Museum Interpretation Methods and Their Impact

This assignment analyzes various museum interpretation methods used at The Royal Academy of Arts, focusing on leaflets/guidebooks and audio-visual materials. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each approach in engaging visitors and providing information, considering factors like cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and potential drawbacks such as noise disturbance or outdated content.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Name:
Date:

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
LO 1 Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within
travel and tourism
1.1 Analyze the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry
Tourism is one of the major sectors which contribute greatly to economy of UK. Tourism in UK
started with the development of resorts and spa townships. During this time, the local people
travelled mainly for the purpose of entertainment and they also travelled to seek medical
attention. In addition, there was growing popularity for consumption of mineral water and hence
people travelled so that they could drink and utilize this mineral water. In the 18th century George
IV popularized the sea bathing and people started traveling for places like Brighton and
Weymouth. By 1984, people had now visualized the importance of tourism and with this regard,
they tourism adopted a new trend; an upward trend. Some of the factors that have been attributed
to this are prices, high clientele, as well as modernization of the recreational centers. The low
prices at the recreational centers attracted a lot of people and this encouraged both local and
international people to visit the tourist sites. Then next important element was the change in the
systems in the recreational centers; with this regarded the equipment and the infrastructure used
was modern and this also attracted a lot of people into the premises. Also travelling was made
easier and convenient and particularly due to the development of cheap airlines. Thus people
could be able to travel from UK to Australia or the Pacific Asia conveniently. The development
of the airlines also facilitated globalization; this increased both local and international market.
Political changes were also influential in the development of tourism in the UK; for instance they
made the application of the visas easier for people from other parts of the world hence opening
up tourism for the international market. This led to the increase in the demand of tourists in UK.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
In 1900, Atlantic City began with around 400 new hotels, and villas which were vacation
destination. This started as smaller working weeks as well as paid holiday business in UK. By
the year 1901, the tourism industry introduced the concept of holiday catalogue which
concentrated on the travelling aspect as an important component in tourism. Nevertheless, this
industry has its own challenges since between 1914 and 1918 it faced depression. This was
attributed to the First World War as many people preferred staying indoors because everything
was in dismay. However, between 1920 and 1930 the tourism started thriving with Thomas Cook
initiated the standard London-Paris air facility as well as motor trains in UK which facilitated the
transport. By 1939, the sea voyages, and the private transports developed, by this year the long
bus facilities had served more than 37 million travelers.
1.2 Discuss potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources using the
case study of Lhasa, Tibet
Heritage site conservation measures encounter a number of threats and risks during their
implementation. Some of the problems associated with cultural heritage conservation include;
development pressure, collective and social behavior, lack of enough maintenance and low
conservation standards. A well-defined recognition of heritage site and appreciation should be
upheld in order to conserve the heritage. However if the conservation measure cannot be taken
care of possible decay of culture and heritage can be the consequences. Mass awareness is one of
the initiatives that can be implemented to teach the public the significance of the site. Planning
should also be done basing the strategy on previous events and with future anticipation.
Therefore to counter the heritage conservation risks, we should be proactive in the sense of
response preparedness and recovery.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Political will is one element that can help secure and conserve heritage and culture industry. For
instance in the case of Lhasa the government plans of building or rather extending modern
buildings in the heritage site can be contradicting. The communities should also be vibrant in
matters regarding heritage conservation. The community in Lhasa Tibet is vibrant it supports the
conservation of their culture and heritage this is evidence through the demonstrations done in the
year 2008 and 2009. The Tibetans feels it is their responsibility to conserve and protect their
heritage from erosion. The Chinese government plan of coming up with a five star hotel
jeopardizes Tibetan culture, he community feels marginalized since the government do not
consider their views. The rebuilding of Barkhor is another issue that rise doubts of heritage
conservation. According to the Tibetans community the rebuilding of Barkhor would mean
erosion of the Tibetans culture and heritage. The Jokhang temple is documented by the
UNESCO as a heritage site, thus attempts of modernizing Barkhor together with the Jokhang
temple would mean destruction and erosion of cultural heritage. It is evident that the legal
protection of heritage is not implemented accordingly thus political will is paramount in
conservation of heritage and culture industry.
Tourism pressure is also a concern that poses threat to the conservation of heritage site. In most
cases the tourists tamper with the structure for instance stones, in a building or a monument. The
tampering may lead to certain degree of distortion or even fall. In the time of repairing some
level of authenticity is applied therefore the site loses their originality.
The potential heritage and culture threats can be summarized as;
 Forced migration or displacement of culture
 Political change and military activities
 Tourism related threats

