London or Paris? II – Suburbs and people

 

Since my first article January 2014, the French elections have taken place, the French government has been reshuffled, tourism’s spring season has begun in both cities. 

Other more serious issues have arisen in Eastern Europe, which have made sensationalist quarrels over tourism seem a little lacking in European spirit, perhaps. 

However, the open discussion generated by a comparison of the two strategies is deserving of further exploration, not so much with regard to the visitors, more into the way residents, the most involved, are creating new approaches which prevent tourists from remaining mere statistics or abstractions categorised by average daily spending.

Everybody on the outskirts?

 

Beyond all the gesticulating and the jostling, there exists in both towns a reality which I have had to face both on a personal and a familial level: the impossibility for the majority of residents of these gigantic cities to live in the centre, as they cannot afford to buy or rent space there. In this regard, neither capital has anything to envy.

 

As a result, a large portion of the population lives not just physically but intellectually, culturally and historically on the periphery, unable to appreciate personally the past which produced these cities’ heritage, nor can they truly appreciate the heritage of the towns, even the villages, in which they live, whose ancient cores have been buried under recent, standardising constructions.

 

And yet, these satellites of life and production enjoyed a functional relationship with the centre, often specialising as suppliers of fruit or vegetables, small crafts or industrial products. Parisians came there to relax and walk around on a Sunday – depicted inImpressionist paintings – akin to today when those from the suburbs (banlieues) come to walk and perhaps unwind in the city centre’s shopping areas on a Saturday. These people are demanding in greater and greater number that the shopping continues on Sunday, which Paris still cannot fully decide upon. London, on the other hand, understood long ago the benefits to tourism and the economy of keeping the shopping going, just like London’s museums understood the payoff of introducing free entry almost completely across the board.

 

Alfred Sisley. Le Pont à Argenteuil

 

Memory Loss: Storytelling’s solutions

 

I am still convinced that our first priority – which must involve residents as much as tourists – should be managing to tell (or have told) the past, to systematically traces of history, to decode the names of those who came before us, our link to the past, to understand the role of immigrations both recent and earlier, rather than to battle desperately for DIY shops to open on Sundays.

 

In short, I thought it essential to find a common memory among all the scattered signals, as Jean-Christophe Bailly did in his look at landscapes (Le dépaysement:Voyages en France).It is necessary if we are to move past simple tourism profitability and work for all city users, the permanent as well as the temporary.

 

Perhaps because I experienced Paris as a commuter from the suburbs for thirty years, then as a resident and finally as a visitor, I feel that the way forward is not to let the city become a museum, but to make available all the best methods for conjuring up memories, be they day-to-day and banal, exotic and symbolic, even created in dreams or pure fantasy.

 

For me, this is the tourism of the future, which no longer sets up barriers between the Chinese tour group, the well-off Texan couple, the suburban pensioner, the restaurant owner from Vietnam or Portugal, the local bar owner or the kid from the estates.

 

 

 Jean Moulin tram station, Paris

 

I still remember the American architect – who, I have just read, passed away in 1999 – who bought a small house on Folgate Street in London, which had belonged to a Huguenot family who brought the traditions of the 17^th century French silk weavers of Cevennes with them to a house not far from that of Gilbert and George.

 

Who had expected to be talking about the silk road on the streets of the City or in the area around the Barbican Centre on… Silk Street… or in Spitalfields? This young man made a tour of his house to tell by all means possible the life of this protestant family which only the Great War could break apart. It is a sensitive approach to storytelling for which he went as far as to have a roast dinner cooked so that the small group of visitors might think that very scent of the lost family lingered on.

 

“The Jervis family are imaginary but attention to detail here is incredible, although do not be mistaken in thinking that historical accuracy was the driving force behind this project. Severs was not a historian and never wanted anyone to think of his home as a museum. It is his interpretation of 18th century domestic life and was put together on a very limited budget.” That was the early 1990s. 

The approach was, I agree, rather elitist but it pointed in a direction which is becoming much more fundamental movement than trend.

 

 Highgate Cemetery, London

 

Invisible Towns

 

Since the 1990s, numerous possibilities have risen through virtual technology and mobile handsets, embedded stories - sometimes audiobooks, sometimes downloaded movies - to help visitors delve into the traces and tangible spaces of the past.

 

Reconstructed memory such as this can be aided in particular by the cinema, as is seen in the walks through Paris offered by Cinemacity (co-produced by Arte and Small Bang), the walks retracing the steps of famous Parisians, or the sonic atmospheres created for the RadioGrenouille walks In Marseille.

