How can we manage the tourist-historic city? Tourism strategy in Cambridge, UK, 1978–2003

This paper draws on research into 25 years of tourism planning and management in Cambridge, UK, to explore the long-term effect that tourism strategies can have in managing the development of tourism in historic cities. It focuses particularly on strategic aims and the policies designed to implement them through regulating the city. It finds that five successive Tourism Strategies from 1978 onward have had consistent aims, strongly influenced by the locality characteristics of Cambridge. It explores how strategic aims are derived, focusing on the balance between local and external influences, and how policies to implement the aims are developed. It argues that locality factors, and the role of local regimes and policy communities are more important than national government policy in accounting for aims and policies. It suggests that tourism management issues are rarely finally resolved, and questions whether true ‘tourism management is currently achievable in a historic city.