Chapter 5

Cultural Heritage and Heritage

Tourism
Issues in Cultural Heritage and Its
Management
 Cultural ownership, rights, politics and representation
 The politics of cultural identity emerges as a critical issue
when homogenization occur
 Members of local communities have diverse opinions
that are positioned in different contexts of their lives.
 A unified representation of cultural heritage may not be
something that some members of the community can
easily accept.
 The cohesiveness within the community is weakened,
and some members even decide to leave the community
altogether which is a serious breach of the cultural rights
of these members.
 Identification and documentation of cultural heritage
Inventories should identify threats that certain elements of CH is facing.

Based on such information, a plan for safeguarding or revitalization can

be developed.
When conservation of heritage property is impossible due to lack of
funds and experts; digital preservation deemed to be an alternative
means of safeguarding CH.
Danger of extinction
Because of natural and human factors, developments around CH,
conflict of interest among stakeholders, theft and vandalism, and
inappropriate conservational practices, and hence, the danger of losing
them is sometimes underestimated.
Local communities themselves often do not see the importance of
preserving their CH properties.
They may consider their CH as backward and as a hindrance to their
ability to access "modern society" and economic wealth
 Lack of funds and experts, and organizational structure problem

 The custodian of CH is not always good at organizing or

management of funds.
 Many African states have not yet created an official
section and positions in the Department of Culture and
Tourism to be specifically responsible for CH.
 Difficulties in finding qualified human resources to
participate in efforts to preserve and develop CH
Heritage interpretation
for Tourism
 Heritage interpretation
 Heritage interpretation is a structured approach to non-
formal learning specialized in communicating significant
ideas about a place to people on leisure.
 It establishes a link between visitors and what they can
discover at heritage sites such as a nature reserve, a
historic site or a museum
 Heritage interpretation is about educating
people about the importance of a particular heritage.
 Heritage interpretation helps visitors to appreciate and
experience the site in the right way.
 Why heritage interpretation is necessary?
• Helps the visitor to identify the real strength,
story, and significance of the heritage site.
• Improves the experience of the tourists and it
benefits the host communities as well.
• Helps visitors to appreciate and experience the
site in the right way.
 Approaches to Heritage Interpretation
o Art is used as a medium for interpretation.
o Live interpretation for reconstructing the past
o Making use of technology to interpret historic landscapes is
an approach.
o Explaining new evidences that support the already
exiting legends and myths is a method of
validating and reassuring history and heritage associated
with a place.
o Stratigraphy is a technique that help understand the
formation of the different types of materials.
o Excavations in many cases might be complete or they
might be in the process of excavation.
 Principles of CH Interpretation
 Interpretation should be inclusive
 Atmosphere and setting matters
 Let your visitors make choices- invite your visitors to engage
in a personal journey of self-discovery whilst on your site.
 Link everything together- connectedness is important
 The visitors' experience should be fun
 The interpretation should be themed
 The interpretation should create options for participation
 Provide time for reflection but also, social interaction
 Role of CH Interpretation

1. Educational roles- Provide a brief overview of the site

in terms of information about its history, peoples,
associations, processes etc
2. Recreational and entertainment-based roles- Enhance
visitor enjoyment of the site
3. Conservation-supporting roles- Raise visitor
awareness of their potential impacts upon cultural and
heritage sites generally, thus encouraging them to adopt
more sustainable, minimal impact and/or positive
impact behaviours.
Create a sense of personal ownership with the visitors
towards the site and the surrounding area
 a g e
eri t
f H
es o
lu
Va
 Values of Natural Heritage

• Ecosystem service
 Regulates climate, carbon sequestration,

 Watershed values: flood control, regulation of

stream flows, recharging of ground water,

 Evolutionary processes include life support,

biodiversity preservation, etc.
 Evidential value

Such values are associated with the significance of the

heritage that give evidence about natural phenomena, and
human past activities related with specific places.
 In this value, natural resources play a huge role in
forecasting
the biological and geological future processes
Historical value
 It stand for the ways in which the present can be
associated with the place , people ,events and
aspects of life in the past e.g., Adwa Mountains
 Cont’
d value
Aesthetic
 It is derived from human appreciation of the beauty of
natural resources because of visual sensing. They are
associated with the process in which people obtain
sensory and intellectual inspiration from nature.
 It the result of beautiful landscape, unique natural
features, having the quality of long age and rarity.
for example, the beauty and rarity of wild life (fauna
and flora), geological events.
 Cont’d
Commemorative value
 This values of natural resources are related with
the meaning of a specific natural resource for
the people who are associated with it, and whose
collective experience or memory it maintains.
 Natural sites maintain humans collective memory
and identity. Example, battlefields…Karamishig,
Karamara
  Socio-political value
This values are related to places that are professed
as a source of identity, interaction and
coherence. Such sites are places where citizens could
recognize themselves. E.g. The Adwa mountains
where the Ethiopian a s s u r e d victory over fascist
Italy; GERD
 Spiritual value
This values are related to places or activities that
have religious significances. Such resource values
include the sense of inspirations of the spirit of a
place.
 Cont’
d
 Spiritual values are usually linked with places
revered over many generations and linked with
places long sanctified by veneration or worship.
Example; Sof-Omer cave and its religious
ceremonies, springs with medicinal power to
disease and evil spirits etc
 Economic Value
 Natural resources are fundamental assets on
which tourism is based because they are prominent
tourist attractions. They have great value and
capacity to generate employment and income.
  Being
Cont’
the major components of tourist
natural resources play considerable
attractions, d role in
diversifying the economy and in increasing
balance of payments. Natural resources
contribute to improve the quality of life as residents
take advantage of tourism related services
 Research and education value
 Drugs for treating different diseases, are first
tested on rats and mice. Example, Vaccines for
measles, smallpox, and many other previously
feared diseases were developed through animal
research. Organ transplants, blood transfusions,
microsurgery & other procedures were made
possible by work on animals. In addition many
drugs for curing diseases are made out of plants
 Values of Cultural Heritage

