is bound to keep wages low for many years.

Low cost of materials and components, stemming from the low labour rates of local suppliers, companies producing in Asia benefit, in some cases, from lower cost of materials and inputs.

Undervalued Asia’s aggressive currency policies have kept the currency artificially low, not allowing it to float freely compared to foreign currencies. The result is that goods exported from Asia to the U.S. or EU is “artificially” low in price.

Government incentives and less regulation. An example of Asia’s competitiveness is the Chinese government who offer tax breaks and other financial incentives to multinational corporations (MNCs) that engage in joint ventures in China. These MNCs are also often attracted by the opportunity to do business while being subject to little or no environmental, health or safety regulations.

Newcastle’s revival and mechanisms used for this.

“The emergence of a state managed region, the strengthening of regional policy aimed at tackling the problems of industrial regions like the North East included restrictions on development in efforts to shift investment to “development areas” and meant that the region became a focus for mobile forms of manufacturing investment, especially for labour intensive forms of investment from UK and US companies. Alongside the restructuring of manufacturing, the North East also participated in the general growth of service industries which emerged as the most important provider of employment. The growth of services in the North East (when compared to other regions of the UK) rested disproportionately on the expansion of the public sector (often through state-directed relocations of civil service jobs) while business services, for instance, tended to be under-represented” (Robinson,1987 and Marshall, 1982).

The physical regeneration of some parts of the region, notably the Newcastle-Gateshead quayside area, was a significant development at the turn of the 21st century. Property development and “culture-led” regeneration in the urban core helped to alter the image of the region, but such developments tended to divert attention from the chronic underlying weakness of the regional economy (Byrne and Wharton, 2004; Robinson, 2002). Tourism can be placed high on the list of impacts that have helped the North East to revitalise itself, from the last decade investment in the regeneration of the inner city, the West End and East End. The City’s reputation as a regional shopping centre has been enhanced by the development of shopping precincts such as Eldon Square (opened in 1976), Eldon Gardens (1989), Monument Mall (1992) and pedestrianisation of Northumberland Street, upper Grainger Street, Blackett and Grey Street (1998). In the 1990’s and through in to the 21st century Newcastle has been undergoing regeneration to re-establish the city as a vibrant and stylish regional capital and halt the population decline. The local councils and forming bodies published a regeneration strategy for fifteen year the regeneration strategy gave a flavour of the broad remit of regeneration these included:’-

Strengthening the economy

Improving transport and connectivity

Providing the right choice of homes

Transforming education and skills

Ensuring wellbeing and health

Promoting inclusion and social cohesion

Newcastle’s council’s overall aim was to create a vibrant modern, safe, inclusive European City by building on the heritage, cultural and economic strengths of Newcastle plus improving the quality of life all people and communities in Newcastle and playing a leading role in the sustainable growth and prosperity of the region.

Between 1970 and early 1980 the inner city was declared an industry improvement area (the first in Newcastle) in response to change in government policy to revive derelict areas through industry i.e. creating business opportunity around the region engineering, import on construction material and tourism industry, there was a large emphasis with the local council on improving local infrastructure to support local businesses with upgrading local roads and highways plus ensuring that business awards were granted in 1982 the metro bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II the metro bridge links the metro light railway systems on each side of the river metro trains ran from Haymarket to Gateshead and Heworth later to Sunderland plus South Shields the metro system allowed both sides of the Tyne to better connected enabling a far greater experience for visitor and residents allowing easier access to the town centre the hub of business services in Newcastle, Grainger Town which is considered the historic heart of Newcastle Upon Tyne between the 80 and early 1990, this once prosperous area which was on the decline was taken over by a new centre of retail and commercial activity the area has had an investment of £120 million poured into it from both public and private investment. The region also embraced its emergence as a ‘party city’ heavily promoting the leisure opportunities available at the city most of which revolved around the nightlife and social consumption of alcohol (Newcastle City Council, 2008). Indeed this ‘fame’ reached international levels with US travel consultants Weissmann Travel rating Newcastle as the eighth best party city in the world (Nayak, 2003: 66), the major investment associated with the NewcastleGateshead Initiative has seen a number of iconic cultural projects materialize in recent years. The BALTIC which opened in 2002 was a £50 million project which saw the conversion of a disused 1950s flour mill into an international centre for contemporary art. This was followed in 2004 by the Sage Gateshead – a £70 million music and performance centre located on the Gateshead Quayside. The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which opened in 2001 at a cost of £22 million, is a pedestrian and cycle bridge which gained international fame as the world’s first tilting bridge. The NewcastleGatesHead Initiative was established in 2000 to develop a regeneration strategy for the area the river Tyne provided the focal point for a variety of iconic culture-led flagship regeneration programmes and projects one of many famous culture lead land marks that the NewcastleGatesHead Initiative made possible was the 65 foot high sculpture done by Antony Gormley the angel of the north which brought great publicity to Newcastle and changed consumer perception of the region. For the Conservation and regeneration of this region funding from both public and private finance was invested into the region from various sources, some are identified below;

