LIÈGE : Betting on tourism for increased economic benefits and reconversion from industry to services.

Tomke Lask, gtASA, Elisabeth Dumont, LEMA, University of Liège

1. History, context and background of

the cultural tourism strategy in Liège

Located in the Western corner of Belgium, Liège is the third largest town in Belgium, with a ground area of 69,2km2. On the 31st of December 2005, it counted 186.805 inhabitants, plus 4.017 foreigners waiting for a definite visa to stay in Liège or Belgium. This gives us a population density of 26,99 inhabitants per km2. Liège is a dynamic town as its population has been increasing by by more or less 1.000 persons every year since 2002. 1 17,9% of the whole population are foreigners and 139 different nationalities are officially registered at the town hall. 52,32% of the non-Belgian residents of Liège are from EU member countries and 47,68% are from countries outside the EU. The most important group comes from Italy, with Italians accounting for 33% of the total of foreigners in Liège. Liège is also a university town with 14.000 students of which 2.500 are foreigners.

1 For more details see the following official site:

http://www.Liège.be — Liège —Ville de Liège — Site officielle—Cadres Population.

Following the most recent data available (31st of December 2004) 2 on hotels from the Observatory of Walloon Tourism, Liège has 134 hotels with a capacity of 5.765 beds. No information on the occupation rate is available for the town only concerning the evolution of the pricinves or in Belgium in general. However, the Tourist Office has reported for the year of 2003 that it received 20.581 visitors and 10.892 calls for information as well as 2.392 requests by e-mail. Liège is located in the middle of the Meuse-Rhine Euregio, regrouping Liège, Maastricht, Aachen and Hasselt. Aachen, the nearest German town, is 50km away and Maastricht in the Netherlands 20 km. This geographic situation has always fostered trans-national contacts for trade. Still today, for example, hundreds of Germans and Dutch come every Sunday to Liège’s open market, La Batte. Despite the fact that Liège is not a State capital, several public or regional competences are located there: a) It is the capital of the Province

(political), b) The headquarters of many economic

institutions of the Walloon Region are established here (economic),

c) Tribunals and courts are set up in the town (judiciary),

d) The town holds an important network of secondary schools and higher education institutions (educational) and

e) important regional cultural activities take also place in Liège (cultural).

2http://observatoire.tourisme.wallonie.be/apps/spip/article.php3?id_article=22

The river Meuse is one of the reasons for the original settlement of Liège and represents an important element of the local geography Yet, the little village The small village of the 8th century, situated between the river Legia and an arm of the river Meuse, started growing mainly after the assassination of bishop Lambert from Tongeren because it turned Liège into a place of pilgrimage. The importance of Liège as capital of the diocese had also an economic impact for the town, attracting artists, artisans and merchants. Liège remained an independent Principality of the Germanic Empire during eight centuries. This certainly contributed to the development of an independent spirit. Today Liège is well known inside Belgium for the open-mindedness of its inhabitants and their friendliness in general. The French Revolution and the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment fell on a fertile ground in the Principality of Liège, at some stage of its history nearly as big the Walloon region today. However, after the French Revolution Liège lost its independence and finally was integrated in what is today Belgium after still another revolution in 1830. In the 19th century the predominant aspect of the economy became the industry with coalmines and the steel industry. This has so far played a major role in the economy of the town , but its end is expected for the middle of the decade of 2010.

Curently, the average income (22.099 Euros per year) in Liège is lower than in the Walloon Region (23.265 Euros per year) and also compared to Belgium as a whole (24.692 Euros per year). Liège is striving to develop new economic roles. Tourism is one real option for the city administration as well as new technologies.

The future economic project is fostered by the construction of integrated transport communication by motorways, by rivers (Liège has the third largest river port linked to sea ports like Antwerp and Rotterdam), by high-speed train (Thalys) and by air with its cargo and charter flight airport at Bierset.

Main actions in cultural tourism strategy In 2003 the town council elaborated an action plan (Town Project) to establish the main objectives to be developed until 2010.4 The proposal of 74 projects, 16 objectives and 10 general themes was submitted to citizens in the form of leaflets they could return. For the year 2006, the town decided to give priority to 15 points out of the 74 points long action plan. One of the 15 priorities is a marketing plan to bring back people, tourists and residents into the town centre. The recent construction of shopping and leisure facilities at the periphery of the Liège incited people to keep out of the town centre instead. The economic loss turned out to be sensible for the town commerce. The plan is to seduce people to visit and use again the town centre, for instance, thanks to an illumination program for the built heritage, the so-called Illumination Plan. It was initiated in 2003 with financial help from the EU INTERREG IIIC program. A list of the buildings is already established and a pilot-project will be launched soon.

4 http://www.Liège.be/projetdeville/cad1tend.htm

The town also invests in renovation of its built heritage and urban planning as well as in the promotion of its museums. It will for instance inaugurate a new one, the "Grand Curtius," at the end of 2007. The concern for a greater cooperation with the local population is expressed on the official documents, but no systematic way of getting there is announced.5 In general the objective of the town is to create a coherent and attractive image of the town. Several points are pointed out: a) creating a brand image, for instance through the creation of a new logo found hereunder. b) developing business and fluvial tourism c) inciting town partnerships d) concretising the Meuse-Rhine Euregio e) assuring an international promotion f) increasing the number of nights spend in

all hotel categories g) increasing one day tourist numbers 5 http://www.Liège.be/cadreslg/cadautor.htm

h) inciting the creation of camping grounds, bed & breakfast, hotels etc.

