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.

COMESA tourism, wildlife, heritage handbook launched

September 8, 2017

COMESA tourism, wildlife, heritage handbook launched

The Com­mon Mar­ket for East­ern & South­ern Africa (COMESA) launched The COMESA Tour­ism & Wild­life Her­it­age Hand­book; Single Mar­ket – Count­less des­tin­a­tions at the 41st World Tour­ism Con­fer­ence held in Kigali, Rwanda. The hand­book is part of the COMESA Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Stra­tegic Frame­work, which has been recog­nised by mem­ber states as a mod­el to […]

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Involving indigenous people benefits business, environment: UN expert

August 10, 2017

indigenous tourism development

Gov­ern­ments too often sidestep indi­gen­ous people when approv­ing new infra­struc­ture pro­jects on their land, ignor­ing the poten­tial for sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth and envir­on­­ment­ally-friendly devel­op­ment, a UN expert said on Tues­day. A land­mark United Nations declar­a­tion adop­ted 10 years ago declared author­it­ies should seek con­sent from indi­gen­ous people before start­ing new infra­struc­ture pro­jects like mines and dams. […]

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UNESCO, World Bank commit to urban development, culture, resilience

July 19, 2017

Urban cultural heritage and sustainable tourism. UNESCO, World Bank sign MoU

Recog­nising that cul­tur­al her­it­age and sus­tain­able tour­ism have become “key eco­nom­ic drivers for poverty reduc­tion and job cre­ation”, UNESCO and the World Bank signed a new Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) last week to rein­vig­or­ate their joint com­mit­ment to “advance sus­tain­able devel­op­ment by invest­ing in cul­ture, urb­an devel­op­ment, and resi­li­ence in an integ­rated man­ner”. Irina Bokova, Director-General […]

Read More UNESCO, World Bank commit to urban development, culture, resilience

Are “all-inclusive” tourism packages to blame for locals missing out?

June 1, 2017

Geo Routes Cultural Institute President Giannis Balakakis criticises all-inclusive packages. Source BBSF

Geo Routes Cul­tur­al Insti­tute (GRCI) Pres­id­ent Gian­nis Bal­aka­kis cri­ti­cised what he called “tra­di­tion­al” mass tour­ism mod­els, which for dec­ades were the main­stay of the industry in Greece and oth­er Balkans and Black Sea coun­tries. In many cases these mod­els led to the “all-inclus­ive” phe­nomen­on, which meant loc­al com­munit­ies reaped little or no tour­ism rev­en­ue yet […]

Read More Are “all-inclusive” tourism packages to blame for locals missing out?