The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) title enables European citizens to learn about one another's culture, to admire the relics of their common past, and to experience the wealth of European values and the sense of belonging together. Winner cities and regions wish to sustain the effect of the title in order to maintain economic, social and cultural prosperity. Veszprém and Balaton region in Hungary won the title for 2023, which influences local and regional destination management. The aim of the research is to introduce the key role, factors, and pitfalls of local and regional stakeholders' network system and to highlight the challenges of sustainable cooperation.
TopIntroduction
The title of European Capital of Culture was created more than 30 years ago on the proposal of Greek-born actress and minister of culture Melina Mercouri (until 2001 the title was called “European City of Culture”), which has been one of the most important and well-known projects in European Union cultural policy ever since. The title itself is awarded by the European Union's Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture in order to highlight the cultural richness of its Member States. The aim of the programme is to increase the sense of belonging to a common (European) cultural area for European citizens and thus to improve their understanding of each other.
In fact, the title of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is to raise awareness that the common field of European culture is created by the joint contribution of different countries and cities. In the language of the arts it conveys that European culture is common and is always the result of the cultural activity of that region. The city holding the title will be the focus of European attention with the cultural products and concrete projects that are created there. The project's explicit aim is to improve and strengthen the image of the ECoC initiation and the ECoC city, increasing the efficiency of the local creative industry and increasing its tourist attractiveness and the cooperation of the locals (Albattat et al., 2020; Chemli et al., 2020; Toanoglou et al., 2021; Valeri, 2021a).
The Veszprém-Balaton 2023 (VEB2023) project places great emphasis on cooperation and regional relations, so the city of Veszprém is scheduled to work with almost 260 municipalities in Balaton (biggest Lake of Central Europe) and Bakony (mountain range near Veszprém city) in the ECoC 2023 programme series. The proposal and the project, as the slogan Beyond suggests, go beyond limits, geographical boundaries and are about to bring together municipalities, businesses, NGOs and to cooperate in a network. The phrase “move beyond” covers a wide spectrum initiations to change attitude towards “boring Tuesdays, trouble and isolation, mistrust, prejudice, tradition, abandoned barns, obstacles and indifference” (BidBook Veszprém2023 2018).
The study briefly presents the history and objectives of the ECoC title and puts this programme in the context of cooperation, contacts and networks. In the course of the national and international outlook of the literature, it deals with the network and tourism relationship system, and the selection process of ECoC 2023. The focus of the study will be on the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 programme itself, highlighting the challenges of cooperation and networking – from winning the title to the leading years. By presenting specific programmes and operational solutions, a networked cooperation model of regional municipal and cultural actors, the University of Pannonia, civil communities and the management of the ECoC is presented. The study looks for the answer to the following question:
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How can (regional) cooperation and networking be linked to European Capital of Culture applications?
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How does this idea apply in the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 (VEB2023) project?
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What concrete steps have been taken during the preparation of the project (until the manuscript is completed by 2020)?
TopDesign/Methodology/Approach
The study exhibits the stakeholders’ network of some ECoC bidders and winners especially focusing on Veszprém and Balaton region, Hungary as a future ECoC city. The research applies two methodology: the secondary data analysis is applied based on bid books and reports of ECoC cities; and the primary data is based on regular project meetings and their minutes between the ECoC management, the representative of the University of Pannonia, head of institution, members of local and regional government and other stakeholders such as tour boards in Veszprém and the Balaton region.
Results
The results highlight the challenges of sustainability, cooperation and networking of stakeholders ECoC cities, especially Veszprém-Balaton 2023. It provides an overview of the most important directions, content and the planned operating model of stakeholders’ network system regarding how the ECoC programmes can be successful.