Contemporary Issues in Cultural Heritage Tourism

Jamie Kaminski, Angela M Benson, David Arnold, Jamie Kaminski, Angela M Benson, David Arnold

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136663215
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

The perceived quality of a destination's cultural offering has long been a significant factor in determining tourist choices of destination. More recently, the need to present touristic offerings that include cultural experiences and heritage has become widely recognised, that this aspect of the tourism experience is an important differentiator of destinations, as well as being amongst the most manageable. This has also led to an increase in the management of such experiences through special exhibitions, events and festivals, as well as through ensuring more routine and controlled access to heritage sites.Reflecting the increasing application of cultural heritage as a driver for tourism and development, this book provides for the first time a cohesive volume on the subject that is theoretically rich, practically applied and empirically grounded. Written by expert scholars and practitioners in the field, the book covers a broad range of theoretical perspectives of cultural heritage tourism; regeneration, policy, stakeholders, marketing, socio-economic development, impacts, sustainability, volunteering and ICT. It takes a broad view, integrating international examples of sites, monuments as well as intangible cultural heritage, motor vehicle heritage events and modern art museums.This significant book furthers knowledge of the theory and application of tourism within the context of cultural heritage and will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners in a range of disciplines.

Part 1

Theoretical issues

1 Introduction

Jaime Kaminski, Angela M. Benson and David Arnold

Introduction

During the summer of AD 19, the Roman general Germanicus Julius Caesar set out for Egypt to tour its antiquities (Tacitus, annals Book 2: 59).¹ While Germanicus's motives for his Egyptian visit may have been more politically driven than simply visiting what, even by then, were the country's ancient sites, he could do so because there was already a well-established tourist trail (Milne, 1916).² Even before the Romans, the Greeks had visited Egypt in order to absorb its culture and history. As early as the mid-fifth century BC, the Greek writer Herodotus ventured up the Nile as far as Elephantine (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2: 5–99).³ Germanicus was not the first and would certainly not be the last tourist to visit the antiquities of another culture. Heritage tourism has a long history.

Clearly in the intervening two millennia the profile of the heritage tourist has changed considerably. Over most of this period the capacity and the desire to travel specifically to view the culture and antiquities of other societies was primarily the remit of those who had the financial means to afford to travel and the education to appreciate what they saw. These pre-conditions typified the cultural heritage tourist long after the Grand Tour had ceased to be part of the normal education of European nobility. The huge growth of the middle classes spurred by the industrial revolution created an emergent consumer base with disposable income and increasing educational attainment, which created a demand for travel and consumption of cultural and heritage products of all sorts (Towner, 1985). However, disposable income and at least an interest in historically based narratives remain characteristics of the clientele to whom cultural heritage tourism offerings will appeal. The demand from this consumer base led to a huge increase in both the availability and the variety of cultural products during the twentieth century, which Toffler (1964) called the ‘cultural explosion’.

Driven by cheaper air travel, increased disposable income and leisure time, tourism is now one of the largest industries in the world. Today, cultural heritage and tourism are inextricably linked to a global industry of significant proportions, with the perceived quality of a destination's cultural offering being a significant factor in determining tourist choices of destination. The need to present touristic offerings that include cultural experiences and heritage has become widely recognized, with market surveys demonstrating unambiguously that this aspect of the tourism experience is an important differentiator of destinations, as well as being amongst the most manageable. Noticeably, the influence does not rely entirely upon the actual use of cultural heritage offerings by tourists. The cultural offering appears to influence consumer choice even when the consumer does not make the most of the opportunities and cultural heritage assets on offer. Furthermore, with the current growth in heritage tourism, there is increasing awareness of a number of critical issues in the sector. Many of these impacts are witnessed more widely in the tourism sector, but the differentiator with cultural heritage tourism is that the assets are essentially a non-renewable resource. If damaged, those resources cannot simply be replaced.

Cultural heritage tourism has the potential to generate both positive and negative impacts (Popescu and Corbos, 2010). These include economic (Mazzanti, 2002, 2003) benefits, such as employment opportunities, and the direct and indirect benefits of visitor expenditure. These sought-after economic benefits are often complemented by social benefits, such as community building and the enhancement of community identity, pride and stability, along with environmental benefits, such as the resources and imperative to preserve and maintain cultural and historic sites. The comparatively small number of cultural heritage tourists with their potential empathy for the local population is also seen as potentially beneficial (Smith, 1989). As such, when planned and managed effectively, cultural heritage tourism can be a driver for positive change. Conversely, when poorly managed, cultural heritage tourism can have a detrimental impact on communities. Cultural commoditization, gentrification and the undermining of local traditions and ways of life can be compounded by physical damage to heritage sites caused by inappropriate treatment and uncontrolled visitation.⁴

Cultural heritage tourism

The terms ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘cultural heritage tourism’ eponymously combine ‘culture’, ‘heritage’ and ‘tourism’. Culture is one of the more problematic words in the English language (Bennett et al., 2013: 63–8), heritage is little better, while only tourism can at least claim to have some superficial degree of standardization. This is further complicated by the differing perspectives from which cultural heritage tourism is viewed, including academic, public, scientific, official, governmental, legal and individual, to name but a few. These alternative perspectives sometimes overlap, sometimes conflict and sometimes run in parallel. Moreover, there is rarely a standard definition for each perspective, such as academia or the public. The combination of these value-laden words and the different perspectives goes some way to explaining why ‘cultural heritage tourism’ has generated such a plethora of definitions.

