Our third years recently visited Hull, which has been named as the 2017 UK Capital of Culture. The visit was hosted by the Hull 2017 team and provided an excellent case study to explore the tourism, culture and regeneration legacies offered by this year long programme of events.
A Final year student Mellissa Gaffney shares her experiences of the day:
Our visit started with a welcome by the team who have worked on the bid and the organising of the city’s developments in order to be ready for Hull 2017. Different members of the organising team took turns to explain key aspects considered in the aftermath of the bidding process and the planning stages. Topics covered included an introduction to Hull 2017; Marketing, Communities and Legacy; Tourism and Events; Partnerships and Development; and Monitoring and Evaluation. Each talk presented an in-depth opportunity to understand how each element fit into the greater grand scheme of the event aims.
An outcome of the event is to develop a ‘creative community’ and to work with local businesses who have committed to supporting the events by creating unique sponsorship opportunities; that include a diverse ways of helping businesses maximise their potential during the year and beyond. There was also a strong focus on developing arts and culture within the city of Hull. For instance, an impact of the title is the development of a new 3000 capacity arts venue for Hull in 2018 that can bring larger audiences to performances. In addition, there will be a re-branding of Hull which was explained by Lisa Moyes who explained the process to understanding which aspects of Hull were to be a priority for development. These include sensory opinions of the city, cultural opinions and the opinions of those who live outside of the city.
The general vibe from the student pre-trip expectations were that Hull would be a small city, which may not offer much in the way of culture and experience. However by the end of the tour visit students had engaged positively with the tour; commenting on the city architecture, the tourist opportunities and many were very keen on planning a return trip in 2017. The day concluded with a short tour and visit around City Hall from Joanna Bianes, who was kind enough to show us around the beautifully impressive venue and engaged students by allowing an opportunity to ask about how the venue will feature in Hull’s busy year ahead.
Impressive developments lie ahead for Hull and the hard work is evident as one walks through the city centre, as public real improvements are made, to ready the city for its year in the spotlight. The award of UK Capital of Culture will hopefully be a successful in terms of legacy planning and the trip to Hull for us, as students, seemed to serve a dual purpose in the strong relevance to our module; but also seeing first-hand how an opinion of an area can change through a personal experience. My opinion of the city has definitely been changed for the better.
Our thanks go to our module lecturer for organising the visit and to those who welcomed us into their city; spending their time with us was very much appreciated.
Good luck with 2017 Hull!