City Image and Cultural Events

(1)

Myrto Lefkopoulou

MA Thesis in Tourism and Culture Supervisor: A. M. Smelik

Second reader: T. M. J. Sintobin 23 July 2020

25.608 words

City image and cultural events:

the case of the International Film Festival

Thessaloniki

(2)

1

Summary

The main purpose behind this MA thesis was to delineate the role and contribution of cultural events like film festivals in city branding processes and in the formation of city image, taking as a case study the city of Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. During this study the official tourism website of the city and two media articles about it were analysed under the scope of multimodal discourse analysis. Interviews were also conducted. One with a city official regarding city branding strategies and another with a representative from the Festival regarding how it functions in the city and what it contributes to its image. These elements were investigated under the scope of city branding and film tourism theories as well as the overarching theory of storytelling. The main findings confirmed the importance of the existence of cultural events in the formation of city and destination image and the vital role the Film Festival in particular holds for Thessaloniki. At the same time, it was revealed that they do not play such an active role in city branding practices which emphasizes other characteristics of the city.

(5)

4

“You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it

gives to a question of yours.”

- Italo Calvino

(6)

5

INTRODUCTION

As a university student in my hometown Thessaloniki, Greece, I started volunteering at various festivals and organisations including film festivals and the European Youth Capital 2014. As a volunteer I began to observe not only the participation of my peers in these events but also the presence of people from all over the world in my own home city as visitors and attendees. Now with a growing expertise in the field of tourism studies I have come to contemplate upon these issues in a broader context. In this era of accelerated paces, globalization and technological advances - with the imminent threat of climate change and civil unrest around the world - the field of tourism studies as well as the tourism industry have continued to evolve in multifaceted ways. While living in the current reality of the Covid-19 pandemic these fields are constantly facing new challenges and changes that need to be explored, challenged and understood. Due to the significant consequences of this global crisis on the world and in the field of tourism, it might seem less important to turn to issues and challenges in the field of cultural tourism. However, by examining practices such as city branding and film-induced tourism one can gain insights into the processes that define not only the tourism and film industries but also the cultural and societal forces behind these shifts on a global scale and assess the actors and factors that come into play regardless of the specific circumstances. Approaching the tourism industry from a cultural perspective is important in its ability to highlight societal functions and the cultural meaning of certain facets of the tourism industry both practically and academically.

Scholars in different branches of tourism studies like the history of tourism, tourism management or heritage tourism, have dealt with those issues for decades legitimizing tourism studies as an academic endeavour. More recently scholars such as Rojek and Urry (1997), Airey and Johnson (1999), Hall et al. (2004) and others have contributed to the discipline of tourism studies. More specifically, city branding, event tourism and film-induced tourism are some of the academic perspectives that will be implicated in this research (Ooi and Pedersen, 2010; Quinn, 2009; Reijnders, 2010; Beeton, 2016). Moreover theories on storytelling in tourism and representation will also give an added layer of inquiry to the following study.

The theoretical framework on which the thesis will be developed is therefore mainly derived from theories within tourism studies. More specifically, theories on city branding, events tourism, film tourism and storytelling (Braun, 2012; Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2006; Beeton, 2016; Moscardo; 2010; Reijnders, 2010). Part of the theoretical framework is derived from Sue Beeton’s work on film-induced tourism that explores many facets of modern film tourism. Sue Beeton with Film-Induced Tourism (2016) provides an in-depth overview of the state of the art of the overarching theme of film tourism. Other theoretical frameworks that

(7)

6

might be relevant include the concept of “places of imagination” within film-induced tourism and how it functions in the cultural life of a city (Reijnders 2010). Other scholars that have explored particular case studies in festivals and events tourism are Waldemar Cudny with “Film Festivals in Łódź As a Main Component of Urban Cultural Tourism” (2011), Yolal and others with “Impacts of Festivals and Events on Residents’ Well-Being” (2016) to name a few. Marijke de Valck in Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia (2007) analyses major film festivals, though not from a tourism studies perspective, including some that will be potentially be used here for instance the international film festivals of Rotterdam and Berlin. These titles constitute part of the academic perspectives on film festival tourism.

Based on the topics and themes previously explored by scholars there are still some gaps in the literature and questions that arise from them. More specifically, the connection between film festivals as an expression of film-induced tourism and their relationship with city branding and city image is not often explored. Even though film festivals have been considered events that film induced tourists participate in, there have been only a few scholarly texts examining film festivals from the perspective of their tourism activity. Furthermore, in the field of cultural tourism, festivals hold a very significant position as they are part of tangible and intangible heritage and even though film festivals do not always fall under this category they still exist within the context of the cultural life of the cities where they are held. An exploration of tourism in the context of film festivals would set more light into what defines the motivations and experience of film tourists as well as provide insights both for tourism professionals as well as for festival organizers into how a singular event functions into and shapes an urban environment. Through a unique case study, I will aim to expand the field on how cultural events are important for a city and vice versa and how these processes function.

The main research question that emerges from this contemporary social and cultural context in the field of tourism is the following:

In what ways do cultural events like film festivals contribute to city image and city branding as in the case of the Thessaloniki, Greece?

There are more subquestions that arise from and can be paired with the main research question while also providing the direction of this research:

- How is the city branded through the official authorities?

- What city image is represented through cultural events and media?

- What is the relationship of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival with the city branding process?

(8)

7

The selection of the primary sources is based on their relevance to the topic and research question. More specifically, the focus will be on the tourist activities of international film festivals in a specific urban environment that is examined as a whole and in relation to those events. The main case study will be the city of Thessaloniki which is situated in Northern Greece and the second largest city of the country. Τhe event I will focus on the most is the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. This selection is a result of the Festival’s smaller size, internationally speaking, and its role as one of the major cultural events of the city as well as due to its accessibility for the scope of this research. The data will come from interviews, official websites and news sources that are related to the city’s destination image and to the Festival’s role in it.

