Impact and posterity of a tourism event. The International Exhibition of Saragossa, seven years later
In a context of territorial competition, numerous cities try to increase their tourist attractiveness by organizing events, thus hoping to gain significant economic benefits and media reaction (Gravari-Barbas et Jacquot, 2007). The increase in the event organization has been so important since the 1980’s that some authors present the emergence of “event cities” (Chaudoir, 2007). Indeed, the multiplication of events (Cazes, 2002) brings about the urban planning renewal, which relinquishes the functional and practical principles of urban planning in favour of a festive and flexible urban planning, based on reversible functions (Pradel, 2007). Although transient, the event leaves material and immaterial traces in the collective memory (Gravari-Barbas et Veschambre, 2005). How is it possible to apprehend the subsequent evolution of an event whose essence is represented by the limited time of the celebration? What remains of the event after the event? This article will bring some elements of the answer to these questions by analyzing the example of the International Exhibition organized in Saragossa in 2008. What memory can one hold of this event which was a technical exploit but a relative economic failure, seven years later? The reflection is based on the analysis of the outcomes of the investigation conducted both with the stakeholders and with the users of these public river places planned for the International Exhibition and unevenly appropriated.