Keeping it fresh: Revisiting an historic tourist city's streetscape improvement project

This research examines a downtown streetscape improvement project in a heritage tourism destination. A survey, conducted in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, provided data on merchant attitudes about the project following completion of the work, adding to two previous studies that have looked at the project pre-construction and mid-construction. The results indicate that the merchants grade the project favorably but do not credit the project for the significant recent tourism success enjoyed by the city. Concepts and issues borrowed from the urban conservation literature are considered and suggestions are provided that should be of value to destination management officials in heritage cities.