The methodologies that will be applied in order to answer the main research question as well as the sub-questions will be analysed in Chapter One. First of all, I will be using the framework developed by Luc Pauwels in “A Multimodal Framework for Analyzing Websites As Cultural Expressions” (2012) when analysing the official travel website of Thessaloniki. This method is appropriate in this occasion as this framework provides a step by step approach to the analysis and covers not only the written messages but also visual and other modes of communication. As such, it provides the best opportunity to uncover the meanings explicitly and implicitly present in the website and determine what city image is actually presented by official sources of the city of Thessaloniki. A more overarching methodology that will also be used is critical discourse analysis developed by Norman Fairclough in Critical Discourse

Analysis: The Critical Study of Language (2010). This methodological approach covers the

scope of this research because of the way “discourse” discourse is conceptualized and because it is placed in a societal context from which meaning can be derived. In this way, the main data of the thesis will be examined thoroughly and in a flexible way.

Before delving into the analysis of the theories, methods and data that will be analysed, I will outline my preliminary hypotheses for the results of this research. I expect that the role of cultural events and of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in particular will prove to be significant for the city. I also expect this connection to be rather implicit or symbolic if not outwardly connected to how the city is framed in various ways for instance in the media or through official data from the city itself. Moreover, I expect that culture in the form of events, festivals and cultural organisations are a big part of the city’s identity which I have experienced as a citizen there for the majority of my life. The question that remains is how tangible this connection is in a more administrative, organisational or official level.

(9)

8

The research will follow a particular structure in order to answer the above questions. In chapter one I intend to provide a more in-depth look into the state of the art on the topics of city branding and events or film festival tourism as well as on the theories and methodologies that will serve as the basis of the thesis. The main body of the thesis structure will be separated into three chapters. In the second chapter, I offer an analysis of the official tourism website of Thessaloniki as well as of two magazine articles about visiting Thessaloniki from an outsider’s perspective. For the third chapter I will conduct interviews with people relevant to the main research question to explore this field in an empirical way. In the fourth and final chapter of the analysis I will examine the findings of the previous chapters and discuss them from an empirical and theoretical viewpoint. Finally, there will be a conclusion for the answers to my research question, my final remarks, self-reflection and potential future further research.

(10)

9

CHAPTER ONE: Literature Review, Theoretical and Methodological

Background

Literature Review

Before delving into the analysis of the main research question and of the primary sources it is necessary to lay out the academic research that has preceded the research relating to the present topic. The literature that will be expanded on here is related to film-induced tourism, film festivals, events tourism. Moreover, I will present examples from city branding literature on Thessaloniki, which is the case study of this research along with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

To begin with, one section of the relevant literature specifically concerns film festivals and their role as locations of cultural tourism. The journal article by Waldemar Cudny “Film Festivals in Lodz as a Main Component of Urban Cultural Tourism” concerns the cultural and film scenes of the city of Łódź in Poland and the repercussions of not conducting a particular festival when the city did not become the European Capital of Culture 2016, which led to further repercussions for the tourism and economic fields. He aims to illustrate the importance of film festivals as cultural and tourism products that need to be supported by the government. He also confirms their importance in the city image of their host cities as he suggests that “(f)estivals have become a tourist asset of the city, a product – an offer for tourists” that are particular to the city of Łódź but also based on its traditions (Cudny 139). This is one of the few texts that mention the interaction between film festivals and city image and the purpose of this thesis is to explore this connection further.

One of the seminal texts in film festival literature is Film Festivals: From European

Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia by media and culture scholar Marijke de Valck (2007). In this

book, the author explores the historical development of the phenomenon and the context in which film festivals grew. She focuses on the major European film festivals and on the factors and influences that contributed in shaping their character and leading to the idea that the “international film festival circuit has a quintessentially European connotation” (de Valck 15). She suggests that the film festival circuit is a network and proposes an analysis of it by using the four major European international film festivals as case studies (de Valck 17). With the aim to conduct novel research de Valck “explores the usefulness of various network and system theories for the investigation of cinema in the era of globalization” (18). She confirms that festivals “are organized in cities that use these events to enhance their urban image as they compete with each other for attention and funding” (de Valck 38). The research is situated in the context of cultural theories and the festivals are examined from a historical perspective,

(11)

10

within actor-network theory while also engaging the idea of “space”. The four festivals she examines are the ones in Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Rotterdam. The first three are selected because of their historic importance to the festival circuit as the first accredited film festivals while the one in Rotterdam adds a broader perspective. While the entire book is relevant to the present thesis, the chapters that will be concentrated on are the ones on Berlin and Rotterdam. As far as the Berlin International Film Festival is concerned, the author examines it from the perspective of the historical development of film festivals and the socio-political factors that contributed to them while also reframing “traditional (European) film theoretical notions such as “the nation” and “auteur” as discourse strategies that dominate in specific periods” (de Valck 42). Finally, the case study of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam is examined concerning the aspects of festival programming and audiences. More specifically it considers the emergence of specialised festivals, their position in the circuit and how audiences interact with them (de Valck 42).

There is scholarly research concerning specifically the Thessaloniki International film festival and the city of Thessaloniki. In her article “The Hindered Drive toward Internationalization: Thessaloniki (International) Film Festival” (2016) Lydia Papadimitriou, like de Valck, provides a historical overview of the festival and its shift from being a predominantly Greek event to becoming very international and extroverted. This article is highly useful as it provides an overview of the particular case study of this thesis. It presents a historical background on the festival from its inception until today by separating it into four distinct phases in its development and identity. This is done by focusing on the process of internationalization and by highlighting its aims from the beginning and the different actors and stakeholders that contributed the festival’s identity. Papadimitriou suggests that even though the festival had an extroverted attitude from its start in 1960 its “primary aim was the promotion and support of Greek cinema” (Papadimitriou 96). Moreover, she highlights political changes and influences, the differentiation in the goals of festival directors, the development of Greek cinema and what it means to be an “international” festival. This will be useful in my research because it focuses solely on my case study and as such it provides a unique insight into the institution of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival or TIFF through the years. Papadimitriou argues that the festival has come to be presented as a “Greece-based event with international appeal” as well as a “leading player in Balkan cinema” which heightens its international character (106). At the same time the focus on internationalisation goes hand in hand with the how the festival can be perceived as a tourist attraction especially in recent years and in turn how it becomes part of promotion of the city as a cultural centre.

