Selling Places

Today, the projected image of the city may play a greater role than its reality in shaping the views of visitors, investors, and, even, residents. High-pressure marketing and sales techniques are frequently used to help troubled cities in their transition to post-industrial centres of tourism, culture and reinvestment. But for all the slick professionalism, it would be a mistake to think that any of this is new. The virgin lands of the North American West were sold to enterprising young men on airy promises of fertility and prosperity. 'Bracing' seaside resorts promoted themselves on a charasmatic mix of vigourous, family values and innocent pleasures. Commuter suburbs promised domestic bliss and security in an arcadian setting. Faltering industrial towns sold themselves to manufacturers as efficient, strike-free havens of enterprise and hard work. And the post-industrial cities of today put forward an image of renewal based on cultural vibrancy, spectacle and diversity. Selling Places explores the fascinating development of the place marketing and promotion over the last 150 years, drawing on examples from Northern America, Britain and continental Europe. The processes involved and the promotional imagery employed are meticulously presented and richly illustrated. For those teaching or studying planning, geography, urban history, tourism or cultural studies, this book will prove a mine of information, while current practitioners in city marketing, economic development and tourism promotion will find much that will inspire and delight.