An Evaluation of the Significance of Cultural Tourism: Report

This report provides a critical evaluation of the importance and value of heritage, museums, and cultural tourism, particularly within the context of contemporary Europe. It defines key terms such as heritage, museums, and culture, and examines their interrelation and significance. The report explores the role of cultural tourism in the nation state, highlighting its contribution to economic development, GDP growth, and awareness of cultural heritage. It synthesizes findings, analyzing the historical development of cultural tourism, including the rise of museums and the increasing interest in heritage sites. The report discusses marketing strategies, fundraising, and sponsorship as key elements for the development of museums and heritage sites. It also touches upon the concept of dark tourism and the impact of globalization on the tourism industry. The report emphasizes the increasing value of cultural tourism, driven by a growing global interest in diverse cultures and historical sites. The analysis covers various aspects of cultural tourism, providing a comprehensive overview of its significance and impact.

MUSEUM, HERITAGE
AND CULTURAL
TOURISM
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF HERITAGE,
MUSEUMS AND CULTURE.........................................................................................................3
2. Definition of heritage, museums, culture ................................................................................3
3. Importance and value of each concept in contemporary Europe.............................................4
4. The role of cultural tourism for the nation state......................................................................5
5. Synthesis and Analysis of Main Findings................................................................................6
Conclusion and Recommendation...................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
2

INTRODUCTION
In the present era, tourism can be seen as dynamic and competitive in nature as the needs
and preferences of customers are not stagnant. So, the focus for this business is now concentrated
on the customer satisfaction, safety and enjoyment being major part of it (Bickle and Harrill,
2010). Cultural tourism industry in 21st century has got a great value as many people are getting
attracted towards the cultural heritage and museum in UK and Europe for enhancing the
knowledge and experience of diverse culture. In this report, focus has been made on the critical
evaluation of importance of heritage and museums and the vital role of cultural tourism.
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF
HERITAGE, MUSEUMS AND CULTURE
2. Definition of heritage, museums, culture
By heritage, we generally refer to a inherited property wherein the traditions, language,
buildings, etc. which were created in past still have its historical importance. These features
belongs to the culture of a particular society. On the other hand, museums are those buildings in
which objects of history, scientific, artistic or cultural interest are stored and exhibits.
Furthermore, culture refers to as a particular form or stage of certain civilization of any nation or
period and similarly, it is the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a group of people or society.
Moreover, cultural tourism is known as a subset of tourism because it is concerned with a
particular country's or region's culture, their history, their art, religion, etc.
All these concept are interrelated with each other and have their relationship with past or
history. It is more or less concerned with certain period of time or with any region or country.
Presence of heritage has given birth to museums and due to these cultural tourism has been
evolved as a sub set of tourism. Since high amount of knowledge is earned, therefore they hold
high importance. Further, museum are centres for community and inspires through personal
connection by imparting knowledge about cultures and arts of certain period. On a similar part,
heritage is also important as it reflects the society and historical languages, buildings, etc. and
helps in presenting many forms that is landmark, building, places, views, etc. which are
associated with them. Similarly cultural tourism provides development to the nation and in
3

addition act as a social change agent that brings together the societies in a unity of senses and
activities in a contemporary world.
Furthermore, these concept helps in economic development of UK and Europe as it is
contributing a lot to increase the GDP of a nation. Also it helps in making awareness about the
heritage and culture of UK to the world, which in turn attract a pool of tourism which gives
many intangible and tangible benefits to the nation and to their economy.
3. Importance and value of each concept in contemporary Europe
Heritage, culture, museums and cultural tourism have a significant importance and value
in the modern society because the increasing awareness and for gaining intense knowledge about
these aspect, heritage, museum and culture are getting higher value. It is said that heritage have
values which are already embodied in them because of it their importance get increases. Due to
increasing importance of heritage and museum, cultural tourism is flourishing these days. There
are many people who do the visit for gaining knowledge about history and to get experience of
different culture. There are many businessman who wish to bring culture diversity in their
organization does the visit and get information about different cultures. In order to develop the
economy and get huge income through visitors, cultural tourism is being promoted. Due to its
increasing demand, this tourism is contributing a lot for raising the GDP of Europe and UK.
Heritage is important in today's world because they are some of the old monuments
which describes the origin of a nation and a complete journey. Museums shows the remaining of
old findings and other artifacts so that richness of the nation can be shown to the world which
attracts a lot of people in and around globe. Similarly, culture shows the different belief, thoughts
and other part of the civilization which makes the visitor curious and to quench their curiosity,
they visit to these places in UK and in Europe. Similarly, the values about these concept are
different in different minds. According to the changing demographics, people are having
different value.
Thus, these concept are getting utmost importance and higher value in a contemporary
Europe because due to high awareness about these concept and interest for gaining knowledge
for the enhancement of career and also knowledge has forced the visitors to visit at the places
which are of rich culture and heritage. Due to these, a new sub concept of tourism got evolved
with the name of cultural tourism which is mainly concerned with this tourism only.
4

