Inaugural Speech by Prof. Hospers: a brief geography of happiness
‘All Alphen’, ‘Vlissingen: pounding like the sea’, ‘In the mood for Zevenaar...’ Many municipalities invest in campaign and slogans to attract residents, companies, visitors, and clever clogs, hoping for their permanent settlement. Is city marketing as easy as it seems to be?
In his speech Gert-Jan Hospers argues that city marketing is a matter of geography rather than pure marketing. Successful city marketing responds to 'the geography of happiness', which is being determined by people's wishes. As it is unlikely for residents, companies and clever clogs to move to another town without having a good reason, Hospers argues in favour of 'warm city marketing', which aims to persuade local people to stay in their hometowns. He believes that 'cold city marketing' only works for visitors – i.e. tourists and day trippers – who are mobile by definition and look for attractions and events that they won't find in their hometowns.
Biography Gert-Jan Hospers
Gert-Jan Hospers was born in Enschede, the Netherlands, in 1974. He studied General Economics, Dutch Law and Public Administration at the universities of Tilburg, Utrecht and Twente. Since 2000 he has taught economic geography at Twente University, where he obtained his doctorate in 2004. Since February 2009 he has worked as an extraordinary professor at Radboud University Nijmegen for one day per week. For further information, see City- en Regiomarketing in Europa. His chair has partly been made possible by De Stadsregio Arnhem Nijmegen.
