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Anna Pawlikowska – Piechotka, PhD Eng. architect; EURA, IAPS, ISSSS, SARP

Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology; 00659 Warsaw; Poland; 55 Koszykowa Street

Faculty of Tourism and Recreation Joseph Pilsudski AWF University Warsaw; 00968 Warsaw; Poland; 34 Marymoncka Street; E: ; T: 48 22839 02 78

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT – A NEW STRATEGY FOR WARSAW

Introduction: public participation in spatial planning (Poland)

Public participation in spatial planning process is a principle and democratic right of all stakeholders [UN 2006, UN 1992]. It is a process which consists of a series of activities and actions and these practicesare especially important when local community is potentially affected by urban plan decisions and therefore should have a right to be involved in decision making process [Blomgren 2005, UN 2001]. Constantly changingsocieties requires newsolutionsforpartnership platform in urban planning, new tools and methods,the evolution and rethinking of the whole planning process. For example, today we have an excellent support from information technologies, which provide a communication platform created ‘for all’ and offers a significant potentials forcollaborativepublic engagement in planning [Hanzi 2007, Lane 2006]. As a consequence of democratic governance, public participation in positive urban change, also in shaping sustainable urban tourism in the heritage sites, should be seen as people centred (human centred) principle with the whole local community feel responsible for decisions. However the conditions of success are: understanding the core issues of the project, the desire for the participation, authentic dialogue, transparency of the spatial planning process. Some scholars argue, that expanding the opportunities for public participation is not always the best option and should be limited, especially when crucial environmental issues (for example natural or cultural values) are in question [Innes 2007, Rydin 2010].

In Poland, accordingly to the spatial law new regulations, public participation has becomean important segment of policy making process - especially on the local level (Act of Spatial Planning, 1994).It was intended as an effort to increase public trust in authorities, enhance democratic ideas and improve the quality of solutions – in contrast to technocratic and bureaucratic monopoly of central planning during the past era of 1945 - 1989. New regulations refer also to the preliminary stage of spatial planning, when the proposed aims and solutions are subjects to public comments in a specified period of time. It means, that also when solving sustainable urban tourism development policy, this stage should involve consultations, public meetings and online discussion forums to gather opinions and formulate rules for the best future strategy.Recently public participation had been considered as a good tool to solve the crisis in public trust and local governance, for example as a help to re – organise the chaotic development of urban tourism in Polish historic towns.

Urban tourism and sustainability

Several Polish cities are facing growing problems due to the growing number of visitors. In the past decadesmanyPolish historic towns have functioned as popular tourist destinations, but heritage tourism has been growing significantly in the recent years. As a result of socio-economic transformations, growing income, higher levels of education, growing awareness of our country, globalisation process (access to EU) and better tourist infrastructure (transport, accommodation) now we could experience much more bigger tourists interest in our historic cities.Moreover our cities as tourist destination offered to Western European visitors some fascinating but relatively low-cost cultural experiences. Interestingly although many Polish historic cities are currently attempting to diversify their tourism offer (as spa tourism) – cultural and heritage tourism remained the most popular form. Today especially Cracow and Warsaware popular, visited by millions of tourists per year (Warsaw by 8900000),by people coming from Poland and abroad[1]. The average period of staying is about 6 days, but Polish cities are also visited by millions of one-day excursionists, not staying overnight (Warsaw by 3200000 per year)[2]. Needless to underline that the main attraction for tourists and for one-day excursionists are the historic centres of these cities:the Old Town in Warsaw and the Old Town in Cracow - both sites having theprestigious UNESCO World Heritage Site status. As other UNESCO Heritage Sites, the Old Towns in Cracow and the Old Town in Warsaw are very popular, in the high season months even extremely overcrowded and they need to develop and apply a new approach to tourism development.In other European cities it is not a new problem and a number of possible negative consequences of urban tourism has been already mentioned by scholars some years ago [Ashworth 1997, Goetz 2005, Law 2002, Paszucha 1997,Selby 2004]. Different and often competing requirements need to be reconsidered, together with balancing the interests of residents and visitors.For example different groups or individuals may benefit or suffer disproportionately from tourist development what leads to unwelcomed tensions, and often opened conflict. Today we have knowledge and planning tools enabling to minimize negative effects on historic, natural and social environment. One of these is public participation in decision making, common responsibility in shapingrational strategic plansto the site management in order to: safeguard the outstanding values of heritage, protect local community wellbeing and achieve sustainable tourism and economic development of the region. Moreover public participation could be used as an important tool to measure the objectives, to evaluate the urban tourism impact on local community.