(12)

11

Constantinos-Vasilios Priporas et al. use Thessaloniki as a case study in “City Image, City Brand Personality and Generation Z Residents' Life Satisfaction Under Economic Crisis: Predictors of City-Related Social Media Engagement” (2019). In this research article, the researchers attempted to analyse city brand personality in Generation Z residents of the city based on their engagement with its social media. Even though the study focuses on a specific target group and particular aspect of city brand personality (social media), it still engages with concepts such as “city brand personality” which according to these authors is defined as the construction of city image as a “collective representation held by a great number of its inhabitants” (Priporas et al. 3). The study ultimately illustrates “the positive and significant role of city image and city brand personality on [Generation Z] residents’ engagement with city’s social media” as well as the relationship between residents’ overall satisfaction with the city’s social media and their engagement with them (Priporas et al. 6). The authors argue that taking into account the significance of city image and brand personality, it should be seen as an area of improvement for the city’s authorities (Priporas et al. 7). Social media engagement is another issue that should be analysed and explored by said authorities in marketing as a separate issue (Priporas et al. 7). This study is relevant to this thesis as it engages with the same case study and not only does it provide interesting findings on how the city is perceived by a particular group, it also suggests how the use of social media could affect or shape the city image.

It is crucial to mention the state of the art regarding events tourism and events management specifically and especially about (film) festivals. Firstly, tourism scholar Donald Getz has often contributed to the field of events tourism as for instance in the article “Event Tourism: Definition, Evolution, and Research” (2008). Another expert in the field of events tourism is Bernadette Quinn: in “Festivals, events and tourism” (2009) she presents a comprehensive literature review and summary of the developments in the field so far. She divides the theoretical approaches in the field of festivals and events tourism into the management perspective, the social sciences and humanities perspectives and finally to some holistic approaches and highlights the recent “move towards the consumption of experiences” in terms of how the field of events is conceived (Quinn 485). The management approaches are more focused on the economic impacts of festivals in the tourism sector as well as in a wider scale while in a social sciences context, “festivals and events are socially constructed, are mutually reproductive of place and place identity, and are bound up with the appropriation and evolution of cultural practices and traditions” (Quinn 484). Some key themes in the literature are identity and power as she presents the argument that “the reproduction of festivals and events as tourist attractions is strongly shaped by power dynamics” (Quinn 494). Finally, Quinn

(13)

12

proposes that future research would benefit from holistic approaches because “[c]onceiving of festivals and events as phenomena that are embedded in diverse spatial, cultural, social and political environments is fundamental to fully understanding the relationships between festivals, events, and tourism” (497).

Jennifer Laing in the article “Festival and Event Tourism Research: Current and Future Perspectives” (2018) attempts to make suggestions regarding the perspectives have not been adequately researched and how future scholars in the field should proceed. Similar to Quinn, in her discussion on the various approaches she also suggests that “a greater diversity of backgrounds” could lead to “less common research paradigms, interpretive frameworks, methodological approaches and methods of data collection and analysis” (Laing 167). She argues that concerning festivals and events “their tourism connections should not be exaggerated if they are not present” (Laing 165). There is also scholarly literature on festivals dealing more specifically with how they have evolved and how they function in society, for instance “The Phenomenon of Festivals: Their Origins, Evolution, and Classifications” by Waldemar Cudny and “International Festivals as Experience Production Systems” by Nicole Ferdinand and Nigel L. Williams. These articles further the research into the field of festivals and how they are experienced and shaped.

It is crucial to review previous literature regarding city branding and tourism as it will relate to the topic of my thesis as well. “From City Marketing to City Branding: Towards a Theoretical Framework for Developing City Brands” (2004) by Michalis Kavaratzis is one of the texts that deals with defining city branding and engaging with issues in that field. In this article, Kavaratzis oscillates between the terms city marketing and city branding and approaches the topic from a management perspective, suggesting that the theoretical framework of corporate branding could be applied to cities in order to promote a city image. He marks the difference between city marketing as a way to complete various goals and city branding which is “understood as the means both for achieving competitive advantage in order to increase inward investment and tourism, and also for achieving community development, reinforcing local identity and identification of the citizens with their city and activating all social forces to avoid social exclusion and unrest” (Kavaratzis 70). Greg Richards and Julie Wilson in “The Impact of Cultural Events on City Image: Rotterdam, Cultural Capital of Europe 2001” also contribute in this area of research specifically with the Rotterdam case study which is relevant because of the similarity of the existence of an international film festival as in this thesis.

(14)

13

To sum up, drawing from these scholars and this collection of texts I am aiming to expand their suggestions and future questions with this research. Some of the main issues that came up were the significant role of events for cities, the role of social media and the digital landscape and how it has evolved in contemporary times, and the process through which a city brand has been developed or perceived. Most of these texts come from disciplinary backgrounds such as tourism studies, media and film studies or events and tourism management. With this research I will attempt to create an interdisciplinary approach where these approaches and theoretical backgrounds are taken into consideration. In the following chapters I will present these frameworks and how they will contribute to this research into more detail.

Theoretical Framework

Having presented the academic state of the art regarding the topics of this research it is also important to place them within their theoretical framework and discuss some of the concepts that will be analysed further on. In order to answer the research question of how cultural events like film festivals contribute to city image and city branding, I will research a combination of theories from tourism studies with elements from cultural theories and cultural studies. The main concepts are borrowed from the literature on city branding and city image. Another theoretical framework that will be a connecting thread of ideas throughout the analysis is that of “storytelling” in tourism. Moreover, film-induced tourism and its particular characteristics are relevant to the scope of the research question and provide a theoretical background to what will be discussed as well. Finally, theories on representation will also be used as a theoretical foundation.