 Socio-cultural significance:
Encourages protection & preservation of the heritage.
Enabling the next generation to acquire a profound &
extensive awareness about its culture & history, identity
Protect & promote indigenous believes, practices &
traditions.

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 Political significance:
Heritage has also its own spiritual
and political significance.
It serves as good symbol of identity, unity & strength as well
as solidarity & peace.

Scientific & Educational significance:

Useful research can be undertaken in such protected &
non threatened context.
Provide visitors education about the different aspects of
culture.
 Facilitate education for the locals themselves.

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 Economic significance:
it helps to assist the economic and social
development of country through visitor
expenditure on the culture and entry fees.

It also helps to improve the quality of life of

the community through employments.
Generate foreign exchange earnings

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 Essential Elements of Heritage Tourism Product
The primary part of a heritage tourism product includes a mix of tangible
and intangible elements (Swarbrooke 1994: 222):
1. Historic buildings and monuments such as ancient palaces and
temples.
2. Sites of important past events like a battle
3. Natural features such as traditional landscape and indigenous
wildlife
4. Language, literature, music, and art.
5. Traditional lifestyle including culinary art, drink and sport
 According to McKercher and Du Cros (2002), several successful
heritage attractions tend to share the same common features:
 Telling a story
 Making the experience participatory and relevant to the tourists
Heritage Tourism
 Classification of Heritage Attractions
• Religious sites & attractions (eg; cathedrals, abbeys, mosques,
shrines, pilgrimage routes).
• Military heritage attractions (eg; castles, battlefields, military
museums).
• Literary or artistic heritage attractions (eg; houses, gardens or
landscapes, associated with artists and writers).
• Built heritage attractions (eg; historic townscapes, architecture,
archaelogical sites, monuments, historic buildings).
• Natural heritage attractions (eg; national parks, cultural landscapes,
caves, geological features).
• Cultural heritage attractions (eg; arts, crafts, festivals, traditional
events).
• Industrial heritage attractions (eg; mines, factories)
 Classification of Cultural Heritage Resources (UNESCO, 2014)
1. Archaeological site- it is an area that is associated with past human
activities. These can be structures, infrastructures, monuments, or
(organized) settlements on land or underwater surface found or
revealed by archaeological methods.
2. Art, crafts, literature and music- refers to the creative heritage of
cultural values transmitted from generation to generation, which can
be associated with intangible and tangible heritage.
3. Dark heritage- It is a concept that explains mainly heritage
places associated with atrocity, death, disaster, human depravity
and suffering, tragedy, barbarism, holocaust, genocide,
battlefields, concentration camps, prisons, crime sites, slavery,
funerary heritage, or rituals about them.
 ...cont’d
4. Gastronomy- is linked with intangible heritage regarding
"the practice or art of cooking" food, drinking, and
eating. The sociability, transmission through generations,
identity, tradition, and evolution, fresh and local food are
the significant aspects of gastronomic heritage.
5. Geological heritage- geomorphological aspects having
cultural, recreational, aesthetic, intrinsic, scientific, or
educational value, which provides insights into
geological processes, the formation or evolution of the
Earth.
6. Historic city centre- are places where the historical and
cultural values of the past create shared identity and
memory of their communities and form unique urban
character and cultural significance specific to the particular
 ...cont‟d
7. Industrial heritage- contains any landscapes, sites, structures, complexes
that have evidence of industrial processes and culture. The places can
include machinery, workshops, warehouses, stores, mills, factories,
mining sites, energy places, transport infrastructures, or social activity
places.
8. Living cultures -is known as the practices, representations, expressions,
knowledge, and skills handed down from generation to generation. It is
also called intangible heritage.
9. Living heritage (biodiversity)- is identified as the sum of biotic variation,
ranging from the genetic level to the species level and the ecosystem
level. Biodiversity as a living heritage is an integral part of the common
natural and cultural heritage.
10.Monuments- are architectural works (buildings), works of monumental
sculpture and painting, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations
of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of
view of history, art or science.
 ...cont‟d
11.Movable cultural heritage- includes properties such as paintings,
sculptures, coins, or manuscripts which can move easily from one location
to another and having archaeology, prehistory, artistic, scientific values.
12.Museum- research, collects, and demonstrates the heritage of humanity and
the environment for educational, scientific, social, and cultural purposes.
It could be in various forms and targets aiming to enlighten the past and its
connections with the present in democratic and inclusive ways for societies
and the environment.
13.Natural heritage-is where the formation of habitats, species, ecosystems,
geology, landforms, or flora and fauna have value from scientific and
conservation angles or value that people attribute to them. Such places can
be designated as World Heritage Sites for their outstanding universal value
or recognized by laws such as national parks or protected areas (PA).
14.Underwater heritage- consists of heritage, such as sites, shipwrecks, or
aircraft, totally or partially underwater, which have cultural,
archaeological, or historical values, "periodically or continuously, for at
least 100 years".
 Heritage Tourism
Heritage tourism is defined as travel concerned with:
 Experiencing the visual and performing arts, special
lifestyles, values, traditions, festival and events,
handicrafts, language, gastronomy, art and music,
religion, education, and dress
 Heritage buildings, landscapes, architecture, historic sites,
 Heritage resource such as the nature of the work
environment and technology,
 Traveling to experience the places and activities that
authentically represent the stories and people of the past.
Benefits of Heritage Tourism
 Economic Benefits
 Injects new money into the economy, boosting
businesses and tax revenues
 Creates new jobs, businesses, events, and attractions,
thus helping diversify the local economy
 Supports small businesses and enables them to expand
 Promotes preservation and protection of important local
resources
 Social Benefits

