At the beginning of this chapter, the use of Manchester as an example in the urban tourism destination typologies of Law (1996) and Page (1995) was discussed. Page (1995) describes Manchester as an inner city urban tourism destination. However, the fact that the majority of Manchester’s visitor attractions are in the centre of the city does not distinguish it adequately from any other tourist city. Law (1996) fittingly categorises Manchester along with other industrial cities whose industrial character is a barrier to tourism development. Whilst major areas of the city have been physically regenerated, often with the tourist in mind, Manchester’s reputation as a grim, industrial, northern town with few vestiges of culture and even fewer attractions still appears to be widely credited. Numerous travel articles begin with an allusion to this clichéd image (e.g. Watson, 1998; Rigby, 2000; Cansino, 2002; Walker, 2002). All, however, continue with surprise at Manchester’s appeal as a visitor destination and praise for the regeneration effort that the city has undergone. There is a marked contrast between Buckley and Witt’s (1989:138) description of Manchester as a ‘difficult area’ in terms of tourism development and that of Braham (1999:39) a decade later, who depicts Manchester as ‘the vibrant and exciting capital of the north of England’.
The large scale regeneration of Manchester city centre and its subsequent emergence as a popular leisure and tourism destination is largely the result of the widespread destruction of the epicentre of the city’s shopping district by an IRA bomb in 1996. However, the urban facelift also owes much to the 2002 Commonwealth Games, preparations for which are responsible for many of the ambitious architectural
redevelopments in the city centre. The central shopping area of Manchester city centre, in particular the Corn Exchange and the new Millennium quarter, has changed not only in terms of its physical appearance, but also with respect to the type of shopping on offer. Schofield (2002) observes that Manchester is now a major European retail centre. In addition the number of accommodation providers and catering establishments increased exponentially in the run up to the Commonwealth Games. New attractions such as Urbis have been added to the city centre’s tourism product and old sites, such as the City Art Galleries, have been redeveloped. However, Fainstein’s (1999) portrayal of the tourist bubble is not a description which can be readily applied to Manchester, since gentrified retail, leisure and catering facilities are not noticeably separated from the rest of the city centre which is used by residents.
Nonetheless, there are certain areas of the city which may be regarded as ‘pure tourist space’ (Fainstein, 1999:36). However, these are largely located outside of the city centre and are products of the regeneration of former industrial areas. Castlefield Urban Heritage Park, for example, on the eastern edge of the city centre was created in the early 1980s, before Manchester’s most recent wave of regeneration, and contains a series of attractions connected to Manchester’s industrial heritage, as well as a reconstructed Roman fort and the world class Museum of Science and Industry. The area also comprises hotels, a youth hostel and some upmarket housing. Warehouse conversions to housing and bars have created Manchester’s thriving Gay Village, situated at the southern edge of the city centre, which has led to Manchester being marketed as the gay capital of the North of England (Braham, 1999). The Quays area of Greater Manchester, located
approximately three miles from the city centre, represents the use of a once derelict docks area for leisure and tourism purposes. In parallel with Castlefield, the area is comprised exclusively of upmarket housing and retail and houses two of Greater Manchester’s newest attractions, the Lowry Art Gallery and the Imperial War Museum of the North, both of which are major architectural and cultural landmarks for the city.7 However, the Quays development borders on some of the most deprived areas in the North of England. Manchester’s touristic appeal therefore lies not only in the vibrancy of its city centre, but also in some of the key developments in other areas of the conurbation.
Besides developments within the primary and secondary sectors of the urban tourism industry, considerable improvements to the transport infrastructure have also taken place, particularly within the city centre. In 1992 the first phase of Manchester’s Metrolink light rail system was opened, followed by the opening of the second phase, serving the Quays area, in 2000. The Metrolink is regarded as ‘one of the images of modern Manchester’ (Dawe, 2002:10) and is a popular means of travel with local users.8 Whilst anecdotal evidence exists that the Metrolink may be more popular with visitors than other modes of transport due to the simplicity of its route coverage, there is no clear evidence to support this. Moreover, Simpson (1988) observes, with reference to local use of public transport, that the provision of light rail services is at variance with market evidence since adequate car parking is a much greater attraction for city users.
7 Whilst the Quays is located mainly in the City of Salford, it belongs within the Greater Manchester region. 8 It is estimated that 3.5 of the 14 million journeys made annually by Metrolink used to be road journeys (Dawe,
In addition to the light rail development, Manchester’s main bus and rail termini received facelifts in preparation for receiving visitors to the Commonwealth Games. Piccadilly rail and bus stations both underwent major refurbishments which were completed just in time for the Games in early 2003.9 Additionally, Manchester’s long distance coach terminus, Chorlton Street coach station, has been redeveloped to create a more pleasant environment for visitors entering and leaving the city.
On a general level, the regeneration of Manchester city centre and its outlying areas has encouraged an economic and cultural boom, fuelled by Manchester’s link with popular youth culture, which have allowed the city to shed its former industrial image, reposition itself as a vibrant 24-hour city and establish itself as England’s second city (Braham, 1999). As a result, visitor numbers appear to have doubled in the space of a decade, from 2.6 million visits in 1991 (Braham, 1999) to 5 million in 2001 (NWTB, 2003)10. Overseas visitor figures have also shown an upward trend, increasing from circa 0.4 million in 1991 (Braham, 1999) to 0.67 million in 2001. (NWTB, 2003).