Urban sustainabilityof the Old Town in Warsaw

Residents of the Old Town in Warsaw form a very special community group of 12500.Several thousand households,locatedin 200 historic buildings,help to developa strong sense of local identity and pride, but at the same time a grudge feelings and prejudice towards tourism. Most of the local community members have been living in the Old Town since 1950, having got there a ‘communal apartment’ after the Second World War reconstruction of the district. Today it seems that they truly care for the historic fabric preservation, restoration and maintenance, being very proud of the tradition and symbolic meaning of the site. But as tourism develops in this historic centre, it brings with it recognisable ecological, cultural, social and economic impacts – very damaging from the local community point of view.For example many B&B, hostels, restaurants, night clubs which had beenfounded in the Old Town area - replaced grocery shops, milk-bars and local bookshops. Today one can notice that the tension clearly exists between users of the Old Town ‘shared space’: visitorsand those who work and live in and around heritage site. On the other hand the development of the tourist industry is more than a question of economic necessity; it is a chance to contribute to better protection of historic monuments and in the broader perspective – to urban regeneration. In consequence this situation calls for new solutions in establishing the sustainable interrelationships between the preservation of heritage potential of the Old Town, tourist development and the local community strong rights to high quality ofliving standards. Some scholars argue, that from a postmodernist perspective, as a consequence of increasing mobility of society, global communication, there is no point in making efforts to solve these questions, as who is not satisfied in living in historic sites – could easily move out [Richards 2002, Urry 1995]. However, the Old Town in Warsaw is different from London or New York – most of its residents are long – term and the core is formed by place – based tradition, often multi - segmentedfamilies, permanently connected with the site (often the second or third generation). It is believed by many scholars, that the strategies for heritage tourism sustainable development should be elaborated with the local community active participation, considered as an important partner in the whole project process [Garrod 2000, Apostolakis 2003]. However, with some limits, as two approaches should be in urban planning combined: ‘bottom – up’ and ‘top- down’ to achieve sustainability. Many scholars underline that a bottom – up approach alone cannot be used, especially where control of factors such as environment values, cultural heritage is necessary (possible often only through top – down command) and the participatory approach requires then a more informed, better educated society [Blomgren 2005, Hanzi 2007, Innes 2004, Rydin 2010].

Research questions and methods:

In 2009 Warsaw City Council Office recognised the necessity of developing a project to solve the complex spatial issues of the Old Town, which included as a new approach a public participation in decision – making process. As a research group we were interested in the government effects to create a new approach of developingsustainable urban tourism, in results to improve urban management, planning and implementation practices through partnership governance. Our research studywas also about enquiry the phenomenon of heritage tourism and its impact on the Old Townin Warsaw cultural values and the local community members.We were interested both in the negative and the positive consequences, in revealing the socio-cultural impacts that cultural tourism might have on thelocal residents (host community). In our research we included the analyse of various stakeholders, as Local Authority of Centrum Borough, Warsaw City Council Office, Conservatory of Heritage in Warsaw Office, tourism industry, local community members; their priorities and visions of sustainable tourism development. We focused on the following key elements:

a)Identifying the focal group of stakeholders for the Old Townin Warsaw;determining the potential interests groups and their point of view on tourism development

b)Examining thelocal community characteristic and background, its needs and expectations; visions for shaping the ‘shared space’, revealing internal conflicts within local community members

c)Presenting an effort of Warsaw City Government to develop, validate and deploy a strategy of urban sustainable management, partnership and local community involvement, in aim to create a better tourism policy and improve management, planning and implementation practices in Warsaw

The case study effort was in particular focused on local community, as we regarded the experience of hosting tourists and theresidents’vision on further heritagetourism development as important and crucial conditionfor sustainability. We intended to shape our research in form of applied one and hoped to find a solution for a general framework for sustainable heritage tourism partnerships with all parties concerned. We believed that tourism’s impact on the Old Town is much more than simply number of visitors, job places created and money spent, as complicated relationship between visitor and host is rarely that simple. To measure these issues from different perspectives we used combination of methods as we have aimed to achieve a balance between the quantitative and the qualitative approaches: academic studies of published resources and spatial plans (the quantitative secondary data analysis) as well as the case study on the Old Town in Warsaw– to obtainprimary data in form of observations, semi-structured and structured interviews, conducted between local community and local authority representatives – as recommended by the well recognised researches in tourism [Dallen 2003, Finn 2000, Smith 2003, Phillimore 2005].