City branding, place brand and destination image are three concepts that need clarification before moving forward. First of all, city branding belongs under the umbrella of place branding (Braun 258). Braun in “Putting place branding into practice” (2012) also suggests that “place branding could be applied to neighbourhoods, districts, tourist destinations, cities” (258). An important distinction is made whereby destination branding is “primarily directed toward tourists, whereas city branding addresses all of the city’s users, potential users and other stakeholders” (Braun 258). Kavaratzis and Ashworth in “City branding: An effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?” briefly define place branding as “merely the application of product branding to places” (185). This implies the existence of a product that is branded. Scholars have clarified that a “brand is more than an identifying name given to a product” which in turn suggests it is more than a slogan or a tagline (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 185). The construct of the brand includes three components: the

(15)

14

product, the producer and the consumer. According to Aaker quoted in Kavaratzis and Ashworth, a “branded product requires a brand identity, a brand differentiation and a brand

personality” (187). In corporate settings, the producers also have to maintain a so-called

“corporate brand” upon which the image of the people behind the brand are just as important as the product (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 187). Finally, branding does not solely rely upon product differentiation but also on the “differentiation of the consumer” (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 188). As a result of these brand components the objective of branding is “brand

equity, loosely defined as the extent and nature of the consumers’ knowledge of the brand,

which is the sum of brand value, brand awareness and brand loyalty” (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 188). These are necessary elements to include in a city branding process and they are applied to cities to create a brand product.

In “City branding and film festivals: Re-evaluating stakeholder’s relations”, Ooi and Pedersen outline four purposes of place branding noting the relationship to film festivals in particular as it is the focus of the article but it could be applied to other types of events as well. According to other scholars quoted in Ooi and Pedersen, one of these purposes is “to shape the public image of the location” which focuses on public perception and a second is “to frame the location selectively and aesthetically” which focuses how it is framed (320). A third purpose is “to create an image of the location that stands out in the global place-product market” which is necessary in the competitive contemporary market (Ooi and Pedersen 320). Finally, related to the other purposes is a fourth one “to shape people’s experiences of the location by first shaping their preconceptions” (Ooi and Pedersen 321).

Destination image and the image formation process also need to be elucidated in order to differentiate those concepts from city branding but also to contextualise the main concepts that will be discussed later on. In “Projected Destination Image: A Visual Analysis of Seoul” (2011), Hunter presents a concise definition of the concept. According to Gallarza et al. and Hunter quoted in Hunter, destination image in tourism “refers to the tapestry of conveyances and interpretations concerning representations, projections and perceptions of a place” (421). Destination image was first and foremost thought of as a “perceptual, rather than a conceptual, construct” but later theories added to it by focusing on the dynamic nature of destination image formation as a process of communication (Smith 401). While forming a conceptual framework for destination image, Gallarza et al. suggested four features that are intrinsic in perceiving what destination image entails. They suggested that it is characterised by a complex nature which “allows for more than one interpretation or whose comprehension lacks a unique meaning” as well as a “multiplicity of factors or variables that make up the identity of a

(16)

15

destination’s image” (Gallarza et al. 68, 70). The third feature was the relativistic nature of the concept which means that any image is subjective while the fourth feature was its dynamic nature which depends “essentially on two variables: time and space” (Gallarza et al. 71, 72). Furthermore, destination image is categorised in perceived and projected destination images; the former being “the visitor’s subjective evaluations and opinions of a destination” and the latter “the combined product of government authority and private commercial efforts” (Hunter 422). The product of the projected destination image as well as the interrelationship of the actors and factors involved are the subject of this thesis.

The terms mentioned above are used both in the academic literature of tourism studies as well as in the tourism field which makes them highly important in understanding the processes that will be discussed in this thesis. Some city brands have been widely used as examples such as the Iamsterdam campaign or the “re-imaging” of the city brand of Barcelona as presented by Andrew Smith in “Conceptualizing City Image Change: The ‘Re-Imaging’ of Barcelona” (2005) and often referred to as the Barcelona model of city regeneration. These as well as less publicised examples showcase how the terms have been understood and used in practice in the tourism industry.

Film-Induced Tourism (2016) by Sue Beeton is a comprehensive representation of the

research done in the field. It can be defined as “visitation to sites where movies and television programmes have been filmed as well as to tours to production studios, including film-related theme parks” or any “tourist activity associated with the film industry” (Beeton 13). It can be divided into on-location and off-location activities and the latter includes film festivals that attract film enthusiasts to those events (Beeton 11). Some popular ones including Cannes and Venice film festivals attract large numbers of tourists and visitors every year. For instance, Cannes Film Festival reported an estimated over 12 thousand record number of attendees according to Variety (“Cannes Market Claims Record Visitor Numbers”) which showcases the important pole of attraction a film festival can become when it reaches international levels of recognition. Research on film-induced tourism has been done by people such as Sue Beeton but also Reijnders (2007, 2009), Tzanelli (2007, 2015), Kim et al. (2015) and others as quoted in Beeton (20). What concerns this thesis are the concepts put forth by Beeton when discussing Hall’s theories of representation and how “film, as a visual language, can create a ‘meaning of place’ in terms of the representational system shared by members of the same (or similar) culture” (29). This can be extended to the idea that film festivals themselves create meaning not only as carriers of stories and films but also as a story themselves. Beeton goes on to relate the ideas of the tourist gaze as presented by Urry & Larsen (2011) and how film presents a case

(17)

16

of the “mediatized” gaze (30). She suggests that “[tourism] markers in today’s society are so prolific that they tend to overlap and reinforce each other, often as a result of media-related contributions, in particular, film” (Beeton 30). Moreover, film festivals according to Beeton “contain elements of symbolic meaning and social function, often reflecting a community’s view of its place in the world through the films that are selected (and prove to be the most popular) for the festival” (216). Such events are usually more audience based and they also bear connections to a community’s social identity and “historical continuity” (Beeton 216). This observation places a link between film festivals and film-related events and a sense of place prevalent where it takes place. Speaking about sense of place and the symbolic existence of places, we need to introduce the concept of the “places of the imagination” that was developed by Stijn Reijnders in “Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour” (2010). According to Reijnders, places of the imagination are “physical points of reference, such as objects or places, which […] provide the opportunity to construct and subsequently cross the symbolic boundary between an ‘imagined’ and a ‘real’ world” (40).

