Museums as narrators: heritage trails in a digital era

ABSTRACT

In today’s tourism industry, merely offering tourists a variety of cultural events is not enough. Fully understanding their desire for an experience is the key. The attraction value increases if tourists can become personally involved and be affected by the narratives involved in place-making. This article examines the connections and cooperation among museums in a region where an important heritage trail is operating. When the old Telemark Canal was active (1892–1990), this enabled important products to be shipped from the upper mountainous areas to the coastal urban region in Telemark County, Norway. Shortly after being closed, the canal was transformed into a heritage trail and tourist attraction through renovation initiatives. Based on a closer examination of two of the attraction clusters along the heritage trail of the canal, we ask whether there is a key narrative that can link the local museums and cultural centres in the canal region. The discussion will consider how the widespread use of the internet has created new options for museums and cultural centres to benefit from neighbouring tourist attractions such as heritage trails.     

Government websites for promoting East Asian culinary tourism: A cross-national analysis

The content of government tourism websites is very important for promoting a tourist destination's exciting cuisine and food culture. These websites help to shape a country's, region's or locality's culinary-cultural image; they create a virtual experience for culinary tourists. This study explores the contents of the cuisine and gastronomy websites of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, analyzing the techniques used to introduce and promote these East Asian tourist destinations' cuisine and food culture. Specifically, the researchers examined the capacity of government websites to introduce and advertise traditional and local foods, restaurants, gastronomic tours, recipes and culinary cultures (including table manners and other dining customs). They also looked more generally at culinary tourism marketing strategies, including the use of restaurant guides and certifications.     

Charleston,South Carolina Tourism and the Presentation of Urban Slavery in an Historic Southern City

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism's depiction of slavery makes for an interesting study. Several years ago, David Butler published an article in this journal that was highly critical of the depiction of slavery by Southern US plantations during tours offered to visitors, indicating that these attractions “whitewashed” this aspect of their history. The current study, intended as an extension of Butler's work, focused upon urban slavery versus plantation slavery and the handling of the issue by historic antebellum houses now opened as heritage tourist attractions in Charleston, SC. Encouragingly, it was learned that these historic homes are doing a much fairer job of exposing their guests to the issue than had been noted by Butler's plantation tours.     

Cultural political economy and urban heritage tourism

The paper explains a cultural political economy “framing” for interpreting heritage tourism in urban contexts. Key ideas behind this research perspective are explained and illustrated through discussion of past research studies of urban heritage tourism. It is underpinned by a relational view of the inter-connectedness of societal relations, and an emphasis on taking seriously both the cultural/semiotic and the economic/political in the co-constitution of urban heritage tourism’s social practices and features. A case study of heritage tourism in Nanjing, China considers cultural political economy’s relevance and value, including the distinctive research questions it raises. It reveals, for example, how economic relations in the built environment were related to tourist meaning-making and identities in the cultural/semiotic sphere.     

To Hell and Back: towards protecting our natural assets through tourism?

We have neglected our past and present, so that the future of our natural and built heritage is uncertain. Recent and current work, including an EU-supported joint project between the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos National Trust and UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum, are providing a future for natural and historical assets. We can now contemplate our future with a sense of optimism. We can imagine grandparents walking with their grandchildren, telling them tales of how their ancestors built forts with only their hands; school teachers leading trails of excited children through forests that have provided ecosystem services to generations.

The approach is to improve facilities for conducting ecologically sustainable visitor tours, with trained staff generating self-sustaining income; to provide and implement environmental educational and public awareness material, involving local consultations and designed to provide information to decision-makers, developers and planning authorities; and to implement conservation measures to provide increased protection for key vulnerable ecosystems.

In Cayman, one can send a postcard from a town called Hell. The preservation and sustainability generated through these projects is bringing the natural and built heritage a future, perhaps on a route to Hell and Back.     

Post-colonial heritage,post-colonial tourism: culture,politics and development at Angkor

This conceptual article represents an endeavor to create a typology of the various tourist experiences at heritage sites, based on tourists' sense of obligation to see or visit a heritage site, and to experience it in a certain way. In this article references are made to the visitors' expected impact of the visit, their perception of the site in relation to their own heritage, as well as their preferences of the onsite interpretation. It is argued here that this typology is crucial to the understanding of the tourists' experiences at heritage sites and to the actual management of such sites.     

Sculpture trails: investigating success factors

ABSTRACT

This paper examines a diverse range of sculpture trails/routes around the world in order to contribute to research currently being undertaken on linear heritage tourism spaces. This is achieved by investigating the scope and settings of sculpture trails and routes; their role in enhancing community heritage and tourism resources and how strong local partnerships are built and maintained. Two case studies from Australia and Canada, respectively, are presented in detail in order to explore these factors further in relation to how their popularity has grown with tourists and local residents.     

