The tourist experience of historic waterfront precincts

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 thirty interviews involving forty-eight 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.