Film-Induced Tourism, City-Branding and Place-Based Image: the Cityscape of Naples between Authenticity and Conflicts

The paper aims at analysing the connections between film-induced tourism, city-branding and place-based image through the case-study of Naples, particularly deepening the role played by urban policies not only in promoting or sustaining but also in refusing some specific city’s representations. In the first part we will explore this relationship focusing the attention on the changing representations of the city in films and on the changes produced by the urban policies carried out in the phase of so-called Neapolitan Renaissance. The second part will be dedicated to deepen the link between the images of the city conveyed by the media and the touristic sector, emphasizing the role of the official representations and of the Campania Region Film Commission. The third part of the paper will focus on the conflicts involving the urban actors about the existence of a potential link between some negative representations of the periodical crisis of the city (for garbage, organized crime and difficulties in the administrative management) and tourist flows. We will argue that the duplicity of representations proposes in a new way the traditional dual image of the Neapolitan cityscape, inspiring by a different notion of “authenticity”.L’articolo si propone di analizzare le connessioni tra film-induced tourism, city branding e immagine place-based attraverso il caso studio di Napoli, in particolare approfondendo il ruolo assunto dalle politiche urbane non solo nel promuovere e sostenere ma anche nel rifiutare alcune specifiche rappresentazioni della città. Nella prima parte esploreremo questa relazione focalizzando l’attenzione sulle rappresentazioni mutevoli della città nei film e sui cambiamenti prodotti dalle politiche urbane portate avanti nella fase del cosiddetto Rinascimento napoletano. La seconda parte sarà dedicata ad approfondire il legame tra le immagini della città veicolate dai media e il settore turistico, enfatizzando il ruolo delle rappresentazioni ufficiali e della Film Commission Regione Campania. La terza parte si concentrerà sui conflitti che coinvolgono gli attori urbani intorno all'esistenza di un legame tra alcune rappresentazioni negative delle crisi periodiche della città (causate dalla spazzatura, dalla criminalità organizzata e delle difficoltà nella gestione amministrativa) e i flussi turistici. Sosterremo che l’attuale duplicità di rappresentazioni propone in modo nuovo la tradizionale immagine duale del paesaggio urbano napoletano, ispirandosi ad una differente nozione di “autenticità”.

Consumption and Demand for Places: a Reading through the Neapolitan Case

The contribution starts from the historical importance of the commercial function in Naples in structuring the urban space, a function to which it is possible largely to trace the long-lasting relationship between consumption and demand for places, as well as many changes in the urban image. Retail organized the city not only on the main streets but also at the scale of non-minoritarian and widespread micro-spaces in the various neighborhoods, in a Naples that, especially in the twentieth century, was transformed according to macro logic very different from today’s. Today the element that seems to most order the structure of places and the urban landscape is consumption, mixed with living and related activities, walking and cultural functions: elements mediated by local authorities, which in turn must deal with new phenomena. The question arises in territorial terms, as retail and consumption (and their protagonists) claim places and public space. The case study will be that of the metropolitan territory in an extended sense and will be analyzed through four scales chosen as the most exemplary of the change: the upgraded/touristified city-centre; the historical centre in its marginal parts; the metropolitan interstices; the small and medium-sized centers at the metropolitan scale. Demands of products and places that become the expression of a new demand for cities bring out the potential, contradictions and conflicts of a Mediterranean city in transition

Patrimonio culturale, festival e turismo: una riflessione alla scala urbana italiana

The paper analyses the relationship between cultural heritage and events with regard to the tourist flows in the Italian cities. Next to the consolidated destinations, some little and medium towns have recently attracted tourists and visitors as locations of new cultural activities. These «eventful cities», although still controversial in the effective realization of inclusive and sustainable outcomes, call into question a traditional and fixed use of culture

Comercio en el centro y consumo de centro en Nápoles

Il saggio analizza le trasformazioni del centro storico di Napoli attraverso la chiave di lettura del commercio e del consumo, in quest'ultimo caso facendo riferimento non solo al consumo di prodotti ma anche a quello di luoghi. Dopo un approfondimento teorico sui legami tra gentrification, commercio e consumo, che animano l'attuale dibattito di matrice geografica, si tratta il tema della gentrification commerciale, che sta cambiando il volto di molti centri storici. L'analisi, poi, si concentra sul caso del centro di Napoli, analizzando le aree commerciali secondo le tappe della loro evoluzione, così come le continuità e le trasformazioni degli spazi centrali, per poi approfondire il tema del consumo

Le «nuove geografie» del turismo. Le prospettive del settore in Basilicata

The article aims at analysing the tourism development in Basilicata, a region with an interesting tourist potential, but still characterized by a limited competitiveness. The starting point is a reflection on the transition from the “geography of tourism” to the “geographies of tourism”, in order to stress not only the variety of the subjects, but also the multiplicity of approaches, methods and scales of the analysis. Firstly, the development of “geographies of tourism” is approached from a theoretical point of view, putting in evidence the main issues that today brighten up the national and international debate on the tourist phenomenon. The second part of the article is dedicated to the tourism trends in the Italian Mezzogiorno that, though presenting a good stock of tourist and material capital, still shows relevant limits to the tourism development. In the third part of the article, the focus moves on the Basilicata region: after an overall view of the tourism at the regional scale, the news introduced by the tourism planning are analysed in depth. At the end, the five Local Tourist Systems are investigated in detail and utilized to examine the potential and the critical elements that come out by the study of the many tourisms which make up the Basilicata supply

Introduction

City, Retail and Consumption focuses on changing urban spaces through the interpretative key offered by retail and consumption, between globalization processes and the embeddedness in local contexts. The book is the outcome of the fourth international seminar organized by geographers from various countries (Brazil, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) and enriched by the contributions of specialists (architects, urban planners, engineers, economists) and stakeholders. It collects almost fifty texts written after a fruitful debate not only about theories, approaches and methods but also about the practical implications of the urban planning for shopping and consumption places. The case studies range from Sao Paulo to Presidente Prudente, from Buenos Aires to Mexico City and again from Barcelona and Lleida to Lisbon, Paris, Ankara, Copenhagen and many Italian cities. Through different scales of analysis, the contributors have indeed paid their attention on relevant issues to urban studies: resilience, sustainability, dialectic between public and private spaces, impact of e-commerce in urban areas, residential and retail gentrification, neoliberalism and the right to the city