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
 Social and economic change in relation to ownership
 Globalization
 Insufficient devolution in regards to heritage legislation.
 Lack of enough conservation standards
 Poor maintenance and limited human resource.
LO 2 understand the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions within the travel and
tourism sector
2.1 Assess the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of different
customers
British museum
The British museum was established in 1753, it was the first national museum in the globe.
British museum has documented the human history, culture, and art from the beginning to the
present day. British museum is located in Bloomsbury, London. The number of visitors attending
is approximated to be six million compared to 5000 in the 18th century. The museum is a
quadrangular building designed in 1780-1867 b sir Robert Smirke. The museum was built with
the aim of providing services to the public. In the twentieth century the museum underwent great
expansion that consisted the increasing of the wide range of public services. In 1903 the museum
and published and followed appointment of first lecture guide. Some of the facilities that were in
the museums before 20th century include; gallery refurbishment, publishing company, a chain of
building works and education service.
The museum has four permanent gallery opened in year 2008 and 2009

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
The gallery includes;
Chinese ceramics
Europe AD 1050-1540
Tomb-chapel of Nebamum
There are plans of building World Conservation and Exhibition Centre underway. The exhibition
Centre will first occupy a temporary space.
British museum has the biggest online database. It has a very large website, with an approximate
of two million object entries and 0.65 million entries are illustrated.
Services and facilities offered by the British museum.
The British museum assembles the culture and heritage of most all continents thus attracts clients
from all parts of the world both young and old. Education services are taken care at the museums
mostly in scientific research and conservation and history too. The museum has a conservation
and scientific research department dealing with science research.
VA Museum
V& A museum is one the most country’s popular museum in UK. It was established in the year
1952 and its development followed the success ofthe Great Exhibition which was held in the
year 1951. The founding principal of this museum was to promote the work of arts by making
these works available to all people (Buhalis, 2000). This means that people; both local and
international people could visit the museum and appreciate their work. This served as a form of
entertainment. In addition, the museum was meant to create a center for research and education.
It was meant to educate people as well as inspiring British designers and manufacturers. For
instance the museum provides architectural historyof between 1873 and 1899. This provides a

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
platform over which people could learn architecture. The museum also acts a cultural heritage
center because it offered a good understanding of the past, the present and hence it is a platform
of undertaking vivacious prospect of understanding the future.
LO 3 Understand roles, responsibilities and ownership of organizations in the heritage and
cultural industry
3.1 Evaluate the impact of different types of ownership on the management of heritage and
cultural sites
The performance and the development of the heritage and cultural industry depend entirely on
the management of the premises. For the heritage and cultural industry to gain more revenue and
to maintain the heritage there is need to effectively develop the ownership structure of this
sector. A site that is properly managed will obviously attract a lot of visitors. The management
also ensures that there is proper conservation of the specimen in the site hence minimizing the
decay (McKercher & Du Cros, 2002).). Basically there are two types of ownership structurein
UK; public and private ownership. These two structures have different roles that are subjected
towards the development of the cultural and heritage industry in UK.
ICOMOS-International council on monuments
This is an association which works toward the conservation as well as the protection of the
cultural heritage of places across the world. Its headquarters are in Paris and it was established in
the year 1965. ICOMOS in UK have several impacts which have promoted cultural and heritage
of the UK. In particular ithas promoted the appreciation and the understanding of the cultural
heritage both in UK and also in other parts of the country. It helps in the development of the best