Gateshead Council

The ERDF

The heritage lottery fund

Public funding

Single regeneration budget

Challenge fund

Private sector

Learning and skills council

From the regeneration over the last 3 decades Newcastle has improved on all primary elements of tourism (Figure 1) especially additional elements and secondary as a result of tourism development in the region other industries are attracted to Newcastle for business Tourism has helped to enhance the physical, economic and social regeneration of the region (Figure 2)

Figure 1urb036

Figure 2

law

Conclusions to enable to you to make a critical appraisal of applicability of Law’s model

Newcastle upon Tyne is defiantly a city which can be sold as a product on the Tourism market, since the 1980’s there has been increasing recognition of the importance of tourism to UK cities (Law, 1993). The growing emphasis on urban tourism as an area of economic growth for cities has come about through realisation that urban tourism acts as an important catalyst for the economic, social and physical regeneration of the city, creating benefits for residents of the city as well as for industries located there. Moreover, tourism is perceived as an environmentally friendly, yet labour intensive, industry which can benefit cities through income and job creation, particularly in the wake of the decline of traditional economic activities (Law, 1993) .

The localism model proposed by the Tories in the 80’s and early nineties gave way to New Labour’s regional development plans and the establishment of the regional development agencies (RDA). As Deas & Ward (2000, p.279) state “the aim of the RDA programme was to provide ‘effective and properly coordinated regional economic development’ by managing land assembly, physical regeneration, local economic development and inward investment”. These provided the ground work for a new approach, in which towns and cities were regarded as multi-functional areas, meeting the demand generated by urban tourists and, indeed, stimulating some of that demand themselves (Page et al., 2001, p336-7).

It was in such an era of change that Law (1993, p. 24-31) drew up what could be called a strategy for urban tourism, constructing a model whose various component parts were interlinked and crucial to the physical, economic and social regeneration of the urban environment – it is “a complex of activities that are interlinked in a particular milieu and enables cities to attract tourists (Law, 2000, as cited in Thomas, 2004, p.241. Key elements in current urban policy, as he noted, involved an emphasis on economic policies; an emphasis on obtaining private investment; an emphasis on property development; public sector investment in infrastructure; a focus on the city centre and finally, the creation of flagship projects whose scale and impact generate a positive public image of the new urban landscape. This idea of image, although it may sound somewhat vague and theoretical is regarded by a number of commentators as of crucial importance as “negative perceptions can undermine regeneration and destroy the confidence of local communities leading to the idea of a ‘lost’ city with no clear identity or brand” (Trueman, et al., 2007, p.20) Law took the view that tourism provides an over arching framework which involves the provision of a physical environment and infrastructure conducive to the development of facilities and the generation of activities which will be of benefit to the local community, but will further involve the projection of the city as an area suitable for industrial and commercial activity. Those elements which may be termed primary attractors are museums, art galleries, concert halls, conference centres, exhibition halls and other ancillary elements. A city, however, must also be a place which attracts not just tourists, but those who want to live and work there on a permanent basis; as such, it must persuade potential residents, business professionals and executives that it is capable of providing a lifestyle in keeping with their tastes and needs, to conclude Newcastle upon-Tyne has managed through its regeneration to comply to Laws 1993 book Urban Tourism attracting visitors to large cities.