heritage tourism and the historic preservation movement
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Heritage Tourism and the Historic Preservation Movement. The new world order, the present must profit from the past. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Heritage Tourism and the Historic Preservation Movement
The new world order, the present must profit from the past
Taxation is a burden to residents who, however, wish the services that the local jurisdictions provide. Tourism is increasingly justified by the extent to which it generates revenue from non-residents.
Revenue is generated for destinations. A destination is a physical place that has as attractions—to resources that can bring tourists to the location.
The opportunity for revenue generation from non-local (visitors) is a product of the transportation revolution.Water basedLand basedRail basedPersonal or automobile based
Tourism Is a Commercial Activity
Businesses enter the tourism sector with hopes of profiting by providing goods and services for the hundreds of millions of people who travel every year
Destinations pursue tourism because of the economic benefits it provides and for the ensuing social benefits that accrue from its generation of wealth.
Only a small fraction of the cost of a tour is spent at what can be called attractions; the rest is spent on transport, accommodation, food, drink, tips, sightseeing, and commissions to the travel trade.
But attractions draw tourists
Tourism Involves the Consumption of Experiences
Cultural tourism is no different from any other form of tourism in that cultural tourists are interested in consuming experiences.
Why would tourism represent an insidious form of consumption?Most economic activities enjoy virtual exclusive rights over the use
of their resource base. Tourism resources are typically in the public domain or are
intrinsically linked to the social fabric of the host community
The greatest challenge is accommodating both the needs of the tourism industry and the ideals of cultural heritage management.
Tourism Is Entertainment
The basis for tourism is entertainment. The tourism product must be manipulated and packaged in such
a way that it can be consumed easily by the public.Only a small number of tourists are really seek a deep learning
experience when they travel.1. Tourists accept entertainment or commodified experiences as
being a manifestation of the modern consumerist lifestyle.2. Tourism becomes an end in itself and not a means to some
loftier goal.
Tourism Is a Demand-Driven Activity That Is Difficult to Control
The history of spontaneous development and the resultant social and environmental costs associated with it attest to the challenges faced by any destination that seeks to promote tourism.
Tourism is fundamentally a demand-driven activity that is influenced more by market forces (tourists and the industry that seeks to satisfy tourists’ desires)
tourism markets are dynamic, erratic, nonlinear, and are noted for their great volatility. If the driving force behind tourism functions in a chaotic manner, then the entire system will be driven by the principles of chaos.
Tourism, tourists, and the tourism industry behave in a manner similar to a bottom-up, self-organizing, living ecosystem that cannot be controlled using traditional Newtonian supply systems.
What is needed for Tourism to begin in a region?
1. Explorer – knowledge of place to explore
2. Elite Tourism – knowledge of experience
3. Incipient Mass – advertising of means and methods
4. Mass Tourism – advertising of organized tours
What resources are promoted?
Ethnic tourism – quaint and exotic– Cowboys– Mormons
Cultural tourism – picturesque, vanishing lifestyles of pre-industrial people– Native peoples– Cajun
What Resoures
Historical tourism - glories of the past ShrinesGhost Towns, miningSpanish Missions
What is promoted as experience
Native peoplesExotic culturesLifeways of the pastArtifacts and imagination
The engine of automobile tourism
Personal renewal through recreationEducationCollect objectsIncrease our personal narrativesSpending goals
Heritage Tourism: Grassroots Effort
Heritage Tourism as a preservation strategy
Economic benefits
National Trust (partnering with American Express) How to succeed in Heritage Tourism, 1993Focus on Authenticity and qualityPreserve and Protect resourcesMake sites come aliveFind the fit between your community and tourismCollaborate
the dark side
Push back to tourism
Commodification of History
Need for new locations (“Turning Up the Stage Lights”)
Regional Approaches, themed regional attractions
The New Millennium
Commodification of History
Developments use history to sell houses– Naming patterns: Confederate Ridge– Theming of destinations: Is Fredericksburg a
colonial town, or a Civil War Battlefield?
The post card home
AttractionsTo lure visitors to your community or region, look at all
the existing resources you have to offer
Historical & Archaeological Resources
Cultural resourcesNatural resources
And the winner is?
Increased traffic congestionLitterFewer parking placesrising rents in prime locations Over developmentCommodification of history by economic
interests
Preservation Discourse Matrix
Dimensions of value
Relationships among types of Preservation
Five Principles of Heritage Tourism
• Focus on authenticity and quality• Preserve and protect resources• Make sites come alive• Find the fit between your community and
tourism• Collaborate
New values of Preservation
Unappreciated aspects of our history– Technology– Native American
Regional approaches– Amish in Indiana
Tragedy of the Commons
• Lack of return to historic resources from tourist revenue
• Federal funds cycled to development costs of tourism infrastructure
• Little or no mechanism for funds returning to historic resources
• Innovations seek to minimize defects of heritage—remove visitors from the inconvenience of objects of the past.
The New Millenium
• Honoring the Past, Imaging the future• Saving and sharing what is valuable.