IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v4y2016i2p11-d70617.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Annual City Festivals as Tools for Sustainable Competitiveness: The World Port Days Rotterdam

Author

Listed:
  • Erwin Van Tuijl

    (Department of Regional, Port and Transport Economics, European Institute for Comparative Urban Research (Euricur), Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands)

  • Leo Van den Berg

    (Department of Regional, Port and Transport Economics, European Institute for Comparative Urban Research (Euricur), Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands
    Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 30123 Venice, Italy)

Abstract

Many cities organize annual local festivals for the positive effects on urban development, although success is far from straightforward. This article reviews a case study of the World Port Days in Rotterdam in order to demonstrate how annual city festivals can contribute to sustainable competitiveness, despite limitations as well. We show how this maritime event—that is jointly organized by the business community, the Port Authority and the City Government—offers benefits for citizens as well as for firms. Our empirical results unveil that the business value of the event includes generation of societal support, image improvement, labor market development and networking, while the value for society refers to education, leisure and to a certain degree to social inclusion. The direct value of the event for business in terms of sales and recruitment is limited, while the long-term effects of educational function deserve further attention. Finally, we provide policy lessons that, when properly contextualized, other cities may help to use annual local festivals as tools for sustainable competitiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Erwin Van Tuijl & Leo Van den Berg, 2016. "Annual City Festivals as Tools for Sustainable Competitiveness: The World Port Days Rotterdam," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:4:y:2016:i:2:p:11-:d:70617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/4/2/11/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/4/2/11/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward Malecki, 2004. "Jockeying for Position: What It Means and Why It Matters to Regional Development Policy When Places Compete," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9), pages 1101-1120.
    2. Bill Hopwood & Mary Mellor & Geoff O'Brien, 2005. "Sustainable development: mapping different approaches," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(1), pages 38-52.
    3. Camagni, Roberto & Capello, Roberta & Nijkamp, Peter, 1998. "Towards sustainable city policy: an economy-environment technology nexus," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 103-118, January.
    4. Harald Bathelt & Nina Schuldt, 2008. "Between Luminaires and Meat Grinders: International Trade Fairs as Temporary Clusters," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 853-868.
    5. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2002. "Marketing Mardi Gras: Commodification, Spectacle and the Political Economy of Tourism in New Orleans," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(10), pages 1735-1756, September.
    6. Michael E. Porter, 2000. "Location, Competition, and Economic Development: Local Clusters in a Global Economy," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 14(1), pages 15-34, February.
    7. Marjana Johansson & Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, 2011. "City festivals : creativity and control in staged urban experiences," Post-Print hal-02423783, HAL.
    8. Borghini, Stefania & Golfetto, Francesca & Rinallo, Diego, 2006. "Ongoing search among industrial buyers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(10-11), pages 1151-1159, October.
    9. Dominic Power & Johan Jansson, 2008. "Cyclical Clusters in Global Circuits: Overlapping Spaces in Furniture Trade Fairs," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 84(4), pages 423-448, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ying Zheng & Jingzhu Zhao & Guofan Shao, 2020. "Port City Sustainability: A Review of Its Research Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2015. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a network theory," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 103-128, June.
    2. Huasheng Zhu & Kebi Chen & Yunlong Lian, 2018. "Do Temporary Creative Clusters Promote Innovation in an Emerging Economy?—A Case Study of the Beijing Design Week," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Martin M�ller & Allison Stewart, 2016. "Does Temporary Geographical Proximity Predict Learning? Knowledge Dynamics in the Olympic Games," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 377-390, March.
    4. Harald Bathelt & Sebastian Henn, 2014. "The Geographies of Knowledge Transfers over Distance: Toward a Typology," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(6), pages 1403-1424, June.
    5. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430, April.
    6. Rachael Gibson & Harald Bathelt, 2014. "Proximity relations and global knowledge flows: specialization and diffusion processes across capitalist varieties," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 9, pages 291-314, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. John Lauermann, 2016. "Temporary projects, durable outcomes: Urban development through failed Olympic bids?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(9), pages 1885-1901, July.
    8. Ying Li & Robert J. S. Beeton & Xiaofeng Zhao & Yeting Fan & Qingke Yang & Jianbao Li & Linlin Ding, 2024. "Advancing urban sustainability transitions: A framework for understanding urban complexity and enhancing integrative transformations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Niki Derlukiewicz & Anna Mempel-Śnieżyk & Dominika Mankowska & Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Stanisław Minta & Tomasz Pilawka, 2020. "How do Clusters Foster Sustainable Development? An Analysis of EU Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, February.
    10. Tina Haisch & Max-Peter Menzel, 2019. "Temporary Markets in a Global Economy: An Example of Three Basel Art Fairs," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_14, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    11. Harald Bathelt, 2011. "International Trade Fairs and World Cities: Temporary vs. Permanent Clusters," Chapters, in: Ben Derudder & Michael Hoyler & Peter J. Taylor & Frank Witlox (ed.), International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Tina Haisch & Max-Peter Menzel, 2023. "Temporary markets: Market devices and processes of valuation at three Basel art fairs," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 237-254, March.
    13. Thomas Burr, 2014. "Making Distribution Markets: Market-Wide Institutions in French and American Bicycle Distribution, 1865–1914," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 178-209, January.
    14. Argentino Pessoa, 2011. "How high is the ability of tourism to reverse the course of depressed regions? An appraisal based on the recovery of the Portuguese Douro Valley," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1148, European Regional Science Association.
    15. van Tuijl, E. & Dittrich, K., 2015. "Events as spaces for upgrading," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2014-013-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    16. Jansson Johan, 2014. "Temporary events and spaces in the Swedish primary art market," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 58(1), pages 202-215, October.
    17. Bulu, Melih, 2014. "Upgrading a city via technology," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 63-67.
    18. Guillaume Favre & Julien Brailly, 2020. "Detachment as a privilege: industry participation at TV programming and distribution marketplaces," Post-Print hal-03256150, HAL.
    19. Harald Bathelt & Gang Zeng, 2014. "The Development of Trade Fair Ecologies in China: Case Studies from Chengdu and Shanghai," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(3), pages 511-530, March.
    20. Oliver Ibert, 2010. "Relational Distance: Sociocultural and Time–Spatial Tensions in Innovation Practices," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(1), pages 187-204, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:4:y:2016:i:2:p:11-:d:70617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.