New events in historic venues: a case of London

Abstract

Capitals of Culture and other historic cities face several challenges to maintaining and expanding their cultural tourism resources and visitor economies. Global and interregional competition, a heterogeneous and discerning visitor, and tensions between heritage preservation and «edutainment», have together demanded a more creative use of historic venues and sites and their promotion to new audiences. The paper outlines responses in the form of late night and nuite blanche events and festivals, which are extending the heritage tourism off er temporally, spatially and socially in a growing number of cities. At the same time, this late night events strategy is making areas of these cities both safer and more att ractive to visitors.