The precinct experience: a phenomenological approach

An examination of the extant literature relating to urban tourism in general, and historic precincts in particular, highlights the predominantly structural and functional nature of existing research. Issues such as spatial form, land-use mix, development processes, management, marketing, economic impact and accommodation are recurring themes. While such studies have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of many utilitarian themes surrounding tourism precinct development and management, there is a dearth of material as to how such places are experienced by tourists. This study sought to redress the above shortcomings and applied a phenomenological framework to investigate the nature of the tourist experience in The Rocks historic precinct in Sydney, Australia. Twenty in-depth interview sessions, comprising a total of 31 participants, were undertaken with visitors to The Rocks over a 1-week period in the summer of 2001. The interview subjects were predominantly international tourists who were first time visitors to The Rocks. Three central themes were developed from the interviews: Atmosphere, Physical Place and History. A total of eight sub-themes emerged that more fully explicated the tourist experience. Utilising these themes and sub-themes as a basis for further analysis with co-investigators, the essences of the tourist experience were identified as intimacy and authenticity. Linking these two was the 'general' essence of a sense of place which represented a type of phenomenological dualism: the marking out of The Rocks as place that in part defined Sydney; and the intrinsic experience that The Rocks in itself provides.