ATTREG - Attractiveness of European Regions and Cities for Residents and Visitors

Thematic scope

Economic analysis often focuses exclusively on the sites of production. This project focuses on the sites of consumption. Instead of looking at large manufacturing plants producing for export or at multinational headquarters, this project is looking at the impact of shops and restaurants, hotels and hospitals, doctors and post offices. The attractiveness of European regions and cities for residents and visitors alike depends on the quality, cost and availability of specific services and goods.

Attractive, competitive and dynamic regions and cities have been a major issue for the development of respective policies. The ESDP (1999) already underlined the need to support regions and cities in becoming more competitive and attractive. Against this backdrop, this project shall strive to achieve a better understanding of the contribution of European regions’ and cities’ attractiveness to economic performance. In addition, it shall identify the key ingredients of attractiveness in different types of territories, from vibrating city centres to tranquil rural settlements, taking into account issues such as access to services, well-being and quality of life. Finally, the project shall investigate in which way policy makers can improve the attractiveness of their city or region by reconciling the interests of both, residents and visitors.

Please read more about the main research areas and main results envisaged on the next page.

Lead Partner

University 'Rovira i Virgili', Spain

Detailed information on the contracted project team can be found under Transnational Project Groups

Sounding Board

Magdalena Belof, Poland
Sergio Campanella, Italy

Budget: € 840 067,69

Project’s lifetime: February 2010 – October 2012

Delivery of Reports

Inception Report: 30 June 2010

Interim Report: 31 December 2010

Annex to Inception Report: 31 May 2011

Draft Final Report: 1 December 2011

Final Report: 30 April 2012

Publishing

Reports will be published once they are approved by the ESPON Monitoring Committee

Publishing
Reports will be published once they are approved by the ESPON Monitoring Committee

More information

Please contact the Project Expert at the ESPON Coordination Unit:
SandraDI BIAGGIO, e-mail: [email protected]

Main research areas

  • Identification of the key factors of attractiveness of European regions and cities for residents and visitors and analysis of the extent to which these factors influence regions’/cities’ economic development.
  • Distribution of attractiveness factors across Europe and investigation into their possible measurement; mapping of attractiveness patterns at local, regional, national, European and global scale.
  • Analysis of the role of sectors and trends for attractive regions and cities.
  • Identification of challenges and development opportunities related to natural, cultural and landscape heritage in enhancing attractiveness.
  • Proposal of tools and instruments for policy makers to enhance the attractiveness of regions and cities.
  • Analysis of possible development paths/future perspectives for both, attractive and still unattractive regions, taking into account current and future global challenges.

Main results envisaged

  • Data input to the development, update and extension of the ESPON Database by additional data on attractiveness and competitiveness gathered within the project.
  • Indicators offering as tools additional information on the different types of attractiveness and competitiveness.
  • Innovative case studies, covering different types of regions and cities displaying different levels attractiveness, offering some more focused and detailed information on the attractiveness of European regions and cities.
  • European maps revealing the attractiveness of European regions and cities (including land prices) as well as new types of regions.
     

Documents

Final Report

  • Acrobat Document | 6.58MB

Final Report - Scientific Report

  • Acrobat Document | 4.99MB

Final Report - List of publications

  • Acrobat Document | 95KB

Final Report - Case Studies

  • Zip archive | 12.52MB

Draft Final Report

  • Acrobat Document | 4.34MB

Draft Final Report-Annex 1 Scientific Report

  • Acrobat Document | 3.61MB

Draft Final Report-Annex 2 Maps.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 76.72MB

Draft Final Report-Annex 3 Publications

  • Acrobat Document | 62KB

Draft Final Report-Annex 4 Case studies

  • Acrobat Document | 32.27MB

Interim Report

  • Acrobat Document | 1.29MB

Interim Report ANNEX A

  • Acrobat Document | 175KB

Interim Report ANNEX B

  • Acrobat Document | 53.32MB

Interim Report ANNEX B-r1

  • Acrobat Document | 5.41MB

Interim Report ANNEX choice of case studies

  • Acrobat Document | 41KB

Inception Report

  • Acrobat Document | 656KB

Project Specification

  • Acrobat Document | 49KB