• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.258-273
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• 2019

Bilbao, Spain, made a mark as a example of the regional revitalization by culture and tourism. Korean Government have a perspective that culture and tourism could be an alternative to the regional crisis of manufacturing in 2018. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the locational specificity and the revival strategies for the regional development of Bilbao in a structural context. This could provide implications to the regional crisis of Korea. The main results are summarized as follows. Firstly, the local government of Bilbao has taken an active role, using not only its political and financial autonomy but also its locational advantage as an important nodal region of transnational trade networks in Europe. Secondly, Bilbao was able to sustain its regional revitalization initiatives for a long period by facilitating public-private partnership system. Finally, despite the effectiveness of the mega project and place marketing, low job security and the polarization of the service sector have emerged as a problem at the same time. Still, the deindustrialization of Bilbao could be possible due to the various services including knowledge-based services and financial services as well as culture and tourism.