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.