Urban image change over two decades: Comparing the images of six British urban areas 20 years apart

This paper addresses a significant lacuna in the literature of urban image by examining urban image change for multiple towns and cities over a period of two decades. It revisits and repeats a survey of UK conference and events organisers from 2000 that explored the images they hold of six British towns and cities that had all positioned themselves as key venues for business and leisure tourism meetings, events and conferences. It found both continuities and changes in the images of the towns and cities examined across this time period. Whilst the images of some towns and cities had changed significantly, others had changed very little. Further, the ways in which this audience collectively talked about these urban areas had changed little over this time. The results show that, across an extended time period, significant change in the images of urban areas can occur but that it is not inevitable. The results point to the significance of individual circumstances rather than general processes of urban image change. Our results also reveal the significance of ongoing personal experiences of cities to the processes of urban image formation and change amongst this audience.