Warhol City: Town Marketing As Tool Promoting Local Development in Disadvantaged Regions
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Warhol City: town marketing as tool promoting local development in disadvantaged regions Medzilaborce, Prešov region, Slovakia SYNTHESIS The Warhol City project in Medzilaborce1, located in Eastern Slovakia, combined the development of tourism infrastructure with city marketing activities. All activities were inspired by the style of the world famous artist Andy Warhol whose family originally came from the region. The town of Medzilaborce and its surrounding region is one of the most peripheral Slovak regions and suffers from very high unemployment rates (13.5% in March 2007). The overall objective of the project was to accelerate local development of tourism and thereby to contribute to local job creation and regional development. For doing so, the local stakeholders recognised the need to be unique and innovative in comparison to other cities. The role of local leaders was of utmost importance in this context. The recognition that the town depended on their ideas and long-term commitment, proved essential for the success of the project. The central idea was to market the city internationally using the link to Warhol. The project’s activities focused on three key tourist locations in Medzilaborce: the town centre, the town's leisure and sports park (with amphitheatre) and the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art (AWMMA2). The renovation and new elements of infrastructure were designed following Andy Warhol’s Pop Art style. The works, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, included renovation and new construction of pavements, parking sites, public lighting, facades of selected buildings as well as the introduction of a new town information and street information system. Another part of the plan was the partial reconstruction of the town amphitheatre. The endeavour also included the creation of a small skansen (“miniskansen”). This group of wooden houses is a replica of Andy Warhol’s parents’ village. The key innovative element of this plan was developing a new local development tool based on art as a driving element. The original idea of establishing a small gallery or museum dedicated to Andy Warhol turned into an important local development initiative rarely used in case of small peripheral towns. The public sector’s institutions were instrumental for this development initiative. The initiative had a solid political support and has been welcomed by the local citizens. It drew attention to their role in local life as well as the less dynamic local private sector. Importantly, several new private activities in tourism services (e.g. restaurants, guest- houses) have already started as a result of the changing image of the town and its improved environment. 1 http://www.medzilaborce.net/medzilaborce_16.htm 2 http://art.box.sk/warhol/index2.html Background information Country: Slovakia Region: Prešov region (NUTS II – East Slovakia) Project title: WARHOL CITY – change of city image (Slovak: WARHOL CITY – zmena imidžu mesta) Key words: tourism and culture; urban areas Duration of project: May 2005 – August 2006 Funding: Total budget €681,296 ERDF contribution (75%) €510,972 National budget (5%) €137,881 Local self-government contribution €32,443 Other costs non-eligible for contribution: €51,529 ERDF Objective: Objective 1 1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The main objective of the Warhol City project was to develop conditions for accelerating local development with a special emphasis on tourism. The project’s purpose was to build and foster an attractive local environment and facilities. It is envisaged that longer term results will include an increased flow of tourists contributing to local job creation. The core idea behind the initiative was to link the initiative to the name and work of the world famous artist Andy Warhol whose parents were born locally. It was considered that this would help in marketing the city and improving its image in the eyes of tourists. The project focused on tourism infrastructure development and various accompanying activities based on a city marketing concept. The project’s activities focused on three key tourist locations in Medzilaborce: the town centre, the town's leisure and sports park (with amphitheatre), and the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art. The first group of project activities focused on the reconstruction and new construction of pavements, the renovation of facades of selected buildings, the building of parking sites in the above mentioned locations, the partial reconstruction of the town amphitheatre, the renewal of public lighting in the town centre, as well as the introduction of a new town street information system. Pop Art was used as an inspiration whenever possible (e.g. in street information system, facades etc.). The most unique aspect of the Warhol City project was construction of the small skansen comprised of a group of small wooden houses located in separate part of town’s leisure and sport park. The skansen is a replica of the place where Andy Warhol’s parents were born. This last project included establishing a well-equipped local tourism information centre. All aspects of the project attempted to integrate and upgrade the local tourist environment. The project results were fully in line with those outlined in project proposal, in concrete terms these included: 80 new parking places in all three key locations, about 750m of new street lighting, about 2500m2 of reconstructed and new pavements and a 2900m2 reconstructed amphitheatre. All construction activities were successfully completed meaning that public spaces and facilities were improved in large sections of the town. Moreover, a local tourism information centre is up and running. Completion of the Warhol City project generated directly two new jobs and indirectly contributed to creating twelve and safeguarding ten jobs. Several new private tourism services (e.g. restaurants, guest-houses) have already started as a result of the changing image of the town and its improved environment. The final beneficiaries of the Warhol City project are the local inhabitants of Medzilaborce and the North-East region of Slovakia who use the improved infrastructure and facilities. Visitors are expected to come also from other parts of Slovakia and abroad. Other beneficiaries will include the unemployed who will have increased opportunities to find jobs linked, directly or indirectly, to tourist services. The local businesses can be also considered as indirect beneficiaries as they will have an opportunity to profit from providing commercial services to a growing number of visitors. The project increased chances to attract tourists to Medzilaborce. The town sells its new image by participation in national and international tourism, dissemination of printed promotion materials and via Internet3. The initiative and story attracted media attention. Medzilaborce was covered by many foreign TV documentaries on Slovakia. Over the last few years, the town has often featured in official national Slovak presentations at international events. Increased awareness of the strong link between Andy Warhol and the town of Medzilaborce has become a factor attracting both Slovak and foreign private companies, which are now more active in cooperating with the local government and the museum, e.g. sponsoring various activities. The renovated amphitheatre is frequently used for local and regional festivals, for instance, it hosted the traditional 45th Festival of Culture and Sport in June 2007. On this occasion, the President of the Slovak Republic, M. Gašparovič, opened the skansen. The event gathered many national, regional and local politicians. The area is now providing a much better and variable environment for cultural and other events, and the number of organised special events is expected to double in the coming years. Accordingly, it appears that the town is set to achieve the expected positive impact. Local inhabitants welcome the initiative, especially so since the project activities contributed to infrastructures they use on daily basis. Medzilaborce has already experienced a rising number of tourists attracted by the Pop Art and Andy Warhol image. There is an estimated increase of 5-15% of visitors in 2007. It will be more reasonable to evaluate the project after the summer of 2007, since the majority of the project was completed only in 2006. ERDF funding was crucial as without these funds the project activities would not have been implemented. The City of Medzilaborce has a very limited budget and indeed had to take a commercial loan to cover the obligatory 5% share of co-financing. 2. POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT The town of Medzilaborce and its surrounding region is one of the most peripheral Slovak regions. It is located in the north east corner of the country close to the borders with Poland and Ukraine. It has faced serious social and economic difficulties during the post- communist transition period. Only a small percentage of former industries remain in operation along with a few small wood-processing plants based in local forests. The region suffers from a very high unemployment rates (17.1% in December 2005 and 13.5% in March 2007 according to the Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family). The town is poorly connected to transport networks, which has further diminished chances for development under new market conditions, especially compared to other Slovak regions. The town and its surroundings have a very specific and differentiated population structure; the most distinctive feature is its ethnic and religious diversity.