 

Similarly, London has opened a visitor’s website called London Incognito, some trips of which are also based on behind-the-movie-scenes concepts. As such, less typically touristic areas of the city are steadily getting involved.

 

Such websites can easily grow and evolve by adapting to the latest movie releases. An example of this is the interactive map created for the film Diplomatie, which depicts Franco-German relations in Paris during the Second World War.

 One Café of Europe, organised in the framework of the SOURCE project was dedicated to exploring the new approaches made by these invisible towns whose lost people and places can reappear along detours through the internet. An app was also developed in Enghien-les-Bains based on a tour of the town through old postcards.

 

The thesis Margaut Abatecola presented to IREST in July 2013 (Le développement des outils numériques et de leurs effets sur le tourisme culturel francilien) provides contextual analysis on digital tools in cultural tourism as well as analysis of the tools currently in use in Ile-de-France. Although Paris and its museums may enjoy certain privileges, the methodology Abatecola proposes can certainly serve as a guide for explorations of other tourist regions.

 

Notable examples of these digital tools include the game Enigmes à Versailles, the  Monument Tracker Paris app (“the Heart of Paris, a flower of love so beautiful, that we hold it in our hearts, that we love it all our life’ Charles Trenet. Paris is known for its wonderful historic monuments and sites for you to visit. Towers, cathedrals, palaces, arches, bridges and fountains: an extraordinary collection of landmarks which take you back in time”) and more generic apps like Mobily Trip and Cultureclic.

 

Sleepless night in Paris: Place de la République

 

What about the people?

 While these mobile technologies and adventures on the web open the flood gates to multiple imaginations, as does the Carré d’Or app which shows us the culturalroutes of the Council of Europe that pass through Paris, their biggest fault is that they are sadly missing the physical presence of a guide or someone who truly loves their places, as well as the residents who actually hold the places’ many historical memories and stories. Voice and sound alone, however well recorded, are just never enough.

 

Carré d’Or: the Jesuit church of Saint Paul’s in Paris, connected to the Via Francigena

 

This is why I think that the experiment SparkLondon which has been running since 2007 is an extremely fascinating and, above all, inspiring example. 

“Since 2007, Spark London has produced hundreds of true storytelling shows in lots of different venues including the Canal Café Theatre, Ritzy Picturehouse, Hackney Attic, the Blue Elephant Theatre, Soho Square and Foyles. Outside London, there have been Sparks at Manchester Town Hall, the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, and Riddle's Court for the Edinburgh Festival.”

 

When we begin to talk about ourselves, even if it sounds like a mundane little anecdote, we begin a dialogue with the other, the momentary visitor, the neighbour from afar.

 

Luckily, Paris has avoided being outdone by joining up to the Greeters project which began in the US and has spread to Florence, Barcelona, and London as Rent aLocal Friend.

 

“Paris kickstarted the concept in the (Ile-de-France) area in 2007 with the Parisien d’un jour association. More recently, Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-et-Marne have all developed the idea through their tourist offices or with help from Parisien d’un jour. Some cities, such as Versailles and Boulogne, have also forged similar partnerships with France Greeters.”

 

Conscious of the need for originality, which has created spontaneous and non-institutional forms of activity and new forms of voluntary involvement, the city of Paris came up with a structured solution with a festival of sorts entitled ‘Paris face cachée’, the latest instalment of which took place in late January 2014.

“Over 72 hours, you will experience unique moments in unusual places. These are the more than 100 original adventures made by Paris face cachée’s accomplices. Places, structures, characters and enthusiasts that have invented, created and adapted experiences for you to enjoy. New for 2014 are the Parenthèses Artistiques. We have created for you musical, theatrical and cinematic encounters with intrepid artists who have agreed to lend their unexpected places for a soirée. To enjoy this original journey, you have to accept the rules: choose an experience, without knowing who organised it; the meeting-point is a secret and will only be revealed on your ticket after you have signed up!”

 

Paris face cachée: underground Paris

 

This inventive operation is not so far removed from the initiative museomix, which consists of creating communities of local interests in museum visits. “Museeomix works only if a local community is enthusiastic and prepared to commit to the project. The community takes shape through informal get-togethers which present Museomix and involve representatives from various communities and sectors (design, hackerpaces, fablab, museogeeks, education, etc.). It is not the museums which makes Museomix and opens its doors to it, it is the community as a whole (of which the museum is but a part) which organises and directs the local Museomix.”