The Old Town in Warsaw spatial development: past and present

The Old Town in Warsawcovers about 10 hectares, is well known of the numerous restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops, and is commonly believed to be one of theWarsaw’s most prominent tourist attractions.Established in the 13th century, Old Market and surrounding streets, feature the medieval, renaissance and baroque architecture of houses,the city walls andchurches.In September 1939, during the invasion of Poland, much of the district was damaged by Nazisand in 1945 less than 5% of the houses were still habitable. After the Second World War, the Old Town was meticulously rebuilt with the use of the original bricks whenever it was possible. The last historic monument to be rebuild was the Royal Castle (restored in 1971-1981), today the great landmark commanding the Castle Square. The Old Town reconstruction was very expensive, both in terms of money and of communal effort. Strong motivation and remarkable efforts have been honouredby registering the Old Town in Warsawto the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites, as ‘an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century’[3].Following the political changes after 1989 and the opening up for foreign tourists, the Old Town in Warsaw quickly has been recognised as a major tourist attraction. Today it has more than 240 shops, restaurants to potter around in. Moreover, when walking today through the Old Town narrow streets, it is hard to believe that practically most of the buildings are less than 70 years old.The so-called ‘Decree on Municipalisation’, announced in October 1945, about ownership and use of land in Warsaw - cancelled private property rights to the land. The ‘old’ residences of the Old Town were often given a communal apartment at some newly erected housing estatesand prestigious apartments at the Old Town were offered to the ‘specially selected’ group of artists, scientists and high-ranked communist party members. It was not only about the unique location, but also the much less restriction of living area normative. The regulations at this time allowed, exclusively at reconstructed historic buildings,to occupy much larger space and to enjoy higher living standards. Contemporaryresidents of the Old Town (about 12500 people,living in 200 apartment houses) are representatives ofthe next generation. They are thechildren or even grandchildren of the first, post-war generation who inhabited the newly rebuilt district. Today this group of successorsusually have only some tenant ship rights (usually temporary) to occupy their apartment. Very rarely one can get a permission to buy an apartment from the state (or rather from local authority), many have no ‘strong’ legal rights to apartment he/ or she lives in, but merely the temporary ‘communal order’. The lucky ones, those having full ownership rights, often take chance to sell their property on the free real estate market as the price for one square meter of apartments located at the Old Town is one of the highest in Warsaw.[4] Most of the ground floor commercial spaces (shops, restaurants) are owned by local authority (self-government) and are being let through the open auctions. The prices are very high (as it is popular tourist site) and no local grocery with basic food offer is able to compete and make profit. No doubts that commercial space in the Old Town is used mainly for luxury restaurants, cafes, art galleries, antique and souvenirs shops with silver, gold and amber jewellery.Unfortunately the Warsaw City Council Office was not supportive to local small – scale entrepreneurs (as artists selling their paintings on the streets), but to development of ‘quality’ services based on luxury shops and restaurants. We cannot name it ‘fair trade’ schemes and obviously in future the benefits from tourism and economic development should reach all sectors of local community.
Public participation and the Old Town sustainable tourism vision.
In 2010 – 2014 our interviews with various stakeholder groups’ representatives showed, that there was no one vision for sustainable tourism, shared by local community, conservatory office, local government and tourist industry.There are also differing levels of interests between individuals and groups within the local community, as the community is not homogeneous and not all local residents benefit equally from or are equally happy with tourism development. Moreover we can observe rather individual and NGO’s networks (Association of Warsaw Friends, Association of Old Town Local Community) than institutional efforts to practice sustainable tourism at the Old Town in Warsaw.Unfortunately the recent documents on the Old Town Management strategy: ‘Warsaw Strategy of Spatial Development’ (2007) and ‘Management of the Old Town Strategy’ (2012)have rather general ideas and objectives than a concrete action plan [WCCO 2007, 2012]. Therefore this indicates a challenge in shaping other proposals for sustainable tourism planning recommendations. The important question remains how to make all stakeholders feel responsible to contribute in this process, especially how to involve the whole community in tourism development. It seems that it is no other way to create a balance within the different interests groups but through democratic process of making decisions (for example through the Local Spatial Plan for the Old Town in Warsaw), as this system is giving equal weight to all legitimate voices.In 2010 the very promising step towards improvement of local self-government and democracy was the Warsaw City Council Office decision to start two interesting projects: ‘Contribute in Architectural Relics Conservation Programme’ and ‘Old Town - New Image’. Both were directed to the local community members and intended as a new initiative to encourage people to express their opinions and to make them feel more responsible. In February 2010 the Warsaw City Council Officeinitiated a series of consulting meetings and workshops with the local community members, regarding the project ‘Old Town - New Image’ [Table 1]. It was developed on the ground of the FSS ‘Norway Grants’ Programme[5], making a chance for the local community members to meet and talk with the Warsaw City Council Office representatives. The local community members had a chance to express their feelings and comments concerning heritage tourism future development.Unfortunately only 200 out of 12500 inhabitants were present at least once, what makes hardly 1.5% of total residents. Those who were interested in the project participation and present at the meetings, mentioned several problems which should be solved. First and foremost was underlined the necessity to shift public safety level (CCTV monitoring) and the sanitary issues (litters policy, provision of public toilets). Other importantissueswere about need for parking places reserved for local residents, restaurants gardens blocking pavements, noise until the small hours. Then mentioned were the problems, not connected with the tourist sustainability, but rather with other aspects of everyday life quality, as better health services, public transport or the poor technical state of houses. The representative of disabled residences explained the necessity to provide ‘barrier free’ urban space, safer for elderly, disabled and caretakers with prams – indicating, that these improvements will be also important for disabled tourists visiting the site. The local community members underlined that in many cases it is not possible to get the conservatory of monuments permission to create ramps or the wider passages. One of the important brought out issueswas the creation of information tourist system (with suggestions to use the late Prof. Jan Zachwatowicz ideas, including the ‘touch maps’ system for people with sight impairments).