Cultural heritage

All societies have, and have had, a relationship with their past. Consequently, individuals and societies have always had their own definitions of cultural heritage. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the diversity of definitions for cultural heritage is enormous and the meaning has changed over time (cf. Jokilehto, 2005). As UNESCO notes, ‘Originally, it referred only to masterpieces of artistic and historic value; now it is used more broadly and covers everything that has a particular significance to people’ (UNESCO and IFT, 2007, Unit 1: 3). Moreover, this process of evolution continues to this day. The creation of (cultural) heritage does not stop. Hence the definition(s) will continue to evolve.

Heritage has been broadly defined as ‘something that has been inherited from the past and which can be passed on to future generations' (UNESCO and IFT, 2007, Unit 1: 3). Although this definition highlights the potential of heritage to be passed on to successive generations, as Fairclough (2005: 30) notes, heritage is not just restricted to those things that ‘we wish to pass on’, but is ‘everything that we have inherited’, whether or not it is passed on to future generations. Refining this further, Ashworth (2009) has described heritage as ‘the significance of the past to the present’.

Of course, in the public consciousness, this nebulous ‘something from the past’ is widely associated with buildings, monuments and artefacts. These are often to be found at some point during the heritage tourist's journey; however, as Dolff-Bonekämper (2005: 70) has noted, heritage is more than just an object, it is ‘a societal relationship, an attribution of meaning and value to an object’. Moreover, this meaning is plural (e.g. values, beliefs, traditions) (Fairclough, 2005: 37). The Faro convention⁵ articulates such a definition of cultural heritage in more detail:

Cultural heritage is a group of resources inherited from the past which people identify, independently of ownership, as a refection and expression of their constantly evolving values, beliefs, knowledge and traditions. It includes all aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through time.

(Faro Convention, Section 1, Article 2)

The variety of definitions and imprecise current usage means that any attempt at a more precise interpretation will nevertheless be interpreted more broadly. It remains possible that more precision may prompt more clarity of thinking and discourse over time, and so we note in passing that adopting ashworth's distinction between heritage and history would mean that cultural heritage would be defined as ‘that of society's current culture that is located and underpinned by tangible evidence of the past’.

Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) definition of tourism includes ‘the activities of persons during their travel and stay in a place outside their usual place of residence, for a continuous period of less than one year, for leisure, business or other purposes' (World Tourism Organization, 1993). The WTO also makes a distinction between ‘excursionists’, who travel for less than 24 hours, and ‘tourists’, who stay at least 24 hours at their destination. Although this definition is well established, there are differences in the way that tourist flows are measured across the globe.

Cultural heritage tourism

The convergence between (cultural) heritage and tourism⁶ has caused profound changes to both the production and the consumption patterns of cultural heritage tourism (Urry, 1990; Silberberg, 1995; Jolliffee and Smith, 2001). It is clear that the distinctive characteristics of cultural heritage resources allow them to play an unparalleled role in tourism development (Puczko and Ratz, 2007). The OECD (2009) views this as a basis to increase the tourism attractiveness and cultural supply offered by local communities. For example, the USA's National Trust for Historic Preservation defines cultural heritage tourism from a practitioner focus as:

travelling to experience the places, artifacts, and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. It includes cultural, historic and natural resources. Good cultural heritage tourism improves the quality of life for residents as well as serving visitors.

(National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2013: n.p.)

In essence, the focus of most definitions of cultural heritage tourism is upon tourists visiting what could loosely be termed ‘heritage places’. In some cases, an element of learning or education is also included as part of the definition; for others an element of the ‘personal’ is attached to the visit. This may also include aspects like diaspora, genealogy (Basu, 2007) and/or legacy tourism (McCain and Ray, 2003). Furthermore, Timothy (2011: 6) suggests that ‘cultural heritage tourism encompasses built patrimony, living lifestyles, ancient artifacts and modern art and culture’. Using our new definition of cultural heritage above, we might encourage the definition that ‘cultural heritage tourism involves travelling to experience the current narrative of the tangible evidence of the past and its relevance today’. Changing interpretations, as well as changing contexts for interpretation, mean that under this definition the cultural heritage tourism offerings are dynamic and evolving. Since such offerings are constantly being refreshed, their significance will also change over time.

Cultural tourism

Cultural heritage tourism is often viewed as a subset of cultural tourism. as with cultural heritage tourism, there has been a plethora of definitions. Some have focused on attempting to describe the different attractions visited by cultural tourists (a technical definition), while others have attempted a more conceptual approach by describing the motives and meanings associated with cultural tourism. ATLAS provides both a technical and a conceptual definition:

Technical definition: All movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their normal place of residence.

Conceptual definition: The movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs.

(Richards, 1996: 24)

Cultural heritage tourism literature and sustainability

According to the Centre International de Recherches et d'Etudes Touristiques (CIRET), there are 1,977 documents on the themes of heritage enhancement and culture (CIRET, 2013) linked to tourism, about a third of the number of documents on sustainability.⁷ Many of these articles are to be found in the plethora of journals in the arena of culture, heritage and tourism. Whilst some of the journals are found in the tourism domain (Journal of Heritage Tourism, commenced 2006), others are more generic in their outlook: International Journal of Cultural Studies (commenced 1998); International Journal of Heritage Studies (commenced 1994); International Journal of Cultural Heritage (commenced 2000); Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage (commenced 2008) and more recently the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development (commenced 2011). However, even a cursory search within the generic journals reveals that tourism-related articles comprise a significant component. What is also evident when examin...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 Theoretical issues
• Part 2 Tensions and dissonance
• Part 3 Economics and impact
• Part 4 Future directions
• Index