THE ROLE OF PASSAGES IN URBAN TOURISM: TRABOULER IN LYON

Cities have always been the focal point of cultural tourism, and urban areas are nowadays more easily accessible than ever before. However, tourists tend to concentrate on confined attraction-filled spaces, challenging cities’ logistics in terms of crowd management. One way to negotiate tourism traffic is by using the existing city architecture to slow down tourists while showcasing those structures as unique tourism destinations. This paper aims to explore the tourism use of passages in historic centers, using the city of Lyon as an example. Those urban passages used to speed up human traffic in the past, while nowadays they might serve the opposite purpose: to slow down the visitors. They are also authentic and non-staged attractions enriching the tourism offer of the given city, boosting the synergy effect and creating more memorable experiences for visitors. The research involved 166 domestic and foreign visitors who filled in the 4-language (English, French, Italian and Spanish) questionnaire inquiring about their attitudes and satisfaction. Research findings confirm that the passages were considered an integral part of the tourism palette in Lyon. They also lengthened the time spent on walking in the city centre. Also, the findings show that the great majority of tourists were satisfied with their overall experiences. The conclusion can be drawn that historic cities are endowed with excellent functional architecture that can be put into tourism use.