The choice to include theories on storytelling was made in order to be able to contextualise the projected city image as well as the narratives and “stories” that prevail in the specific urban environment this research is focused on. Storytelling has had different functions through time. In Gabriel’s chapter “Same Old Story or Changing Stories? Folkloric, Modern, and Postmodern Mutations” these functions are outlined. At first, storytelling was limited to its purpose of teaching and entertainment in the age of folklore, then becoming invested in facts and information in the modern age, and evolving into the postmodern fragments of today when stories can be found everywhere and anything can be considered a story (9-17). Even though it is not a widely used term within tourism studies it has been researched from an organisational studies perspective. The notion of storytelling can be applied to cities as well. In the chapter “The Shaping of Tourist Experience: The Importance of Stories and Themes”, Gianna Moscardo provides primarily a conceptual background of what is meant as a “story” in a tourism context and outlines its stories and themes. She juxtaposes the terms “story” and “experience” and what they imply. Narratives, in comparison to stories, are framed as “‘knowledge structures that consist of a sequence of thematically and temporally related events’” (Moscardo 44). Experiences on the contrary are defined in the tourism context as “a continuous process made up of a set of events or activities occurring at a destination that often involve contact with tourism-related organisations and their personnel, and are driven by expectations of some sort of benefits” (Moscardo 45). In addition, Moscardo notes that “it is possible for multiple tourist stories to be associated with a place and for these not to create

(18)

17

conflict” (53). As indicated by the tagline of the city of Thessaloniki “One heart. Many Stories”, stories and storytelling are central to cities and to tourism as a result and this example showcases the relationships that will be explored further on.

Another concept that will be engaged with is that of representation. Representation refers to the ideas developed by Stuart Hall in Representation: Cultural Representations and

Signifying Practices (1997) and can be defined as “the production of the meaning of the

concepts in our mind through language” (17). Hall mostly speaks of systems of visual and textual representation because they refer to “different ways of organizing, clustering, arranging and classifying concepts, and of establishing complex relations between them” (17). He also perused Foucault’s ideas regarding “the production of knowledge (rather than just meaning) through what he called discourse (rather than just language)” where “discourse is a system of representation” as well (Hall 43, 44). The production and construction of meaning can be related to that of city branding and storytelling, which is why I will be making these distinctions further on.

All in all, the theoretical background is mostly one coming from tourism studies mainly due to the fact that this thesis can also be situated in the field of cultural tourism studies. Theories on city branding and destination image are essential in providing the language to discuss the complexities of destination image formation and city branding practices. City branding theories in combination with theories on film tourism provide an additional insight and branch in tourism studies as they have not been studied together extensively. Moreover storytelling and representation are theoretical concepts that can become a linking thread or contextualise the questions I will be asking in subsequent chapters for instance regarding the narratives developed through city branding or how Thessaloniki is represented.

Methodology

Concerning the methodological approach I will use a combination of methods in order to apply to the data at my disposal. First of all, I will be conducting interviews with people in relevant positions within the city of Thessaloniki and some of its cultural institutions. More specifically, I will interview a former city official who was in charge of the Tourism and International Relations Department and worked on the city’s brand and promotion for years. Based on a series of questions, I will be able to determine the strategies that the city implemented regarding these issues, as well as what was deemed successful or important for the city throughout this process. I will also interview a representative of the Thessaloniki International Film festival which is the cultural event that is used as a case study and main example. Through this interview, I will be able to approach the research question from the source of the cultural event,

(19)

18

in this case a film festival, and examine the relationship between that and the city. As the conducted interviews will be qualitative, I will not process the data through a specific computer program but rather interpret them from a theoretical viewpoint.

Similarly, I will analyse two articles that were posted online in recent times, in February and August, 2018. I selected these based on their recent posting date as well as on the fact that they were included in the list of “media” about Thessaloniki on the official tourist website (https://thessaloniki.travel/en/). Their inclusion on that list implies that the views and content that they promote is in line with the way the city officials or website creators also view the city which reveals two levels of representation. Moreover, these articles were published in English therefore presenting and promoting the city to an English-speaking audience which is also helpful for their analysis in this thesis. The addition of external media was made to broaden the data about how the city is perceived and by whom.

Apart from the interviews and articles, I will use multimodal discourse analysis in order to analyse the official travel and tourism website of Thessaloniki. By doing this I aim to discover the similarities and differences between the potential city branding practices I will have discovered through the interviews and their expression in the website and to glean how they translate into promotional material present in the website. Moreover, the version of multimodal analysis I will be using was developed by Luc Pauwels in “A Multimodal Framework for Analyzing Websites as Cultural Expressions”. According to Pauwels, the “6-phased framework of website signifiers contains both a structured repository of potential cultural signifiers and a methodology for moving from salient aspects to more implicit meanings” (247). In this way, the analysis of the website will be done through a strict methodological approach that will reveal the cultural meaning behind structuring the website in such a way.

Discourse analysis includes a broad range of theories and methods but for the purpose of this research I will delineate the scope of this term as well as the way it will be applied. The concept of “discourse” has been discussed by philosopher Michel Foucault who proposed that discourse is “a group of statements which provide a language for talking about - a way of representing the knowledge about - a particular topic at a particular historical moment” (quoted in Hall 44). Moreover, discourse is also a “system of representations” which entails meaning, therefore meaning can be found within discourse (Hall 44).

According to Norman Fairclough in Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of

Language, his second publication on discourse analysis, argues that critical discourse analysis

(20)

19

form of research it is relational because discourse is not an object but a set of social relations that are usually layered (Fairclough 3). He argues that “[discourse] is not simply an entity we can define independently: we can only arrive at an understanding of it by analysing sets of relations” (Fairclough 3). These relations are also dialectical in the sense that they are not distinct from one another but in constant dialogue with each other meaning that “no one object or element (such as discourse) can be analysed other than in terms of its dialectical relations with others” (Fairclough 4). In this research, this implies that the discourses provided by the media and by official sources cannot be seen as entirely separate entities from each other as they exist in relation to one another. Finally, Fairclough proposes that critical discourse analysis (or CDA) is a transdisciplinary mode of analysis since the analysis of relations between discourses “cuts across conventional boundaries between disciplines” (4). CDA is primarily focused on “discursive aspects of power relations and inequalities” including questions about ideology and “ways of representing aspects of the world” (Fairclough 8). In this way, it can only provide explanations and interpretations and produce more discourse about an area of life and of analysis (Fairclough 8).

The mixed method approach will help me to cover all the modes of communication present in the data and to utilise the differences between these modes of communication to reveal how they align or diverge in what they express. There will also be more ground for comparison between the findings since I will be able to come up with the implicit meanings and cultural implications instead of having to compare an image with a magazine article and so on. Furthermore, multimodal discourse analysis can be considered to be under the umbrella of critical discourse analysis so coherence between these two methodologies is maintained. Both methods are also meant to be applied in a socio-cultural context which is another reason that it will be beneficial to use both.