 

Suburban Paris: a gentle revolution?

 

“They did not go to the Eiffel Tower, or the île de la Cité or the Louvre. They took in the basilica in Saint-Denis, the tower of the Illustration building in Bobigny, the Créteil skyline, Pouillon-city in Meudon-la-Forêt, mont Valerien in Suresnes, the port of Genneviliers, île Saint-Denis…” This is how Paul-Hervé Lavessière’s work La Révolution de Paris, published last year by WildProject, is presented.

“In a wide loop drawn out by the author, they connected Saint-Denis, Créteil and Versailles through 37 communes and 4 départements (92, 93, 94, 78). They discovered the greater landscape of Paris: garden cities and millstone grit houses, market squares and motorway junctions, massive housing estates and schools of the Republic, leafy fallows and power lines, churches and industrial zones, forts and mosques, gypsy caravans and freight train marshalling yards, canals, rivers and streams…”

 

A revolution in the proper sense of the word? A change in attitudes towards tourists? A fruitful attempt to bring the suburbs out from their isolation from  tourism? London too has been pioneering in offering tours of its peripheral areas, as well as its haunted houses, yet admittedly the two cities are not developed around the same urban model.

In London we pass through concentric circles with sizeable green transitions, whereas Paris only has its two Bois, Boulogne and Vincennes, to offer before we head straight into a monstrous area in which human guides are needed to open the doors of former farms and smaller workshops, and to look over the market gardens and allotments.

 

Douce Banlieue offer nearly 150 of such walks, “with an actor, for example, discovering the history of cinematography in the area, with companions from the Ca se visite association. Meeting people who live and work in these districts, with a resident walking around the Saint-Denis International Market or in the company of professional guides encountering hidden marvels such as the marriage hall in Bobigny, the garden city of Stains, tours of Belleville…”

 

On 27 April 2014, there has been a walk with Douce Banlieue on the theme of the ‘Revolution of Paris’: 

‘The route will be punctuated with unusual and unexpected encounters and tours: music with the artists of the Gare au Théâtre company, stories with Accueil Banlieues, urban transhumance with sheep from the Clinamen association, the future eco-district of Ile-Saint-Denis with the architects of Bellastock, fantastic garbage recyclers, a delve into 6b’s factory of culture, a wander around the scaffolding of the Fabrique de la Ville with Saint-Denis archaeologists, a walk through the former Carmel, now Saint-Denis Art and History Museum, an encounter with Franciade craftsmen and the history of the Basilica of the kings of France…”

 

 

Will those detached from their city finally be able to reclaim their memory, their intellectual and emotional property, of that which often forced them to reside in the city?

 We still have a long way to go, but from London to Paris then to other European cities, capital cities, small and medium-sized regional towns, citizens’ laboratories are appearing. All they want is to spread.

Translation : Alistair Cowie

A snapshot of Luxembourg

 

Late last month, representatives from a number of ministries and financial partners of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg conducted, somewhat necessarily they though, a round-table entitled ‘Luxembourg as seen from abroad’. Decide for yourselves. Represented were the Ministries for Foreign Affairs, Tourism and the Middle Classes, Culture, Economy and Foreign Trade, Information and Press from the government, as well as Luxembourg for Business and Luxembourg for Finance.

Is the situation so dire? This round-table was in fact part of four featured items on the home page of the tourismministry (department of economy), which had already commissioned films two years ago which humorously decried the caricatures often drawn of Luxembourg. What is more, Paperjam, Luxembourg’s hippest business magazine announced the round-table like this: “Luxembourg’s motto mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn (we want to remain who we are) throws proves a stumbling block”, while artist Serge Tonnar, one of the participants, seemingly aimed to cause a stir by sasying this: “we want remain who we are, yet we don’t actually know who that is!”

Plateau du Kirchberg

The views of the country were derived both from the Nation Brands Index (NBI), to which Luxembourg first joined in 2011, and from a survey which, if the organisers are to be believed, targeted 20,000 people and several hundred responded. In the responses we see two polar opinions in Europe: ‘tax haven’ and ‘farm country’.  If read optimistically, this could denote a general view of Luxembourg as a stable and welcoming country which conserves nature. This would explain its positive reputation among Chinese tourists, which I mentioned on 13 March. However, the Grand Duchy appears to be having great trouble ridding itself of old clichés when it comes to the rest of Europe, an injury to which the news website 3/5/2 adds this insult: “outside of Europe, the question is not even asked, since the country is virtually unknown.”