Key Components for Organizing Architectural Tours in Isfahan,Iran

Architectural heritage attracts many tourists due to its aesthetic features and celebrities. Architourism as a new niche tourism strives to attract those who are interested in architectural heritage. This paper highlights the introduction of Isfahan city (Iran) as a new architourism destination. This research also has three other major purposes: (1) to identify the attractions for promoting architourism in Isfahan; (2) to investigate the key components for organizing architectural tours; and (3) to introduce architectural tour packages. Using a qualitative method clearly shows that demography, visitor/tourist interest, motivation and expertise, the time and duration of the visit, providing special tourism facilities, organizing educational and research activities and marketing are key components in organizing architectural tours. The results also illustrated that Isfahan has buildings, urban collections and historical textures that can be attractions for promoting architourism. Further analysis illustrated that Isfahan city has potential to organize architectural tours with 16 themes.     

Tourism experiences,visitability and heritage resources in Saint Louis,Senegal

This paper studies heritage tourism experiences in the postcolonial World Heritage Site of Saint Louis, Senegal. Based on fieldwork and archival research, it shows the complexity and discrepancy linked with heritage presentation and design from the experiential realities encountered on the ground. The argument put forward is that colonial heritage, although it is simplified and controlled to meet specific tourist expectations by official authorities, appears to be dynamic, performative and subject to multiple interpretations from visitors, tourist guides and local residents. It further suggests that social and economic conditions of the communities living in the site affect the heritage space and shape vicariously or directly tourists’ experiences, despite professionals’ efforts of keeping the heritage visible in certain ways. The article extends its discussion to adjacent topics of power and gender issues, demonstrating how heritage tourism in postcolonial African context is intimately intertwined with the changing everyday realities of the communities.     

The impacts of world cultural heritage site designation and heritage tourism on community livelihoods: A Chinese case study

This article examines how cultural heritage conservation, often reflective of Western values, impacts local sustainable livelihoods (SL) in a living cultural heritage site. The article argues for the modification of the SL framework for analysing cultural heritage tourism through including an explicit focus on the transforming structures and processes of local livelihoods in Fujian tulou, China, a World Cultural Heritage Site. Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews, non-participatory observations, and secondary sources, findings show that changes related to tourism development and heritage conservation can reduce the sustainability of livelihoods in living heritage sites. Tulou clusters tend to be regarded as tourist attractions and cultural relics rather than lived-in places. Traditional livelihoods have been affected as residents are forced to adapt to the demands of tourism. This research helps to expand the SL theory by incorporating cultural heritage capital and community self-organisation, and highlighting residents' self-controlled capacity toward assets.     

Marin Držić: A Case for Croatian Literary Tourism

In spite of the positive experience with literary tourism worldwide, Croatian tourist destinations do not recognise the value of literary heritage as a potential key tourist attraction. This is not an indication that Croatia has nothing to offer; on the contrary, Croatia boasts of strong literary figures throughout history, in the fields of prose, poetry, and drama. Croatian tourist destination managers, it seems, perceive tourists primarily as consumers of sun, sand, and sea, and are not aware of key trends in contemporary tourism. Simply, they are far too complacent with the present ideology of Croatian tourism. This article explores the possibility of turning Croatian literary heritage into a cultural tourism product. Using the example of Marin Dr?i?, a Dubrovnik-born Renaissance playwright, it shows how a literary figure can be commodified, and how new destination image(s) can be constructed and communicated.     

The Development of an Environmental Education Tourist Product: A Case Study of the New Zealand Natural Heritage Foundation's Nature of New Zealand Programme

This paper provides a case study of the nature of the New Zealand heritage trails programme run by the New Zealand Natural Heritage Foundation. Established in 1988, the Foundation has developed a programme of heritage tourism products that seek to integrate environmental and cultural education with the tourist experience. The case study focuses on the means by which stakeholders, particularly the Maori people, were incorporated into the product development and how this has assisted in ensuring that the product is acceptable to both host and guest.     

The role of trails in the creation of tourist space

ABSTRACT

Trails and routes are increasingly ubiquitous features within the tourism landscape and although their role and usefulness as applied tourism products has been analysed, they remain under-theorised within the academic literature. This article addresses this gap by exploring the role of trails within the socio-cultural construction of space. In particular, the potential function of trails in creating themed, static spaces is analysed and the concept of museumisation is employed to further illustrate the capacity of trails to reconfigure spaces within specific cultural framings which may exclude local identity and yet are consumed by the unquestioning visitor. However, the article goes on to use more recent paradigms such as tourism’s performance turn and the associated concept of embodiment to further explore the trail’s potency in promoting a more engaged, multi-vocal and sensory experience of place. Using these contemporary approaches to the role of the tourist and the cultural construction of place, the article employs a range of examples to argue for the efficacy of trails as flexible, interpretive tools that allow a multiplicity of stories to be told and encourage visitors towards a more engaged interaction within the spaces through which they tour.     