Finally, some information regarding the festival is also necessary at this point. TIFF is the annual film festival that takes place in the city of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece and is one of the emerging festivals of Southeast Europe. It started out in the 1960s as a festival focusing on Greek cinema but since 1992 it changed focus and was also accredited as an international film festival by International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF). The film festival takes place every year in November, while there is a Documentary Film Festival also organised in March. The festival venues like Olympion in the central Aristotelous Square and the Warehouses in the Port are centrally situated, and hold screenings organised by the festival all year round while more events are organised by the administration as well.

(21)

20

To sum up, in this chapter, I first started with a state of the art in the relevant literature within tourism studies. More specifically, I outlined academic approaches in film and events tourism, city branding, while I also looked at specific literature about the case study for this thesis: the city of Thessaloniki. Then, I discussed concepts within the theoretical framework, including city branding and film-induced tourism but also storytelling and representation. By setting up the state of the art in the field and the theories I will engage, I am locating my research within the academic framework of tourism studies and I will be able to make use of these concepts and potentially go one step further. Finally, I described how I will use critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis to approach the primary sources. In the following chapter I will analyse the official travel website of Thessaloniki and two magazine articles.

(22)

21

CHAPTER TWO: City Image in Official Website and Online Articles

In this chapter I will be answering the question “How has Thessaloniki been promoted through city branding particularly in relation to cultural events and festivals?” Some other questions that are crucial to understanding the full scope of the main one are the following:

- How does the official travel website of Thessaloniki present the city? - What is the place of ‘culture’ within this representation or brand?

- What are the strategies that were used to promote Thessaloniki as a destination? - Is this brand apparent in media representations of the city that attempt to promote it to

visitors?

The data in this chapter will come from the official travel website. The website is in part the result of the strategies followed by the city’s administration and the interview can provide insight on the process behind the scenes.

Since the subject of this study is the city of Thessaloniki it is necessary to provide some historical context regarding its place in the world as well as regarding the image and tourism elements in the city in recent years in order to easily understand the implications of these issues later. Thessaloniki was founded at the end of the fourth century BCE. In time, it became Roman metropolis and later one of the wealthiest cities of the Byzantine Empire. It fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1430 which introduced a new era of over four centuries Ottoman rule in the city. During the 15th and 16th centuries large populations of Sephardic Jews migrated to the city and by the end of the 19th century they constituted the largest ethnic population. It officially passed from the Ottoman Empire back to Greece in 1912 and since then it has taken its place in the modern world. In recent years, specifically after the Second World War, it has been home to a predominantly Greek and Christian population, much like the rest of the country. In regards to tourism, it has only started truly developing a new strategy during the last decade.

A Multimodal Framework for Analyzing Websites

The purpose of this analysis is to get insight into the tourism website of the city of Thessaloniki and discuss the cultural expressions that arise from it. The official tourism website is found at the following address https://thessaloniki.travel/en/. The purpose of the multimodal framework for analysing websites developed by Pauwels is to “decode and disclose the cultural information that resides both in the form and content (and the content of form […]) of websites” (248). Furthermore, “[m]ultimodal analysis not only takes different modes into account but also has strong focus on the effects of their interplay” (Pauwels 250). The methodology is in six parts: the first is dedicated to the first impressions of the analyst about the website; in the

(23)

22

second, an inventory is taken of all the salient features and topics present at the website to be able to analyse later; the third in the in-depth analysis of this content separated into the different modalities as well as focusing on the interplay between them and on a ‘negative’ analysis as well; in the fourth stage, the point of view and (implied) audiences are explored; in the fifth and sixth phases, there is an analysis of how information is organised as well as a contextual analysis (Pauwels 252). For the purpose of this thesis I will use up to the fourth phase since I believe they will yield the necessary results regarding the projected city image and the role of festivals, events and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in particular.

1. Preservation of First Impressions and Reactions

The first phase of this methodological framework is dedicated to the first impressions and reflections that happen before any analysis has taken place as a first contact with the material (Pauwels 253). At first glance the website feels relatively overwhelming because the homepage consists of a video depicting fast changing images of the city with dizzying camera work, a pop-up window to sign up for an email list, and the city travel app as well as the main menu. All these elements crowd the homepage which gives it a hectic feel. Simultaneously it seems packed with information and suggestions for things to do as well as a plethora of options in different categories which creates a positive image as it is not hard to find everything based on what the user is looking for. The colour scheme is bright with pastel colours and a combination of blue and light fuchsia while the background is white. Even though these colours are not the ones I relate with the city as an inhabitant they make the website attractive and inviting to use. Another first impression is the multitude of ways in which the website can be navigated which can be confusing at first, but it also provides different routes to find what you are looking for. In short, first impression of the website is dynamic and relatively positive but it is also

(24)

23

discordant with my own image of the city as a citizen. This dissonance comes because I would not connect my own impressions with this colour palette as representative of the city or the overall presentation of the content.

2. Inventory of salient features and topics

When one enters the website the centre of the screen is entirely taken up from a video that plays automatically (without sound) that includes moving images from around the city centre, filmed from odd angles, and with the camera moving hectically, and even turned around 180 degrees. At the top of the screen partly overlaid on top of the video is a white banner. At the top left corner is the city logo which reads “Thessaloniki. Many Stories. One Heart” with a half blue half fuchsia heart above it. Towards the right corner in fuchsia letters is first a line that includes the social media icons, the local time in Greece at the moment of viewing, a selection of languages for the website that include Greek, English, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Chinese. Under this line, there is the main menu that includes the following categories: “Home”, “Useful Information”, “Exploring the city”, “Things to do”, “Gastronomy”, “Nearby escapes”, “Media” and “Accommodation”. When the user hovers over these categories a window pops down where it provides the sub-categories of the main ones and offers a large selection of options. On the same homepage, on the left side there is a small pop-up window with links to download the Thessaloniki Travel Apps and the possibility to enter an email to subscribe to the mailing list. At the bottom left corner, there is a small icon indicating accessibility which opens to provide different settings to view the website as a person with dyslexia or other disabilities. Finally, at the bottom right corner there is an icon to press for

(25)

24

“Covid-19 Update” which is a recent addition after the Covid-19 pandemic which started in early 2020.