Branding, which at present is wholly occupying the world of European tourism as it reflects upon a brand Europe as well as a European tourism quality label, must naturally take each European country as a separate entity and yet gather them all together as a collective. The notion of a site’s individuality and Europeanness is a two-sided question which the new European Heritage Label will have to answer. What can the European Commission create in terms of a next level of quality standards, into which the tourism label could incorporate existing national standards, some of which come with incentives?

The best agers

But let’s get back to Luxembourg. Every year, the Vakanz fair provides a preview to the European tourism fairs. It is certainly more modest in its ambitions than Berlin, Madrid or Milan, but it nevertheless it plays an important role for its surrounding area which crosses the border between the French- and German-speaking worlds. What was it the 2012 edition’s press release said? “In keeping with previous years, promoting tourism is still at the top of the agenda, and this year we are focusing on a new central theme. After gastronomy in 2010 and active tourism in 2011, 2012 tourism promotion will be targeted at a specific customer base: the ‘best agers’.” I myself should be interested for more than one reason. Firstly, I am over the 50-year age line, perhaps by quite a way. Secondly, I have had the privilege of being a constant tourist at an age which sits squarely within the targeted 15-year range, a range in which I shall stay for some time before I end up a ‘worst ager’. It must be said, however, that this “strong-purchasing-power” target is not being pursued only in Luxembourg but across all of Europe, since “They contribute 50% of the total personal wealth in Germany and more than 40% of the total purchasing power in the European Union.” The studies also show that “journeys taken by Europeans of 55 years and over have increased by 17% between 2005 and 2010. The market share of this age group represents 27% of all trips abroad taken in 2010, which adds up to 78 million trips (not including business trips). Nature, culture, historical heritage, wellness, relaxation, gastronomy, regional products and walking or cycling paths are the principal travel themes for this customer base, the interests of which generally fall under the heading “savoir-vivre”.

A large portion of cross-border cultural tourism’s clientele, therefore!

The Grund quarter

Yet given its still rather caricatured image, how can the Grand Duchy attract the group’s three socially and stylistically-defined subcategories? The ‘hedonists’, whose preference is comfort (luxury, even), high-quality cuisine, relaxation and wellness. They like to enjoy life and spend time with their family and friends. In general, they have a substantial budget to spend. The ‘enthusiastic’ travellers, who are very active, partake in many activities on their travels and seek out enriching discoveries and experiences. Finally there are the ‘cultural explorers’, who prefer museum tours, cultural sites, historical heritage and cultural events. They cultivate a rather elite lifestyle, they thirst for culture and they are particularly critical and demanding.

 

Cycling in Mullerthal

Ways to meet this potential demand can naturally be found in ‘best-agers special’ Best of Luxembourg magazine which can be downloaded in French, German and Dutch from the Ministry for Culture website. The three targeted groups mentioned above can indeed for what they want and need in this magazine, but unsurprisingly I headed straight to the article ‘Europe is part of Luxembourgish identity’. 

Written by the National Tourist Office’s Director, and brilliant historian, Louis Philippart, it leaves nothing unsaid. We might even dream that other European countries follow the same multicultural approach. In a few words, “Although today the fortress ofLuxembourg is part of UNESCO world heritage, this monumental piece of military engineering also tells of how the local population lived alongside foreign garrisons, starting with Luxembourg annexation by Burgundy in 1443 and thus the loss of the independence it had enjoyed in the Middle Ages. The French, the Spanish, the Austrians and the Prussians have all taken turns occupying the fortress walls. So, Luxembourg has a long tradition of different nations living together. As part of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands, or the Forêts region of France, Lauxembourg learned to grow from inside a larger community. Furthermore, on a religious level, the former Duchy of Luxembourg, which became a Grand Duchy in 1815, was divided into four dioceses, which explains the great cultural diversity of its religious heritage. Only in 1870 did Luxembourg become an independent diocese and, in 1988, an archdiocese.”

The National Tourist Office website provides all the cultural and tourist information one could need. Those who want to know more can also visit the website for the cultural routes of the Council of Europe in the partner's territories of the Greater Region.

I would also like to contribute some of my treasured memories from my years in Luxembourg’s company, for which I can simply refer to a number of posts that I wrote in 2006, when I first resolved to write regularly online.

