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THE EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE EVENT ON THE CITY OF MARIBOR AND THE CITY OF GUIMARÃESNastja Sušec, 2015, master's thesis
Abstract: The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is a title designated to a European city for a duration of one year, when it can present itself and its cultural life regionally, nationally and internationally. The origin of ECoC goes back in 1983 when then Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri aimed to »bring the people of the Member States closer together« and to »highlight the richness and diversity of European cultures«. Since then over fifty European cities have taken the advantage and held the ECoC title, which has overgrown the original purpose and became today the most established EU’s cultural initiative. This Master’s Thesis discusses Maribor and Guimarães as the host cities of the ECoC 2012 event. The Master’s Thesis considers the ECoC event as a whole and provides a systematic review of the literature on the European cultural policy and on the development of the ECoC, as well as the evaluation of the ECoC in 2012. Therefore, the Master’s Thesis is divided into theoretical and empirical part and briefly presented further in this Abstract. The theoretical part first outlines the origins, purpose and definition of the European Cultural Policy. It traces the development of the European Cultural Programme, particularly the legislative and the flagship programme of the ECoC. This part is then followed by the presentation of culture’s incorporation into the EU’s objectives and the creation of the European cultural space. The second chapter highlights the ECoC event and presents the past ECoC cities from historical perspective and by their particularity. Maribor and Guimarães, as the ECoC 2012 cities, are also presented in detail, from the perspectives of the socio-economic indicators of the cities and the ECoC 2012 event. The next chapters provide a wider discussion on the relationship among the culture and economy. Previous empirical studies have identified the impacts of the ECoC event on the city’s economy. Additionally, cities are increasingly using cultural events to improve their image, stimulate urban development and attract visitors. Moreover, the ECoC event attracts great media attention. This Master’s Thesis examines the role of such event for tourism, as well as its cultural and promotion effects. In order to determine the effects of the ECoC event on the cities hosting the title in 2012, a comparison analysis of the indicators was performed and the quantitative analysis by the AHP method was undertaken in the empirical part. An evaluation model was formed, in which nine indicators were used to evaluate the effects of the 2012 event on the city’s tourism, culture and recognition. On the basis of this Master’s Thesis research we confirmed the hypothesis H2 and rejected the hypotheses H1, H3 and H4. We concluded that Guimarães as the ECoC 2012 achieved more favourable results than Maribor with its partner cities almost in all effects; Maribor was better than Guimarães only as regards the effects on the city’s culture. In the last chapter the conclusions and the recommendations for the future are drawn. The results of the Master’s Thesis are applicable for institutions that form development strategies, institutions that develop tourist and cultural offer in Maribor and Guimarães and for cities that will host the ECoC event in the future. The research findings are also applicable for the European Commission and general public.
Keywords: European Cultural Policy, European Capital of Culture, Tourism effects, Culture effects, Recognition effects, AHP method
Published in DKUM: 04.06.2015; Views: 3137; Downloads: 221
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