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
practice in the preservation and the conservation of the cultural sites. It also plays a great role in
advising the World Heritage Committee on issues concerning the cultural sites. This organization
has also been active in more than 130 countries around the world which implies that it has a good
reputation in other regions of the world. ICOMOS is engaged in the implementation of the
Convection in collaboration of various agencies such as the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which is located in Gland, Switzerland, the International Center
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of the Cultural Property (ICCROM) which is
located in Rome, Italy. ICOMOS provides platform and a guideline of conducting scientific
research on how to preserve the specimen. This helps in ensuring that conservation is done
following an international standard.
In addition, ICOMOS is also responsible in assessing and evaluating the nominations of the
cultural properties in relation to the creation of the “outstanding universal value”. With this
regard, ICOMOS partners with the World Unit Heritage in terms of collaboration and in order to
provide specialists in the operations of this organization. This ownership body maintains close
relations with the agencies such as International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial
Heritage.
Association of World Heritage Cities –(OWHC)
OWCH ownership has a great impact in the management of the cultural and heritage sites in UK.
The main role of OWCH is to conserve as well as augmenting the heritage in the travel industry.
This ownership structure was developed in order to recover the lost cultural and heritage of UK.
The structure is consistent with the operation of UNESCO World Heritage catalogue and it has
the following objectives.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
 Sensitizing the people on the need to maintain and conserve their national heritage. They
ensure that they raise awareness to the people on how they should conserve their cultural
value while still maintaining a high standard of living.
 Collaborating with dedicated associations in order to guarantee the museums an effective
management. Its objective is also to engage the local community in decision making as
well as the implementation of thepolicies that are related to the cultural and heritage
industry.
 Supplying information to the World Cultural and Heritage and the Worldwide Charter in
order to safeguard the cultural values.
However, OWCH has faced a lot of challengeswhich hinders the conservation of the cultural
heritage. For instance the ownership required a lot of funding which is used in carrying out
research. It has also employed a lot of staffs who facilitate the operations of the organization.
Also members of the organization who are particularly members of the community lack the
entrepreneurial skills (McCain & Ray, 2003). Entrepreneurship is an important aspect in the
cultural and heritage industry because they need to attract a lot of people to appreciate their
cultural value. Additionally, the publicly funded sites facea lot of issues and this has hindered the
development of the cultural and heritage industry in UK. Nevertheless, OWCH is establishing
programs for training people on how they should develop entrepreneurship skills.
3.2 Analyze roles and responsibilities of organizations in the heritage and cultural industry
The industry of culture and heritage is an integral sector in UK as it incorporates a lot of things
to ensure the success of this industry. There are basic roles and responsibilities of these
organizations which include;establishment and the implementation of the custom policies that

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
control this industry. This helps ensuring that there are the standard forms of maintaining and
conserving the cultural values. With this regard, it also ensures that these values do not have a
negative impact to the society. For instance they prevent discrimination or prejudices based on
these values. Secondly, the organizations measure and accumulate customer duty as well as taxes
that are calculated at the State border. This act as a means of raising funds that is used in sites
such as museum and theaters. The money collected is also used in compensating the employees
who facilitate the operations at these sites. In addition, these organizations help in combating
against movements that may take advantage of the people. In this case, the organizations ensure
that no business is conducted privately with respect to the culture and heritage which may not
benefit the people in general.
With this consideration we can take for example the Woodland Trust which is an organization
concerned with the natural habitats. The source of funding for this organization is donation from
the well-wishers, appeals, charitable trusts as well as the membership contribution. It is one of
the popular brands as well as leverage because it has been influential in the lives of the people.
This organization controls around 1100 woods that cover a total area of 200 sq. km
(Hampton,2005). This protects the natural habitats and the organisms thatlive there. The
department of culture is another organization that has been actively involved in the management
and the conservation of the cultural and heritage sites in UK. The major role of this department is
to promote the culture and as well as heritage in UK. The role of this department is to manage
the culturaltourism and the leisure activities that are associated with it. For instance the Olympic
and the Paralympics that were held in the 2012 were managed by the Department of Culture. It is
also involvedin other activities such as the licensing for the export as well as import goods that
are related to the cultural and heritage tourism in UK. The department also controls and

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
manages the art collection for the heritage sites. This department also provides recommendation
and guidance to the government on how it should attract more tourists in UK. Nevertheless, the
role of managing and conserving the heritage has not been wholly left to the government but
there are other voluntary agencies which these sites using their own money or money donated by
the public.
LO 4 understand the role of methods of interpretation within the heritage and culture
industry.
4.1 Evaluate methods and media used for interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry
for tourists
Interpretation of the heritage and cultural tourism has been a very crucial issue because it helps
in provision of key information concerning these sites. Interpretation issignificant in these sites
because not everyone who understands and know the facts and the stories that are related to these
tourism sites. Again most of the tourists are foreigners and therefore they know little about the
culture and the people in the areas they visit. Therefore,the methods of interpretation thatare used
in these sites is useful since they help in showing the sense of the items placed in these sites
(Aas, Ladkin & Fletcher, 2005). Communication which is developed with the tourists is
important because it determines how the tourists appreciate the tourism sites. The key principle
which is used in the method of interpretation is the development of the information resource;
sustainability, authenticity as well as the inclusiveness. The major objective of the cultural and
heritage tourism is to promote appreciation of theheritage sites and whatever is inside there.
Therefore there is need to choose the most appropriate method of interpretation. This section
would discuss the methods of interpretation used in British Museum and The Royal Academy