Emaischen

 

Words from the exiled

When you live in the Grand Duchy, not only that but in an historic village such as Echternach, which is part of Mullerthal – or ‘Little Switzerland’ – traditionally one of the most touristic areas, you have every right to feel privileged. There are an infinite number of paths to stroll or cycle down through the undergrowth, where natural springs gush to the surface. What is more, a Mill-Man-Trail has been scheduled for 22 April, and the first Europiades will take place between 7 and 9 September. The annual dancing procession, performed in honour of Saint Willibrord, is a moving occasion which, despite finally being enshrined on the World Heritage List, has held on to its authenticity and conviviality. I haven’t even mentioned the music festival, which has itself given me genuine moments of happiness.

In truth, I have felt happiest as a tourist when on foot or on a biciycle: on the plateaus where the little train by the name of Charly used to pass; plunging into the greenery along the Sauer; through the vineyards along the Moselle; in the seven castles region; along the capital’s cultural paths on Emaischen day (Easter Monday); in Wiltz beside Michel Rodange and his Luxembourgish version of The Tale of the Fox; or even on the streets of Dudelange when I have visited the ever-thrilling exhibitions at the Documentation Centre for Human Rights; or in Esch-sur-Alzette attempting to discover its industrial heritage, the Red Lands and the legend of the Italians.

The dancing procession

 

So, Luxembourg: a protected country, green country, a rural country? Absolutely! “Vianden, embedded in a splendid landscape, will be visited one day by tourists from the whole of Europe, attracted both by its sinister but magnificent ruin and by its cheerful and happy people", wrote Victor Hugo, when exiled from France for a time. What else is there to say? Perhaps that buying petrol is no longer the only reason to travel to Luxembourg.

 Translation : Alistair Cowie

French Hospitality

 

Providing a comprehensive overview France’s tourist policy here would of course be a complete impossibility. Although it may be the no1 destination worldwide in terms of visitor numbers, France must now fight to retain its market share for it is no longer on top when it comes to tourists’ daily spending figures.

Roissy Airport

L’Hexagone also has to adapt to the fact that the more traditional destinations are becoming more and more woven into webs of locations which are also fighting for themselves – perhaps above all else – as part of European networks, in a border-less Europe, in addition to their national groupings. This is the case for a group of Mediterranean and Atlantic port towns which have embraced the hospitality style of the Odyssea network; for towns of the cure and wellbeing which belong to the European Historic Thermal Towns Association; for stopover towns and villages along the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Mont-Saint-Michel or sites connected with the history of Saint Martin; and to mention just two more, the Cluniac towns and sites, and the towns that feature along the great trans-European cycling routes.

The proposals are growing larger and wider, their profile bolstered by awards – as well as funding – from the Council of Europe, initiatives such as the EDEN destinations and the various actions taken under the framework programme of the European Commission. National labels are also providing support.

The fires of Saint Martin sur la Loire

A detailed look at all this would naturally require several posts.

French professionals are fortunate enough to profit from a unique structure: Atout France monitors the competition, undertakes international promotion, plays the role of technical agency, gives training to all the players, manages a global image and interfaces directly with the public.

At the Rendezvous en France trade fair in Paris on Wednesday 28 March, France’s tourism development agency announced the upcoming release of a website and a mobile app (on the App Store and Google Play) which would give tourists a platform to share in real time their views on the hospitality of French professional operators.

Boniffacio

In the meantime, the rendez vous en france website is fully operational and deploys a dizzying array of interactivity via a generous helping of images and Googlified maps. It is aimed at 23 markets worldwide – from the most traditional, such as the US, to the emerging markets such as China, Russia and the Middle-East – and does so in 14 languages, again the more usual such as English and German, as well as Chinese and Russian. Unforgettable Paris, French Gastronomy, the castles of the Loire, the journey to Nantes and its elephant… your eye is caught so often that your head begins to spin. In fact you have to pass through a dozen screens one after another just to arrive at a specific topic, there is that much on offer. Thankfully, at the bottom of the homepage you come across France at a glance, and your head stops spinning.

The Grand Elephant, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes

The website’s ‘France Guide’ section provides fact sheets on events, themes and destinations. As an example, I suggest you take a look at the page on the routes of spirituality to see how this information could be developed and expanded upon by all the proposed cultural routes with this theme. It would, however, require some real conviction to keep this section going long-term. Perhaps it might be a task that the French Federation of Cultural Routes, which has already released an app for Paris, might consider.

