Abstract:
Over the last few decades, urban waterfronts worldwide have become places of significant change.
Many have essentially lost their working port functions and have been redeveloped for other
purposes, often incorporating significant leisure and tourism functions. Others, however, have
maintained a significant portion of their original commercial maritime activities, but have still
become a focus for leisure and tourism pursuits. This paper explores two such waterfront precincts in
major Australian cities: Fremantle in Perth and Williamstown in Melbourne, places with long
histories in shipping but very recent histories in tourism. The focus of the paper is on understanding
how tourists experience these places, and what it is about such precincts that contribute most to their
touristic appeal. The basis for the research was a series of structured interviews with both domestic
and international visitors to each precinct. Fifty-six individual interviews were conducted in
Williamstown and 30 interviews involving 48 individuals were conducted in Fremantle. In both
cases, the interviews were conducted over a two-day period. The results shed light on why and how
such places appeal to tourists and also provide guidance on how to maintain their appeal. Relaxation
and taking time out from the everyday city were important visitor motivations, and the waterfront
setting contributed to these. Fremantle, however, provided more depth to the tourists' experiences
because it offered greater opportunities to engage actively with the setting and others who occupied
it, rather than simply experiencing it in a passive way as appeared to be the case in Williamstown.
Significantly there was a strong feeling that the working port element was an important part of
Fremantle's appeal, along with a very strong connection to history through a well-conserved physical
fabric. The lack of depth in the Williamstown experience seemed to limit the visitors' ability to
appreciate the precinct's history, with its most positive features relating to the pure physicality of its
waterfront setting. More generally, the results provide some key insights into the functions that
tourism precincts perform within the overall urban tourism experience and how significant precincts
are to such experiences. They reinforce earlier findings of the previous studies conducted by the
researchers that intimacy, authenticity and a strong sense of place are vital elements of the tourist
experience in urban precincts, and precincts are at the core of the urban tourism experience.