Tour guides and heritage interpretation: guides’ interpretation of the past at the archaeological site of Jarash,Jordan

Tour guides play a key role in the archaeological site visitor experience by providing interpretation and information. The archaeological site of Jarash, Jordan, is an important heritage destination for a diverse tourist market. It is located in a cultural landscape setting where many archaeological and historical monuments are well preserved. However, at present, this heritage rich seems far from being completely interpreted and valorized by not only local people but also by visitors. This paper reflects on the information and stories provided by tour guides about sites where heritage tourism experiences take place. Within this context, interpretation by tour guides is analyzed. A mixed-methods approach is used to accomplish this and includes qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, participant observations and desk research. The analysis is helpful in confirming that the way tour guides interpret a site influences site valorization and visitor experiences directly. From a practical perspective, the findings provide important insights for understanding how to develop an interpretative model that utilizes site values and the potential for providing better visitor experiences. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of guided package tours and provide suggestions for tour guides and heritage site managers in Jordan.     

Heroes as heritage: the commoditization of sporting achievement

The paper aims to explore and develop discussion relating to sports heritage by introducing the proposition that sporting heroes can be equated to forms of both tangible and intangible heritage. It begins by identifying the nature and function of sports heroes, while delineating a basic sports hero typology based upon a dialectic process that drives the emotional responses of the spectator and/or fan. Furthermore, the paper explores the commoditization process of the sporting hero that reframes them into heritage “objects”. These “objects” are, in turn, responsible for the intangible heritage achievements produced during their careers. It is argued that sports heroes represent a hitherto unexplored source of tourist interest (specifically related to authenticity and motivation) which may add to our understanding of heritage studies in general.     

Spatiotemporal distribution of urban walking tourists by season using GPS-based smartphone application

The purpose of this study is to determine urban walking tourists’ spatiotemporal distribution by season. With the Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, South Korea, as a study site, a GPS-based smartphone application collects spatiotemporal data from 233 participants, and GIS and statistical methods are used to analyze walking tourists’ spatiotemporal distribution by season. The main results of difference analysis show that the moving and staying variables of urban walking tourists differ significantly by season. In addition, spatiotemporal distributions using ArcGIS's tools show clear spatial and temporal concentrations along commercial areas and the main access road to the study site by season, while residential areas are isolated from the benefits of walking tourism. Policy-makers and planners of walking tours should use these unbalanced spatiotemporal distributions of walking tourists to define policies that would distribute tourists spatially and temporally, thereby decreasing conflicts arise between stakeholders.     

Seeing history: a visual assessment of the historic-grounding of Old Western tourist towns

Despite the significant role that the visual plays in the experience of tourism, few studies have specifically examined the visual appearances of heritage tourist destinations. This study sought to analyze how historically grounded the visual appearances were of two heritage tourist towns in the state of Arizona: Tombstone and Jerome. These towns were both mining towns that experienced historic booms during the days of the American Old West and survive today as tourist destinations. This study utilized a detailed visual comparison of historic and contemporary town photographs in order to assess the relative historic-grounding of building exteriors and streets. It also incorporated the findings of interviews with tourists and town residents regarding their perceptions of visual historic-grounding. Study findings offered a means to assess and compare visual historic-grounding. Additionally, they suggested that while visual historic-grounding was important to visitors, it was one of several factors influencing their perceptions of the town's historic appearance: visual appeal, personal reflections, engaging activities, and previous visitor expectations of the American Old West (often grounded in filmic-representations) worked together to visually communicate a general impression of history within each town.     

Politics of memories: Identity construction in museums

This paper adopts collective memory theory to reveal processes through which heritage tourism stakeholders (re)construct contested national identity. Theoretically sensitised to identity crisis, the study analyses how Hong Kong and Macao heritage managers utilise complex transnational memories to (re)construct an identity aligned with, yet distinct from, that of China. Through a critical discourse analysis of interviews and discursive exhibition and museum texts, the article reveals that museum managers formulate heritage imaginings and a sense of belonging(s) through defining the collective memory for “Self” and “Other”. The article concludes that, by collective memory-building, museum professionals make tangible statements of national identities through legitimating negotiations and resistance in heritage tourism discourse. Implications for heritage tourism studies and museum management are also discussed.     

Image-Based Segmentation of Cultural Tourism Market: The Perceptions of Taiwan's Inbound Visitors

This paper aims at testing the effectiveness of using an image-based approach to segment the cultural tourism market. Identifying 14 image attributes of cultural attractions, Taiwan's inbound tourists were then surveyed to rate the importance of these attributes. Applying a factor–cluster segmentation approach, four discrete image segments were identified, including arts and museum, heritage, living culture, and resulted in a sample of 954 respondents. The research findings reveal several theoretical and empirical implications, including the propositions of cultural distance, omnivorous/univorous, experiential and informational familiarity of destination and the two-dimensional model of cultural tourist typology.