Piazza Beaubourg, Paris

Coming back to France as a whole, the country has to makes sense of and deal with a survey recently conducted by Zoover, Europe’s no1 independent website for tourist reviews, which set out to answer the question “Which Europeans are the most welcoming?” Over 17,000 internet users from 23 countries responded. The verdict?

Let’s begin by congratulating the winners: “The Austrians, with close to 13% of the votes, top the poll. The Spanish and the Belgians, both with over 10%, came second and third respectively. The Greeks have managed to remain friendly toward tourists despite the crisis their country is going through; they achieved fourth place. The Italians and the Germans follow them.” Shed a tear for the Swiss: “The Swiss do not appear, in the eyes of European tourists, to be a welcoming people. With 3.7% of the votes, the Helvetic nation comes in stone dead last on the list. England doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet to its European visitors, either. The English come just above the Swiss, earning the sympathy of less than 5% of the voters.”

Vineyard in Gevrey Chambertin

France has every right to be proud of its 80 million yearly visitor numbers, yet still has a lot of work to do when it comes to how tourists are received. “The French obtained only 4.5% of votes, which doesn’t even make the top 10! This survey therefore confirms the results of a study commissioned by tourism minister Frédéric Lefebvre last November, which assessed that the quality tourists receive on ‘first contact’ in France was inadequate” (study produced between May and August 2011 in France, Spain, Germany, Austria and the UK by the Brussels-based agency TCI Research).

‘France prospers thanks to Lourdes and Pigalle’, Pierre Perret supposedly said. Jules Michelet wrote, “England is an empire, Germany is a nation, France is a person.” But a welcoming person?

A snapshot of Germany

 

Now that we have entered into this new phase, in which the European Union Member States will have to work together, from time to time you might wonder about what policy all Member States are actually still pursuing. This is why I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the countries one by one by perusing news of symbolic importance or at least some developments of note.

From fairs to national offers

From 7 to 11 of next March, European tourism professionals will gather at the ITB in Berlin. However, this get-together is not just for professionals: the final two days are open to all. Given the industrial concerns, it cannot be expected that the fair website’s homepage should display too much information. Sun, surf, islands, deserts, pyramids and minarets, Greek temples and Roman ruins are in vogue, as they have been for a number of years. 170,000 visitors are expected; in other words, a vast world in which, with no point of reference and no help, a particular offer can disappear in the crowd, even more so than in Madrid or Milan.

“Travel & Tourism accounts for 258 million jobs globally. At US$6 trillion (9.1% of GDP) the sector is a key driver for investment and economic growth and at a global level. It is larger than the automotive industry at 8% GDP, and just smaller than banking at 11%. Our key challenge in the industry is to stimulate jobs and investment, eliminating barriers to travel such as visa restrictions, taxation, and outmoded infrastructure systems. I am confident that these issues will be addressed at Europe’s premier travel trade fair - ITB Berlin. It is the key place to learn about new trends, market developments, and to deepen existing business relations”, David Scowsill, Chair and CEO of the World travel & Tourism Council, stated at the start. It is indeed a global reality which has led to advice and seminars springing up online. All business, in other words."

However, in amongst all these larger markets – exotic, cruises, B2B and convention tourism – there are still niches for cultural tourism. Dialogue has by no means been explored at any great length, nor has the subject been fixed, but the space is there:

“For a growing number of people culture represents a main motivation for their holiday decision. Therefore, cities and regions increasingly use the possibility to highlight their cultural offers to draw tourists also during low season to their destinations. Cultural tourism plays a decisive role to increase the touristic capacity utilisation. ITB Berlin is also taking this topic into account. Therefore, national as well as international exhibitors present their services and products of this particular segment to the public and trade visitors in hall 10.2.” Furthermore, environmental issues and demands have done more than just break the surface; they are an unavoidable necessity. But are they a genuine market segment, or just marketing?

 ““ECOtourism stands for a touristic reorientation. It centers travel products which make a contribution to the protection of the environment and to the well-being of the guest population. Qualitative high-value journeys which allow sensual nature experiences and a personal insight into the culture of the guest country. ECOtourism offers an international panel and an advertising platform for products, offers, and concepts that target a sustainable development in tourism.”

