Culture, cultural heritage, & history tourism

Scroll down for posts tagged with “cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory tourism”.

Cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory play pivotal roles in the con­text of tour­ism. They are sig­ni­fic­ant in defin­ing the unique iden­tity of a des­tin­a­tion and shap­ing the exper­i­ences of travellers.

When tour­ists engage with the cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory of a place, it deep­ens their under­stand­ing and appre­ci­ation of the des­tin­a­tion, mak­ing their travel exper­i­ences rich­er and more meaningful.

  • Cul­ture encom­passes the cus­toms, tra­di­tions, beliefs, arts, and social norms of a com­munity. It reflects the way of life of the loc­al people and provides insights into their val­ues, his­tory, and way of thinking.
  • Cul­tur­al her­it­age refers to the tan­gible and intan­gible aspects of a com­munity’s leg­acy, includ­ing land­marks, monu­ments, arti­facts, lan­guage, music, dance, cuisine, and rituals.
  • His­tory is the recor­ded past of a place, com­pris­ing the events, stor­ies, and nar­rat­ives that have shaped its development.

Tour­ism provides a plat­form for trav­el­lers to engage with the cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory of a des­tin­a­tion. This can be through vis­it­ing museums, his­tor­ic­al sites, and fest­ivals, or par­ti­cip­at­ing in cul­tur­al activ­it­ies, tra­di­tion­al per­form­ances, and culin­ary exper­i­ences, or oth­er means.

Tour­ism that respects the cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory of a place can foster mutu­al respect, tol­er­ance, and appre­ci­ation for diverse cul­tures, pro­mot­ing cul­tur­al exchange and under­stand­ing between vis­it­ors and the vis­ited. By immers­ing in the loc­al cul­ture, trav­el­lers can gain a deep­er under­stand­ing of dif­fer­ent val­ues and ways of life.

How­ever, tour­is­m’s impact on cul­ture and cul­tur­al her­it­age need to be care­fully man­aged to avoid neg­at­ive con­sequences. Over­tour­ism and the com­modi­fic­a­tion of cul­ture can erode the authen­ti­city and integ­rity of cul­tur­al assets, lead­ing to the degrad­a­tion of loc­al tra­di­tions and loss of identity.

That is why many advoc­ate adopt­ing respons­ible and sus­tain­able tour­ism prac­tices that respect and pro­tect the cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory of a des­tin­a­tion while bene­fit­ing loc­al communities.

Pre­serving and pro­mot­ing cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and his­tory is an object­ive of sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment. Sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment safe­guards the authen­ti­city and integ­rity of a des­tin­a­tion’s cul­tur­al assets, ensur­ing that they are pre­served for future gen­er­a­tions. It also provides eco­nom­ic bene­fits to loc­al com­munit­ies by cre­at­ing employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies, sup­port­ing loc­al busi­nesses, and gen­er­at­ing rev­en­ue through tour­ism activities.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. You may dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post. If so, feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

How can travel & tourism help save heritage sites from climate change?

December 6, 2022

How can travel & tourism help save heritage sites from climate change? Venice image by Albrecht Fietz (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/venice-italy-island-historic-center-7572877/

Travel & tour­ism and nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age are often inter­de­pend­ent. So how should tour­ism respond to wor­ries that cli­mate change threatens her­it­age sites? It’s a ques­tion posed by Kev­in Phun in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Can tour­ism enable and enhance cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion meas­ures? Can tour­ist activ­it­ies help increase loc­al com­munit­ies’ resi­li­ence?  Global […]

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‘Tourism is built on the backbone of white supremacy’. What do you think?

October 11, 2022
One Comment

Is tourism built on white supremacy?

Without offer­ing any des­t­in­a­­tion- or mar­ket-spe­­ci­f­ic con­text, one com­ment­at­or recently asser­ted that tour­ism is “built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy”.  What do you think? It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites ques­tion. Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers — “GT” Insight authors, “GT” Part­ners, and their invit­ees — and invited emailed writ­ten responses of no […]

Read More ‘Tourism is built on the backbone of white supremacy’. What do you think?

WTACH, Nordic Tourism Collective join forces on culture and heritage


WTACH and Nordic Tourism Collective team up

The World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) has teamed up with the Nor­d­ic Tour­ism Col­lect­ive (NTC) to build mutu­al aware­ness of the unique cul­tur­al and her­it­age assets in the great­er Nor­d­ic and Balt­ic region. WTACH will provide expert­ise and lead dis­cus­sions and train­ing ses­sions on cul­ture and her­it­age tour­ism at NTC work­shops and […]

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10th Rwandan cultural festival opens new community tourism body, promotes gorilla pledge


Red Rocks Cultural Festival 2022 Rwanda

The Red Rocks 10th Anniversary Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al, August 26-Septem­ber 2, brought organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies togeth­er to cel­eb­rate and pro­mote Rwandan cul­ture, con­ser­va­tion, and sus­tain­able tour­ism.  As an advoc­ate for cul­ture and com­munity, Red Rocks hos­ted per­formers of all ages from the loc­al area.  Vis­it­ors from near and far enjoyed many tra­di­tion­al dances and music, keep­ing Rwandan […]

Read More 10th Rwandan cultural festival opens new community tourism body, promotes gorilla pledge

10th annual Rwandan cultural festival to coincide with gorilla naming ceremony


Rwandan mountain gorilla

The 10th Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al comes to Musan­ze dis­trict, Rwanda, August 26-Septem­ber 2, 2022, coin­cid­ing with the Kwita Izina gor­illa nam­ing cere­mony on the slopes of Vir­unga Moun­tain. Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Cen­ter will host the event at its premises in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage, Musan­ze dis­trict, Rwanda with addi­tion­al cel­eb­ra­tions in nearby Mukung­wa town and Kinigi, […]

Read More 10th annual Rwandan cultural festival to coincide with gorilla naming ceremony

Buddhist travel & tourism trails offer post-pandemic potential in Mekong

August 2, 2022

Almsgiving in Luang Prabang, Laos. By Daniel Marchal (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/f2d6hc6gVco

Not­ing that themed travel & tour­ism niches have been a grow­ing trend for at least two dec­ades, vet­er­an pub­lish­er Jaf­fee Yee has iden­ti­fied the poten­tial for the Mekong-region nations of South­east Asia to tap their rich Buddhist her­it­age to attract and dis­perse a large region­al and glob­al mar­ket.  Twenty years ago, to explain why he […]

Read More Buddhist travel & tourism trails offer post-pandemic potential in Mekong