Christersdotter, M. (2005) ‘Mobile Dreams’ in O’Dell, T. And Billing, P. eds., Experiencescapes: Tourism, culture and economy. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. ‘Mobile Dreams’

In the chapter mobile dreams we discover at a conceptual level the things that need to be realised in this case to make a hotel. We look at the project and plans and the uncertainty of will the project be realised. In this case it is especially interesting to see the construction of the hotel as it is being constructed as the town in which it is situated is being constructed. Based on the success of the Guggenheim, and the branding it brought to Bilbao, the new hotel wanted to also be part of the city’s branding and bring in tourism and spending. This could be achieved through the hotels art, having exclusive art within a hotel is a sign of the hotel’s status and therefore makes it desirable.

‘According to Christer Persson, it is evident from both the trade and the city scape that an increasing number of residents work in the IT and academic sectors, which changes the atmosphere of the city. Design – projects, such has the hotel, mark this change and fit into the city’s new pattern of a different kind of cultural life with its new cafés, theatres, restaurants and a university. As such, design – hotels can be regarded as fantasies that have been put in to social practice. The planned hotel at Lernackenisa hotel – fantasy, as design – hotels tend to be: fantasies in form and design that are none the less real and concrete, allowing you to move inside them.’ (Christersdotter, 2005.)
‘The case of the Gehry -hotel shows how symbols can be as strong as the real thing.’ (Christersdotter, 2005.)
Places not only are, they happen.
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