When the user of the website scrolls down, there is another banner that prominently reads “Many Stories, One Heart: Choose and Create your Own Story” and “Welcome!” Underneath there are two lines of images that provide more categories to look for such as “Arts & Culture”, “Education”, “Love & Sunset” and “Festivals” to name a few. Further down there is a section called “Welcome to Thessaloniki with links to “Events”, a hotel brand and the Instagram Feed”. Continuing on, there is a section for “Nearby escapes: Nature and Culture One Step Away” categorised by their proximity to the city and presented with pictures. Similarly, there is a section that reads “Themed Routes: Discover the many faces of the city” which is placed, as the above, in the left corner while on the right “my story” is written. Underneath, the options are “UNESCO monuments route”, “Ottoman route”, “Jewish route” and “Early Christian and Byzantine route” each represented by an image and the option to click for more underneath. When the background is white the text is either in blue, fuchsia or black font while when it is overlaid on images it is on a white font. With few exceptions the font is in bold.

At the bottom of the homepage there is more information and links on a fuchsia background. These are written in white font and each section is separated by a white thin line. The first line includes more information about getting there, moving around, contact and an “About Us” page. Then, in big bold letters the website reads “Your opinion matters” which links to a form where visitors can review their experience and visit. Next to this is another link to download the city app. Finally, there is another line with links to the social media as well as the hashtag #visitthessaloniki.

Regarding cultural events and festivals there are a few ways they are brought to the attention of the public. First of all, in the section of the homepage that includes a mosaic of pictures linking to different “stories” of the city, there is a section for “Art & Culture” and one specifically dedicated to “Festivals”. The “Art & Culture” page includes images and information regarding “Museums”, “Sculptures & Monuments”, and the “Thessaloniki Music Hall”, the scientific centre “Noesis”, a section for “Theatres & Cinemas” and the “Musical history of Thessaloniki”. The page dedicated to festivals includes a list of sixteen festivals that take place in the city including the “Thessaloniki International Film Festival” and the “Thessaloniki Documentary Festival” which share the same organization.

According to Pauwels, it is also important to perform a “negative” analysis of salient features to assess what is “meaningfully absent” in the website that is under analysis (253). In this case, that could be sections with more or longer text as well as explicitly aspects of history

(26)

25

or life as it is now as the section on recent history stops at 1944. All of these aspects however are not necessarily expected in a tourism promotion website anyway and are meaningfully absent to the extent that they usually are absent from this type of websites that promote cities. Something else that could be considered an absence is the lack of the perspective of locals or reviews by other tourists and visitors. There are numerous websites and blogs that are usually dedicated to visiting a place “like a local” and reviews are more likely to be found in review websites such as Tripadvisor or in hotel and restaurant related platforms directly. Regardless of that, this website portrays a clearly curated and organised approach to the city by its tourism board.

3. In-depth analysis of content and stylistic features

During this third phase of analysis the focus shifts to engaging with the content meaningfully and looking at “the complex forms of interplay between the different modes” (Pauwels 253). It is also important to keep in mind that more attention will be paid to elements that concern cultural events and the “cultural” aspect of tourism in Thessaloniki as it is the focus of this thesis. Firstly, there will be an “intra-modal” analysis where each “mode” of expression is analysed separately grouped in categories like verbal, typographical, visual, sonic and design signifiers. Following that there will be a section dedicated to “cross-modal” interplay whereby the inter-relationships between the different modes are explored. Finally, there will be an in-depth analysis of what has been “meaningfully absent” (Pauwels 253).

a. Intra-modal analysis

Verbal/ written signifiers

For this section, as with the next ones, there needs to be a selection of material from the broad variety of data present in the Thessaloniki Travel official website. Based on Pauwels’ methodology this section will analyse “culturally specific meanings” that can be found in the written word both in what is expressed and how it is expressed. For this purpose, I will select the written text of the homepage and the text on the “Festivals” page out of the “Many Stories” of the city to analyse how these “storylines” are developed.

(27)

26

The written text on the homepage is minimal and focuses on the city’s logo “Many stories, one heart”. This is a ‘story’ of its own which suggests that what the city’s uniqueness rests on the fact that it consists of a multitude of stories. These are also apparent in the themed routes that include a particular time period in the city’s history each. These routes also reflect the different groups of people that co-existed in the city during those periods of time for example the Jewish community, the Ottoman past and the Roman route among others. Beneath the logo on the homepage, the website invites its visitors to “Choose and create your own story”. This is a proposition addressed to the viewer with the use of the second person “your” which appeals directly to the individual viewer of this statement. The choice of verbs creates the sense that the visitor is in charge of not only carving the path among the many different options but that they can also be the authors of their story within the many stories of the city. This makes the visitor an active participant of the storyline of the city and of their own story as well. The

multiple categories that follow and separate the itineraries, monuments, museums and experiences in Thessaloniki into categories can only reinforce this particular narrative. Finally, by using the concept of creating “your own story” the website is reinforcing the idea that traveling is like creating a story where the traveller (or tourist) is the author.

The next panel from the homepage is the one that is referring to the Themed Routes that the visitor can take in Thessaloniki. Under “Themed Routes” the tagline reads “Discover the many faces of the city” and on the side it reads “my story”. The first one is a metaphorical statement in two levels. On the one hand, the verb “discover” suggests that visiting the city can be an exploration particularly concerning to the routes proposed in this section. Even though the visitor is only following others’ steps, going on those routes means they can discover facets of history previously unknown to them. On the other hand, the “faces” of the city is a metaphor that personifies the city which could make it more approachable.