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Arts.
British Museum
Signs and labels
The British Museum ensures that it attracts tourists by proving an easy way in which they
understand the information stored in the museums. They use signs and labels which makethem to
be referred to as “talking objects”. They use the painting, sculpture, drawing, photographs, as
well as prints which shed new light on the development of culture and heritage of UK. This was
developed in mid-1940s to the end of the 1950 as this period many artists came out in order to
show their capabilities. This method is cheap because the symbols and the placards used were
long-lasting. For instance the materials used were readily available and that it was not too
technical to develop the writings. Signs and labels were considered the most appropriate
methods of interpretation because tourists could be able to move from one place to another
without the guidance of anybody hence making it fast and a convenient process. Due to this
fastness and effectiveness, it reduced overcrowding in the museums and hence many people
preferred visiting British Museum. The number of people visiting a particular center is a great
determinant in the inflow of new visitors. For instance, if there is high number of visitors and
the processes are slow; then this would create a negative reputation towards new visitors.
Another advantage of the signs and labels is that it eliminates the personnel whom would have
been otherwise employed to act as tour guides (Leslie& Sigala, 2005). This reduces the costs of
operations hence increasing the savings to the museum. The money saved can then be used in
other areas such as the improvement of the infrastructure and it can also be used in the research
activities. Another advantage of the signs and labels is that they can be used on different

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
occasions while conveying the same information.
However, signs and labels have some shortcomings. For instance some of them can be
unpleasant and not appealing to the tourists hence destroying the momentous environment of the
museum. In addition, they require proper care and they must be maintained and conserved from
the effects of the climate and disfigurement that can make them ineffective (Cleared, 2005).
Signs and labels may not provide excellent information and perfect one as compared to the tour
guides. They do not provide the chance of explanation hence they provide limited information.
Touchscreens stalls
British Museum has adopted technology in the interpretation in order to facilitate visitor
engagement as well as promotion of education in the Museum. Touchscreensare increasingly
used in the British Museum and they foster a great experience for both the purpose of
entertainment as well as education. The use of technology has therefore provided agreat
transformationin ideology and practice as far as interpretation in the museums are concerned.
The use of the touchscreens in the museums has a great impact on the visitors as they provide a
superior level of selection. Unlike, the use of signs and labels which provide limited information,
the touchscreens provide a chance for detailed information. The touchscreen stalls have been
integrated in order to provide additional information that the visitor may require.
The Royal Academy of Arts
Leaflets and Guidebooks
The Royal Academy of Arts uses the leaflets and guidebooks in the dissemination of information
to the tourists. This method of interpretation helps is significant in engaging the tourists in the

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
museum. The museum produces several leaflets and guidebooks in a manner that each tourist
may access one and he can be able to with it in different areas. This has reduced the number of
tour guides hence saving money for the museum. The leaflets and the guidebooks can also be
carried home by the tourists so that they can read it at the comfort of their homes unlike the
touchscreens that cannot be carried around. However, this method has one major drawback.
Research is done continually which means more information is acquired, it becomes hard to add
this information into the guides unless you print new books (Jarrod&Fall, 2000). This is unlike
the touchscreens whose contents are easily edited.
Audio and video media
In order to enhance the interpretation at The Royal Academy of Arts,audio and videos are used.
The audio is effective in providing information about certain components in the museum for
instance some archeological objects. Videos are used in both the provision of the objects and
information which is provided right below the screens. This method is effective since it can be
used to provide information to a large audience at the same time. In addition, it reduces the
monotony of the visitors to move from one place to another reading in silence. This actsas a form
of entertainment hence attracting alt of visitors. Nevertheless, this method has one major
limitation; noise making. The audios and the videos may be disturbing for those people who
prefer reading in silence and this may scare away some tourists.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Reference
Hampton, M. P. (2005). Heritage, local communities and economic development. Annals of
tourism Research, 32(3), 735-759.
Leslie, D., & Sigala, M. (2005). International cultural tourism: Management, implications and
cases. Routledge.
Aas, C., Ladkin, A., & Fletcher, J. (2005). Stakeholder collaboration and heritage management.
Annals of tourism research, 32(1), 28-48.
Cleere, H. (Ed.). (2005). Archaeological heritage management in the modern world (Vol. 9).
Psychology Press.
McCain, G., & Ray, N. M. (2003). Legacy tourism: The search for personal meaning in heritage
travel. Tourism Management, 24(6), 713-717.
McKercher, B., & Du Cros, H. (2002). Cultural tourism: The partnership between tourism and
cultural heritage management. Routledge.

Running head: Growth and the development of heritage and cultural industry
Buhalis, D. (2000). Marketing the competitive destination of the future. Tourism management,
21(1), 97-116.
Garrod, B., & Fyall, A. (2000). Managing heritage tourism. Annals of tourism research, 27(3),
682-708.