But let’s get back to destination Germany. The least we can say is that the state is optimistic:

 “In 2011, Germany beat its record from the previous year, registering 63.6 million overnight stays by foreign tourists. With 330.3 million overnight stays made by German tourists, Germany remains the destination of choice for the German population. We hope to surpass 400 million nights”, declared Ernst Burgbacher, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology, who is responsible for the middle classes and tourism. Pétra Hedorfer, director of the National Office, added, “Thus in 2011, with a growth of approximately 5%, Germany was the second-choice destination for Europeans, just behind Spain (approximately 10%). According to the provisional data of IPK, this result widens the gap between Germany and France (approximately 2%). In the spirit of European harmony, France has been warned."

Aptly, the French language National Tourist Office’s website is adorned with the colours of culture and nature and even has a blog specifically for presenting news on culture and museums. I advise you all to visit it regularly. Along with the CIDAL website and information which I regularly post on my Facebook profile, it is a good way to stay up-to-date with cultural news, particularly if you base your travels on events. Explore it, and use it to research towns and sites. You might ask yourself whether or not the website is more for promoting heritage than for practical tourist uses. You come understand its reserve and generalist mindset when you realise that the Germany’s Federal States are in charge of their own tourist policy. This means that you must explore region-by-region to find the specifics. This we will not neglect to do in the coming months, in relation to the events which take place.

 

Eifel National Park

 

Heritage taking centre stage

It should come as no surprise, then, that until 15 March the Tourist Office, in this federal mentality, is conducting a survey with a view to pinpointing the 100 most popular tourist websites for foreign visitors to Germany. This survey is available in 26 languages on the tourist office’s website and on Facebook. The results are going to be used to develop a smartphone app.

Additionally, since 28 February, the Federal Foreign Office has been hosting an exposition entitled Welterbe in Deutschland, which displays the beauty and diversity of the German sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This is part of the celebrations being held to mark the 40th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. “Preserving culture and conserving world heritage forges cultural identity”, as Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, stated when she inaugurated the exposition, which will be open to the public from 10am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, until 13 April 2012.

 

Crossing paths

What else? Since the European Commission has stressed the relevance of the website set up by the European TravelCommission, I shall not neglect to take a look at the way in which destinations are presented on it. 

“Germany has so many things for you to discover. You can discover the treasures of its culture and the riches of its modernity, with ease, all year round. Germany’s landscape is as diverse as any other country in the world. From the stupefying alpine mountain ranges – including the Zugspitze which, at 2,962 metres, is the highest summit in Germany – which provide the ideal environment for hikers in summer and skiers and snowboarders in winter, to the 38 kilometres of immaculate, golden beaches on the island of Sylt and Wattenmeer National Park to the north. Or still the Black Forest which not only nourishes the wildlife and sweet-smelling plant life, but feeds the myths and legends of fairies and pixies which reside there. The great German cities never fail to enchanter their inquisitive guests.” I shall leave it to the readers to gauge the relevance of this testimony and inventiveness of its style.

 

If you want to find out more, make a beeline for the websites of the Federal States and do not forget to take a look at what the cultural routes which cross through Germany have to offer you.

There are three routes, the organisation of which began in Germany and benefit from management in the country, but nevertheless involve between five and ten European countries. These represent excellent testaments to the existence of a genuine link between heritage, culture and the tourist economy. These are the route of Brick Gothic, connected in large part with the Hanseatic towns, the route of Baltic fortresses and finally the route of historic theatres.

The Margravial Opera House

Of course, do not forget to visit thewebsites of the cultural routes recognised by the Council of Europe, some of which, as well as their remarkable symbolic power and the European citizenship initiatives they have implemented, provide tourist offers. We will cover that in more depth another time. 

The principal routes in question are the Via Regia; Transromanica, which incorporates genuine alternative tourist offers, for cycling in particular; the route of Hanseatic towns, which has a broad range of offers, and naturally walking routes, such as the ways to Santiago de Compostela and, more recently established, the journey from northern Germany to Trondheim on the Routes of Saint Olav.

The church at Jerichow – Route of Romanesque Art, Saxony-Anhalt

 

Memory at the heart of it

The routes are wide open. I have been traditional and focused on heritage, for our watchword of federalism lies within it… but there are plenty of innovative alternatives: anyone and everyone can cycle the paths along the Elbe, taking in the industrial areas of steel production and mining. Here, festivals have been organised, inside large factory buildings, no less. I have not even mentioned the Bauhaus sites nor the historical and contemporary gardens connected by a route of dreams… the Gartentraüme.

