The role of cultural flagships in the perception and experience of urban areas for tourism and culture. Case study: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden

This research aims to explore how a cultural flagship influences the cultural tourist’s perception and experience of a well established urban area for tourism and culture, taking the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as a case study. Covent Garden, as an important part of London’s tourist portfolio is a case study of interest because of its wide array of land use that makes it a popular area for tourism and cultural consumption, with distinctive architecture, heritage and a wide range of attractions and leisure opportunities. The Royal Opera House, established at the core of the area, stands as a world renowned provider of high culture and has a rich history and heritage of its own, yet it evolved over time parallel to the area, to the extent that Covent Garden’s name is often used to refer to either the precinct or the flagship. It was recently subjected to a redevelopment scheme aimed towards providing the building with a fresh architectural front and added facilities. This raises many questions regarding the role that an old cultural flagship made new plays in the well established tourism precinct’s sense of place and draw towards the cultural tourist. To address these matters, a social constructivist approach has being adopted, through which the tourist’s mechanisms of interpreting their surroundings were explored and the nature of their cultural experiences in Covent Garden understood. 306 semi-structured interviews were conducted throughout six different locations in the area and inside the flagship building aiming to explore the tourist’s motivation to visit London and Covent Garden, the nature of their experiences and their perception of both the area and the flagship, and how the latter exerts an influence of their perception and experience of place