(28)

27

It is also interesting to note the selection of routes featured in this section as there are more designed routes on the website. Firstly, there is the ‘UNESCO Monuments Route’ which according to the section devoted to them if one clicks on that link, includes the 15 monuments that were declared World Heritage Sites in 1988 by UNESCO. The website boasts that they are the “‘finest monuments’ of the city” particularly from Byzantine and Early Christian art. This category recognises the importance of internationally renowned organisations like UNESCO in affirming the importance of the city as most international visitors are aware of the World Heritage Sites list. The other three categories are the ‘Ottoman’, the ‘Jewish’ and the ‘Early Christian and Byzantine’ routes respectively that also coincide with the three main ethnic and religious communities that co-existed in Thessaloniki in the past. The inclusion of all three in

the homepage contributes to the narrative of the multiple storyline. It also suggests that apart from their factual existence in the city’s history, there is more to explore regarding how they have been woven in the fabric of the city as differences in religion often imply conflict. These assumptions are not explicitly expressed in the homepage but in the ‘Ottoman’ section, a short description reads “[the] co-existence between Greeks, Turks and Jews offers to the city its unique multiculturalism” which confirms the narrative that is suggested here.

By focusing on the sections on ‘Festivals’ more specifically, one can find the elements of the city that a tourist can visit that could loosely be considered “cultural” and relevant to this thesis. In the ‘Festivals’ section a short description states: “In the rich cultural calendar of Thessaloniki, the festivals have their own special place. Dynamic enhancement tool of all forms of art and expression, are very good opportunity to visit the city and discover the modern cultural production!” This short text contains, first of all, the implication that there is an abundance of cultural events happening in the city and among them the several festivals listed on this page. The adjectives ‘rich’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘modern’ refer to these events but also to the city and its character. It underlines that Thessaloniki not only showcases culture of the past but

(29)

28

is actively involved in cultural production in contemporary times. The list of festivals includes festivals devoted to music, dance, theatre and performance, literature, cinema and food.

As a case study that will be discussed further on, it is important to note the description referring to the Thessaloniki International Film Festival which can be found in the bottom of the third page of the list. It is described as “the top Film Festival of South Eastern Europe and the Oldest in the Balkans” as well as “one of the most important cultural events in the city”. These superlative characterisations of the Festival place it definitively on the map of the city as culturally important. However, its location on the page makes it harder to find for a random visitor to the website. The reason for this could potentially be the fact that the Festival takes place in November which is in the low tourist season in comparison with most of the other festivals on this list. Moreover, it could suggest that visitors to Thessaloniki are not so inclined to visit it randomly based on the suggestion of the official tourism website, but rather to find it if they are interested in cinema and film festivals in the first place.

Visual/ representational signifiers

As in the previous sections, the analysis of visual and representational signifiers will focus on the homepage and on the section on “Festivals”. This phase is a complex one for two reasons. First of all, because visual signifiers come in various types and shapes for instance photographs, drawings, symbols, charts and many others which makes it important to define these types of signifiers (Pauwels 254). Secondly, it is because “visual representations have to be analysed meticulously both for “what they depict” (“referent” or “content”) and “how they depict or represent” (style)” (Pauwels 254). In the selected pages of the website, and throughout its majority, there are mostly photographs of people, buildings, monuments, landscapes and there are also some icons for instance for social media and the symbol (or icon) of the city which is the heart at the top left corner. In the homepage these images are placed in the front and centre of the page, usually with multiple images taking up one frame of the website. Apart from the dizzying montage with abrupt cuts and hectic editing that is first encountered when one visits the page and which take up the entire screen, the rest of the homepage is covered in smaller images for each category or “story”. The images are shaped in small squares or rectangles without crowding the page too much. They depict characteristic elements of each activity or location usually in the daytime especially in external locations and without shying away from including crowds of people in the pictures. For instance, the “Gastronomy” section depicts an artistic photograph of a coffee, the “Festivals” section depicts a crowded outdoor festival and the “City Day & Night” shows people walking and biking along the promenade from a distance. The feel of these images appear to be spontaneous, snapshots of life as it happens. On the

(30)

29

contrary, the sections on “Nearby Escapes” and “Themed Routes” a bit further down on the homepage, depict pristine empty landscapes and monuments or historical buildings with the ground level cropped out, tell a different story. This selection shows two versions of the city and its surroundings. On the one hand, the energetic and active side which is full of activities, options for things to do and “stories” to live. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to experience a quiet retreat in nature or at the seaside or to marvel at historical sights. These two sides do not really come into conflict in theory as the website promotes the multiple storylines one could follow. At the same time, it is as disingenuous as other tourism promotion in not including people in photographs that would normally be there anyway.

In the “Festivals” page, there is a representative image of each festival which is placed on the left side of the frame. On the right there is information relating to the festival along with a link to “Read More”. Representing the Thessaloniki International Film Festival is in this page

is a panoramic photograph that depicts the area in the port of Thessaloniki where the main festival venues are located. This image is from the 59th edition of the festival and it was taken during sunset while the colours are oversaturated evidently after the picture has been edited. At the same time the image paints an impressive picture of the scenery and atmosphere one could find at the festival, right next to the sea, overlooking the sunset with people bustling around the giant sign that reads “ΦΕΣΤΙΒΑΛ ΚΙΝΗΜΑΤΟΓΡΑΦΟΥ” (Film Festival).

(31)

30

When the user follows the link to each individual festival at the top of the page there is an image taking up the majority of the screen overlaid with a light blue banner that has the

name of each festival written in white over this image. In the page for the International Film Festival it is a slideshow with five images but in some other cases there is only one picture. Focusing on the page dedicated to the film festival, I will comment on the selection on the images that are chosen for the slideshow. The first one is the logo of the Festival along with the website; the second shows the entrance to the venue at Olympion cinema in the evening with a crowd of people standing, a street vendor and a magazine seller, all surrounding the lit entrance to the movie theatre; the third image depicts known American film director Alexander Payne at a panel; the fourth is another bird’s eye view of the Festival from above this time later in the evening and from a different angle focusing on the lit sign of the Festival; the final image also focuses on the sign of the festival in front of one of the warehouses. This time it is taken in the morning, on the ground, and from a position in the seafront that faces this view including the sea as well as part of a bike, blurred at the forefront of the image. This selection of images highlights the collective experience of visiting a Festival because people are included in the pictures. Often, tourism websites shy away from including people in images as it can mean that a location is hectic and they want to present a pristine view but in this case the Festival needs to be portrayed at the time it is happening with people and lights crowding and lining the street. The image of the film director showcases the film centred aspect of the festival by indicating that well-respected people are invited and attend the festival and also give panels, talks and