In essence, this country has only recently been unified. The Via Regia project, a great thoroughfare which begins in Ukraine, makes a fabulous contribution to answering the call to recover memories, work which is going on every day as much through reconstructions as through expositions or centres displaying archives of the most recent history: the eras of Nazism and Communism. A city such as Weimar, with its connection to Buchenwald, is as symbolic as unified Berlin. Tourism of memory, much like tourism of roots, with its research into emigration locations, is an area on which towns and associations have capitalised.

Hundertwasser Building in Magdeburg

Culture, did you say culture?  

“Nothing distorts the image of Goethe so perfidiously as the serene picture commonly drawn of him (in France at least). This sort of supreme happiness, remaining impassive and smiling in an area inaccessible to the storms, is not him. His spinozism does not go so far as to strangle his passions. On the contrary, he rather abandons himself to each one, learns from them, and only looks to free himself from them when they have nothing more to teach him. His goal, as if he had any other than living life as much as possible, is culture, not happiness.” Words from André Gide.

Translation: Alistair Cowie

Europe-les-Bains?

 

 

I must admit to stumbling across this work completely by chance while meandering through online research. Early in 2012, a blogger and former student of Michail Maiatsky produced a report on his Russian-language teacher’s book, which was published in 2007 and rightly entitled Europe-les-Bains. In the blog he writes “A philosopher of Russian origin, the author strikes where you would least expect: proffering an audacious project, to say the least, for Europe which he supports by use of caustic tales. The project? Transforming the tired Europe we know into one giant park of bathing and culture – the tourism capital of the world.”

Le destin du touriste

Naturally I was intrigued; firstly, because it was the second creative piece that I had read in which tourism is used as a place to play with memory. The first is Rui Zink’s Le destin du touriste (2011) in which the author uses scathing black humour to decry the tourist-voyeurs in warring countries.

Above all, however, I was seduced because I myself have often responded only half-jokingly with the following remark when, after cultural routes conferences, people would question me on the future of tourism in Europe: “Given the deindustrialisation of Europe and the pool of tourists which China and India constitute, I am fairly certain that within 50 years, Europe will have become a top-quality theme park to which residents of economically strong countries will flock in order to relax and take in the superbly presented tangible heritage, which will be the basis for combined routes of slow tourism, while they sample the intangible heritage carefully recovered through slow food.”

Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia

A new Grand Tour?

I fear that this prediction has nothing utopian about it. What does Michail Maiatsky say? “Europe, with France leading the way, is in the process of becoming a four-star resort. No more factories, no more industry, no more workers, no more work but more and more people in a hurry nonetheless, and above all tourists of all nationalities infuriating the locals. Packed museums where people admire paintings on ‘melancholia’. A civilisation in complete ennui, which has not gotten over its past greatness and deplores the little Chinese people; a place where the politicians have lost their way, where they no longer know what to do with ‘young people’ and where the old folk are almost in the majority – giving full meaning to the expression ‘good old Europe’ – in short, where it is all sliding downhill. However, rather than bury one’s head in the sand, it is better to accept this change. Although it is assuredly the end of a chapter, it is not the end of the world. What prospects are there in this new balneo-cultural park? Having become idle, by either choice or constraint, Europeans will be able to work as guides for the visitors, but above all they will finally have time to take care of themselves, and fully savour the confusion and vagary of their fate.”

So that’s that, then.

On 16 December 2010, The Economist ran an article with the headline ‘A new Grand Tour: China’s tourists are carving out a new European itinerary, with some unexpected stops’. In it, we read that Europe leads the surveys on the favoured destinations of China’s middle class; some of the places which crop up the most often are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Grand Canal in Venice. Oddly enough, however, the Chinese are also attracted to destinations which Europeans themselves would have trouble pointing to on a map, such as Luxembourg, Trier, Metzingen, Verona and mount Titlis (in the Swiss Alps). By all accounts, the Chinese tourist’s European Tour starts in France, “the country seen as offering all the essential European virtues: history, romance, luxury and quality.”

No arguments there! Yet I hope Luxembourg can forgive The Economist for this: “In Luxembourg the Chinese tourists pause just long enough to photograph the palace of its reigning grand duke. This pocket-sized country, with a population 3,000 times smaller than China’s, is admired for its national wealth per person (the highest in the world by some measure). It also allows Chinese tour groups to knock off another country with minimal effort, allowing for extra boasting back home.”

Translation Alisrair Cowie