A strategic approach to town centres – a must or a maybe?
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Coca-Stefaniak, Andres 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5711-519X
(2013)
A strategic approach to town centres – a must or a maybe?
The Geographer.
Abstract
The world is becoming increasingly urban. As towns and cities compete regionally, nationally or globally to attract and retain visitors, investment, leading thinkers and entrepreneurs, as well as a diverse cultural and family-focused offer to enable existing residents to thrive sustainably, the way our town and city centres are managed is gaining growing levels of recognition and interest. Gone are the days when we could adopt a simplistic approach to the development of our town centres by seeing them solely as shopping destinations.
Although retail still remains an important reason for people to visit town centres today, there is growing research evidence showing that there is much more to how people interact with their high street beyond mere retail transactions. The way town and city centres are managed can make a considerable difference to the quality of this experience. Town centre management - a geographically specific form of place management – has existed in the European Union, formally or informally, for over thirty years. As a profession, it remains one of the most multidisciplinary activities anyone could engage in. Although town centre managers may work for local authorities, a public-private partnerships or private sector place management organisations, they will often juggle the management of events with other activities such as place branding and marketing, tourism, local economic development, urban regeneration, community engagement, fundraising, strategic stakeholder management and business support, to mention but a few. In spite of the fact that the size of the town centre and its budget will often dictate the scale of the activities outlined above, this need not apply to their diversity as well as the scale of challenges faced by today’s high street.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Town centres, strategic positioning, place management, town centre management |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races |
| Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: | Faculty of Business > Department of Marketing, Events & Tourism Faculty of Business |
| Related URLs: | |
| Last Modified: | 14 Oct 2016 09:32 |
| URI: | http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/13308 |
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