My understanding is the award is intended to promote tourism and investment rather than reflect the cultural status of the recipient. The importance of the award is up to debate – did quite a lot for L’pool apparently but the current Culture Secretary has yet to visit Derry. Make what you want of that!
When it works best is when the winner is an unlikely recipient but theres a grass roots drive and a momentum to be propelled forward. Glasgow is pretty much the benchmark – it seemed ludicrous to award it to late 80’s Glasgow when there was Edinburgh just up the road. Its difficult to grasp now just how much of the change being City of Culture was. Glasgow now has some of the busiest museums and galleries in the UK and is often cited as one of the top 10 visitor destinations in the world- but 80’s Glasgow was nothing like that.
I met the guy who wrote the Glasgow culture bid. His previous job – marketing mid 80’s Belfast as a holiday destination.
I think Liverpool gained less from its year, but the year of culture was just part of a direction they were already heading in. Derry/L.Derry seems to have a had a very modest impact, it seems to have gained some infrastructure but in terms of the draw of the festival – its stuff you’d get on a bus to go and see but not stuff you’d get on a plane for. But maybe that was their intent.
In cultural terms Hull has never been an obvious destination but perhaps as a benefit of being off the map a bit its been a bit of sandbox for some very left field and experimental arts events and theres a resourcefulness that comes from not having everything easy.