Progetto Euroméditerranée e grande evento "Capitale europea della cultura. Marsiglia e gli effetti indotti"

The city of Marseille is an example of planning referred to the Mediterranean area, involving the Agglomeration Community and the Provence Region. The investments for the 2013 great event "Marseilles, European Capital of Culture" are analyzed, along with the impact on the urban, social, economic and tourist planning. Marseilles has many trump cards that enhance the relations between the coast and the interior, on which a successful project was built. Among the strong points we highlight: the geographical position of the city and its accessibility represented by the port of Marseille; the Euro-Mediterranean dimension, the foundation for the Euroméditerranée project in the 1990s, that was an engine of cultural development, along with the beauty of the city's architecture and its art, and its creative unconventional cultural vitality. The paper aims to evaluate critically, a priori and ex post, the local government's strategy in promoting a positive image of the area, and the effects induced also on tourism by the project policies and the great event, in the light of the direct experience of the authors.