Development of intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource: the intangible cultural heritage practitioners’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Authentic intangible cultural heritage (ICH) provides a community with a unique selling point in the globally competitive tourism industry. The process of commodification of ICH, however, has threatened its authenticity and thus sustainable tourism approaches are required to achieve successful transmission and promotion of ICH as a sustainable tourism resource. This paper explores the priorities of ICH practitioners in relation to the development of ICH as a sustainable tourism resource, by utilising South Korea as a case study. The results revealed that from the ICH practitioners’ perspectives, authenticity is a holistic notion integrating the transmitted customs, inherited meanings and the practitioners’ identities. ICH practitioners agree with the potential positive symbiotic relationship between transmission of authentic ICH and promotion of ICH as a tourism resource. To achieve the positive symbiotic relationship, locals’ awareness of ICH, ICH practitioner empowerment and parallel development between tourism development and transmission of ICH are necessary. To date, the practitioner approach to the authenticity of ICH and ICH as a sustainable tourism resource is little explored in the literature, thus this paper makes a valuable addition to the area of sustainable heritage tourism.     

The sustainable integration of cultural heritage and tourism: a meta-study

This paper presents a cross-disciplinary thematic investigation into the relationship between cultural heritage and tourism. It systematizes evidence on concepts, policies and strategies and provides an interpretive synthesis illuminating the factors deemed critical by researchers for the sustainable integration of heritage and tourism. It seeks to find consilience to lead to a “new age of synthesis”. After an extensive literature review, 483 studies were selected and reviewed, assisted by a qualitative data analysis software (NVivo). The research followed the meta-synthesis approach, particularly meta-ethnography, of identifying findings, grouping findings into categories and grouping categories into synthesized findings, to produce a representative set of 15 synthesis factors. These include local involvement, education and training, authenticity and interpretation, sustainability-centered tourism management, integrated planning, incorporation into a wider sustainable development framework, controlled growth, governance and stakeholder participation, market and product diversification, suitable funding provision, international governance and support systems, a heritage capital approach, effective site management, destination management and a sound theoretical/methodological base. These 15 factors are suggested as the fundamental components of a more efficient theoretical frame and evidence-based policy in the fields of cultural heritage and tourism, aimed at achieving sustainability.     

我国遗产旅游的文化政治意义

本文提出一个我国遗产旅游界尚未关注的问题--遗产旅游的文化政治意义.文章首先讨论了我国遗产的文化政治价值,接着提出我国遗产旅游应当发挥的文化政治功能,最后分析了提高我国遗产旅游文化政治效果的必要举措.     

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.     

中国自然文化遗产管理模式的改革

本文从中国自然文化遗产保护、利用和管理的现状出发,比较分析了自然文化遗产管理的国际模式,指出旅游服务是为游客提供某种经历、感受与体验,而并非购买风景资源本身,从而提出自然文化遗产的所有权归国家所有,管理权由各级、各行政主管部门行使,旅游经营权可进入市场运行,同时建立完整而有效的监督保护体系,实行“四权分离”的管理模式。     

Identifying cultural tourism: a theoretical methodological proposal

This article explores the effectiveness of tourism as a means to heritage conservation in urban areas, focusing on the case study of Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, an inner-city industrial heritage site in Sydney, Australia. The Finger Wharf redevelopment represents a familiar scenario whereby an old industrial site located at a sought after inner-city location has been redeveloped and transformed from a derelict structure into a popular leisure and recreation precinct. The findings of a study of local stakeholder perceptions of the redevelopment are presented and then evaluated according to the goals of sustainable tourism development. The findings highlight the importance of planners and managers of heritage tourism sites thinking beyond the cosmetic conservation of the tangible asset to also consider how best to preserve the non-material value of the site. Through the provision of more effective interpretation heritage, managers can create a visitor experience which is authentic and meaningful to visitors and local stakeholders.     

Book Review

World Heritage Sites (WHSs) are motivated by such diverse reasons as heritage celebration, alarm calls, tourism branding and marketing and place making. Irrespective of the primary motivation for their creation, WHSs are often used to develop tourism based on cultural and natural resources of international significance. Heritage conservation may or may not be in agreement with what local populations perceive as desirable development paths. We conducted a survey among the island community of Vega in Norway that received WHS status in 2004 motivated by conservation alarm, tourism marketing and place making. We examined the local population's views of the key aspects of future development and how this related to WHS status. The islanders placed high value on social and community conditions as well as heritage linked to cultural and natural resources. While a majority supported tourism based on sustainable use of heritage they also felt that WH listing should not limit development opportunities. There were differences between younger people and adults. WHS may be an effective agent of sustainable tourism development if the main goals and strategies of the WHS are clearly understood and prioritized in the local community, leave room and perhaps link to other development opportunities.     

The network of Spanish Jewries: in praise of connecting and sharing heritage

This article presents the case study of the Network of Spanish Jewries (‘Red de Juderías de España’ – Caminos de Sefarad) and discusses the implications of networking between heritage sites linked through thematic routes. Although the impact on the performances of the different sites can hardly be measured, the value of the Spanish Jewries is attributed especially to its potential to redress regional imbalances in tourism activity (one of the main concerns for Spanish tourism) and to be packaged as a more integral, economically viable, and enticing experience than stand-alone heritage-based products. Evidence from the case study gives rise to more general considerations on the value of heritage networks for a more sustainable tourist activity, knowledge-sharing, and coordination in management. The article also looks beyond tourism impacts to regional cohesion and economic development opportunities that could be reaped from the extension of the network across national borders.     

文化遗产保护与利用关系的国际规则演变

国际法规是文化遗产保护与利用的基本依据,但由于相关法规众多,常被误解、曲解或生搬硬套,文章通过总结分析近百年来文化遗产保护国际法规的发展演变,厘清国际法规对文化遗产保护与利用关系的基本定位、对文化遗产利用方式的定位变化,以及对文化遗产旅游发展的态度与立场变化,结论认为,国际法规中文化遗产的保护与利用关系是不断动态变化的,随着保护工作对＂利用＂的依赖度不断提高,文化旅游的双面影响也不断受到关注。