Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/167740 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Citation: 
[Journal:] Economies [ISSN:] 2227-7099 [Volume:] 4 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] MDPI [Place:] Basel [Year:] 2016 [Pages:] 1-13
Publisher: 
MDPI, Basel
Abstract: 
Many cities organize annual local festivals for the positive effects on urban development, although success is far from straightforward. This article reviews a case study of the World Port Days in Rotterdam in order to demonstrate how annual city festivals can contribute to sustainable competitiveness, despite limitations as well. We show how this maritime event-that is jointly organized by the business community, the Port Authority and the City Government-offers benefits for citizens as well as for firms. Our empirical results unveil that the business value of the event includes generation of societal support, image improvement, labor market development and networking, while the value for society refers to education, leisure and to a certain degree to social inclusion. The direct value of the event for business in terms of sales and recruitment is limited, while the long-term effects of educational function deserve further attention. Finally, we provide policy lessons that, when properly contextualized, other cities may help to use annual local festivals as tools for sustainable competitiveness.
Subjects: 
city festivals
sustainable competitiveness
port-city
Rotterdam
JEL: 
Q01
R00
R11
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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