i) proposing a harmonised calendar and organised reservation

j) creating a structure for the coordination of the tourist agents

k) conceiving a plan for an integrated promotion with all tourist agents

l) proposing a tourist passport In general, there exists no systematic cooperation between the different departments of the town council (town planning, garbage collection, culture, etc.). Better communication amongst them would greatly improve the integration and quality of tourism development. "La Maison du Tourisme" (the house of tourism) located right in the town centre, just next to the palace is an achievement in integration and cooperation. offers in one single place all the information concerning tourism in Liège and its surroundings. The contact with the tourists is centralised and a better service can be provided concerning for example a multi-lingual service for tourists. Main axes of cultural tourism strategy Liège's tourism strategy relies first on the topography and geography of the place, second on its intangible heritage, third on the existence of cultural infrastructure, fourth on the maintenance and creation of tourism landmarks. These are often interrelated. The river Meuse is one important element of the local topography that the town wants to take advantage of in its tourism policy. The other one is the hillside next to the river where one of the oldest and still liveliest quarters of the city, the "Hors Chateau" (outside the castle, it used to be outside city walls) district, is situated.

Folklore and other festivities in town are one of the other strategic axes for tourism in Liège. The town supports actively neighbourhood festivities like ‘La Nocturne Des Coteaux’ (a night during which the hillside area is lit by thousands of candles and concerts and other cultural activities happen in yards and on the street).

Fig. 1: Some stairs of Liège lit by candles during the "Nocturne des coteaux" The policy is to value what already exists. However, this can create tensions as some locally organised activities are taken over by the town and citizens feel deprived of their initiative and production.

The Walloon Heritage day as well as other festivals are a common feature in tourism promotion in Liège and new festivals are constantly created in order to make the town more and more lively. The town tries to create also events that tourists could combine with different interests than culture. The new ‘Epicuriennes’, a festival of high cuisine in first class restaurants in Liège, can be seen as initiative in the sense to make people come and stay longer than one day. The town also draws heavily on the atmosphere of Liège, a city that has the reputation to be lively. This is most expressed by suggestive terms like ‘the ardent town.’ This expression is said to said to the welcoming character the people of Liège have in the Belgian imaginary but in fact comes from a fire that was lit by the French and lasted so long that they called Liège the "ardent town." Third, the commercialisation of cultural goods like the Walloon opera is also part of the town's strategy. In this case we can even see cross border cultural promotion in the Euregio. Finally, built heritage is preserved, maintained, and made more beautiful because of the need to "sell" the town. Also town authorities invested in new landmarks that they think will definitely put Liège on the tourist map, such as the new train station designed by Calatrava. This investment, however, means that other projects could not see the light in Liège and this can lead to resentment from the population. One of the challenges of a tourism policy as of other sectors of the politics is the difficult communication between the inhabitants and the politicians. Quality of Life and Public Participation

Topics like quality of life, cultural diversity or multi-cultural society are systematically taken into account in Liège's tourism policy. Town authorities seem to think of quality of life in terms of economic improvement. Tourism is conceived as an alternative to the dying of the steel industry. Also the impact to the quality of life through the prettying of the town is considered positive by town authorities. Results from PICTURE surveys about quality of life reveal that the most important elements that shape quality of life for residents are first the physical environment, second the private emotional sphere, and third only the material well-being. It is followed by the public emotional sphere and psychological well-being, respectively fourth and fifth. And clearly the authorities can play a role in local residents' quality of life since all the most important elements of it have to do with public services. They are indeed, by decreasing order of importance, cleanliness, security and the presence of green spaces. This winning trio is then followed by lack of pollution, the presence of cultural activities, and places to party, the availability of public transportation, urban beauty, infrastructure and services. The impact of tourist presence on the local quality of life is not handled in any systematic way and represents a source of tension between residents and local authorities. The danger of this lack of systematic approach is that residents leave a specific neighbourhood, thus transforming a mixed urban space into a mono-functional commercial space for restaurants, bars, shops and hotels,. The opinion on tourism and its positive or negative impacts, varies greatly however, from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. A

tourist policy, must take the local into account. cannot be conceived too generally. It cannot be conceived too generally and a detailed analysis of the situation, even inside the same tourist neighbourhood must be undertaken to understand why some inhabitants can and cannot cope with tourists. More public participation could also ease off some of the tensions. At the moment, decisions are taken at the council level. The population is informed and can sometimes react but an integration of residents' opinion at consultation level would greatly improve the cooperation. and the population is informed and can then eventually express its concerns, if they get in time access to the communication channel chosen by the town.

Transferable key lessons

Liège offers us some good elements of urban governance:

an attempt to revitalise a town

through cultural tourism with a long term urban strategic

planning

This case study confirms the role played by the European Union with :

the importance of EU and external

funding for small and medium sized towns to develop their infrastructures and activities (Illumination Plan, renovation of the Grand Curtius museum,...)

It emphasizes the importance of public participation and the difficulty to create effective structures to facilitate it:

public participation (making the decision with the locals) differs from public information (informing the locals with the decisions taken bottom down).

public participation is crucial for the sustainability of tourism as it is linked with residents' acceptance of the phenomenon.

the question that remains is : how to share power in an effective way

It points to new elements to investigate in tourism development :

monitoring or assessment before,

during or after a tourism project should exist and not be limited to economic profitability: image and physical environment play a significant role and quality of life is a crucial element to be monitored

intangible heritage plays a significant role in the attractivity of a town. It should be valued, encouraged and carefully monitored as well.

Policies should be tailored to the specific contexts in the urban space and elaborated with the help of an impact study to guarantee sustainability.

Systematic cooperation between the different departments of the town council could lead to more integrated policies and avoid waste of resources.