 Helps build social capital and promotes positive behavior

 Promotes preservation of local traditions, customs, culture
and community beautification
 Improve the community's image and pride
 Builds opportunities for healthy and useful community
relationships and partnerships
 Provides research, education, and work-placement
opportunities for students
 Creates enjoyable opportunities for both local residents and
visitors attracted to the cultural arts, history, and
preservation
 Boosts local investment in heritage resources and amenities
that support tourism services
 Environmental Benefits
 Encourages a culture of preservation
 Boost awareness of the tourist site, attraction,
or area's significance
 Encourage local residents and visitors to be mindful of
their impact on the natural and built environment
Steps and Principles for Heritage
Tourism Success
 …
Step 1: Assess the Potential- assess the areas' ability to both
attract tourists and support the influx of visitors and
provide the associated services.
• The presence of historical, cultural, and natural attractions;
events; lodging, food and other assorted services;
sufficient infrastructure; local or regional organizations in
charge of heritage tourism development and marketing.
Step 2: Plan and Organize- Getting both the community and
businesses to be involved in heritage tourism is an
important prerequisite of a successful heritage tourism
program.
 Step 3: Prepare, Protect, and Manage
• Long-term planning is essential to a sustainable and
successful heritage tourism endeavor. Hence,
 Communities should ensure sufficient numbers of
quality attractions and visitor services.
 The plan should consider visitor information center
including updated guidebooks, websites, maps and
signage.
 Besides, protecting the long-term quality and condition of
heritage tourism resources is vital.
 Steps ...

Step 4: Market for Success-

In order to increase awareness and achieving marketing
effectiveness
 Contact and develop relationships with concerned body
& create community consciousness of the area
 Properly directed advertising can be an effective
means of marketing the community but it can be quite
costly.
 Message repetition is one of the most important
characteristics of effective advertising.
 Employing regularly maintained websites
 Establishing a logo or official symbols for a heritage tourism
program should be considered.
 The Five Principles of Heritage Tourism
Principle 1: Collaborate- organizations, businesses,
governments, areas, and individuals who are necessarily
involved in heritage tourism development.
Principle 2: Find the Fit- T h e characteristics of the
destination that determine suitability for—and eventual
success at—heritage tourism development. The ability of the
local infrastructure (roads, emergency services, law
enforcement, etc.) to cope with the influx of visitors.
Principle 3: Make Sites & Programs Come Alive- Creating
memories for heritage tourists involves more than just
reciting facts or printing them on a sign. Sites and exhibits
are more effective by being visually stimulating or, better
yet, by allowing visitors to directly interact with them
 Principles of Heritage Tourism....
Principle 4: Focus on Quality and Authenticity-
Accurately and competently presenting the community's
heritage will give visitors the most interesting and the
most unique or “real” experience you can offer.
Principle 5: Preserve and Protect- Preservation and
protection of historical and cultural resources are
important—both in community planning and in heritage
tourism development.
 Factors behind the Growth of Heritage Tourism (Swarbrooke, 2014
o Supply side factors:
 The development and opening of various heritage attractions
 Encouragement by government
 The development of heritage tourism into package holiday as
it make more accessible to a wider market
o Demand Side Factors:
 Increased leisure time
 More disposable income
 Desire to learn something new while on holiday
 Higher levels of education
 Awareness and mobility level
 Status and positive images perceived by individuals & society
Thank you!