Developing a tourism region through tourism and culture: bordering, branding, placemaking and governance processes

What is it about?

This paper examines perceptions of progress towards a coherent Greater Bay Area (GBA) mega-region cultural identity and its implications for tourism. We assessed the prospects for the development of collective identities in the region and assess the prospects for implementation of the GBA brand. Surveys and interviews with stakeholders indicate that the prevalent top-down planning approach has so far generated limited regional coherence and may also be limiting bottom-up placemaking initiatives. Debordering between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland cities offers opportunities for tourism development, but these have so far been limited, also because of intensifying competition between mainland GBA cities in international markets, challenging the implementation of an umbrella brand. Regional stakeholders so far show little buy-in to the overarching ‘quality living circle’ concept for the GBA. New governance structures may be to support the development of a coherent regional identity and generate place leadership to successfully combine top-down and bottom-up placemaking initiatives.

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Photo by Samuel Chan on Unsplash

Photo by Samuel Chan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Cities and regions have increasingly adopted placemaking strategies to create coherent destination images and positioning. The Greater Bay Area (GBA) comprises nine municipalities across China’s Guangdong province. Inclusion of the two SARs lends support to the Chinese government’s pre-pandemic ‘going global’ strategy. This paper considers the application of these concepts in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Perspectives