4. The role of cultural tourism for the nation state
Cultural tourism has is differently denoted by several authors – to sum up all, its leisure
travel which is being attracted by the cultural factor or factors of a particular area (Mitsche and
et.al., 2013). Cultural tourism generally includes tourism in urban areas such as historic or large
cities and their museum, monuments, etc. This tourism also includes travelling in rural areas and
viewing their tradition, their values, culture, rituals and lifestyles. This form of tourism is
becoming very popular in the world because these tourists spend more than standard tourists. In
the recent report of OECD, it has been found that cultural tourism plays a vital role in the
regional development of different regions of the world. Thus, it can also be defined as the
movement of people to cultural attractions with the intention of getting heritage experience
(Pietro and et.al., 2015).
Cultural tourism industry is flourishing due to escalating interest of people towards the
cultural and heritage tour. The major contribution to this industry is from cultural museum
because it has been the subject of a number of studies. The recent information was gathered by
the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2009 and Oxford Economics. To support this, out of top 10 UK
attraction points, 8 are museums – so UK is considered as the biggest heritage-based tourism
industry with a turnover of 7.3 million GBP coming out from museum sector and 5.1 million
GBP from natural heritage (Hull, 2011).
5. Synthesis and Analysis of Main Findings
From last 50 years, great emphasis has been placed on exhibition’s interpretations. Thus,
museum started growing during this period with an incredible range of themes and subjects
covered. Similarly, the cultural tourism was developed over a long period of time (Garcia, 2007).
In early years, people were not much interested about the museum and other heritage sites
because of less awareness about these sites. People who had money can get the access of
entering inside museum (George, 2010). After that, many museums started establishing and
researchers and archaeologists were motivated to find the artefacts and this enabled every
country to start maintaining the museum and other historical places in order to attract the tourists
from other countries. In this 21st century, people are aware about the heritage sites and museum
5

and interest of people towards these sites are increasing year after year (Knudsen and Waade,
2010).
Cultural tourism has a long history. It is the subset of tourism which is concerned with
the country's or region's culture. After the development of museum and heritage sites, the
cultural tourism has evolved. Earlier, people used to visit for leisure and fun but gradually,
awareness about the cultural heritage and museum enhances their knowledge and experience and
educate them regarding the past. Thus, people started doing tours for visiting the heritage sites.
This provided an opportunity to the tourism sector to make available the cultural tourism to
people who wish to visit to have the knowledge of diverse cultures. The World Tourism
Organisation has concluded that it accounted for 37% of global tourism (Kratz and Merritt,
2011). Through this, people gain the theoretical knowledge about the field of interpretation and
education. The museum laid down several standards which clearly state their overall goals of
education and it also demonstrates that their activities are aligned with them. It also presents
accurate and appropriate content for each of their audience (Forrest, 2012).
The development of museum and heritage can be done by marketing, fund raising,
sponsorship and merchandising (Leslie and Sigala, 2005). Marketing of museum and heritage
can be done by following the process that is identifying the needs and wants of visitors and then
delivering the benefits which will satisfy the visitors in gaining experience. Marketing also aids
in maximizing the performance of museum. Even though it is a very complex activity with
requiring extensive creativity, planning, organization and problem solving but marketing of
museum and heritage will help in the development.
As it is known that museum and heritage sites are nonprofit organization but for doing
maintenance and pay off personnel and for the development of these cultural heritage, fund is
required (Dallen, 2011). To increase the funds for museum, management do not ask for
donations instead they organize the special events and creative methods for raising the funds for
the museum. Form this fund; they do the maintenance and development of museum and heritage.
By offering sponsorship opportunities to companies during special events and programs
for exhibiting the museum elements and other cultural event at heritage sites, development can
be done. Because company pays money for sponsoring their brand and museum and cultural
6

event, they can do their development as well (Timothy, 2011). Guggenheim museum at New
York provides opportunities to the corporate for sponsorship and their sponsorship enables to
develop the museum and present some of the finest cultural, educational and public programs in
the world.
Merchandising and retailing of museum arts and other heritage icons have enabled the
development of these places by creating awareness about these sites so that many cultural
tourists can visit these places and enhance their experience and knowledge about the diverse
culture. If there will be more cultural tour then development of museum and heritage will be
done with a fast pace (Cultural Heritage, 2015).
Dark tourism is linked with the travel to places which are associated with death and
suffering (Kupisz and Działek, 2013). Further, this concept totally relies on reason for visiting
the site. Voyeurism is one of the main issue linked with dark tourism. Visiting memorials
associated with some tragic event has been considered as an part of tourism. Further, it has been
found that individuals who visited different places associated with death does not behave
properly after visiting such place. So the unexpected behaviour is regarded as one of the major
issue. Safety is also one of the key risk where dark tourism has adverse impact on health of
individual and is regarded as risky. So, these are some of the major risks associated with dark
tourism and it is valid in every nation and state which has adopted this concept.
Globalization has directly influenced heritage, museum and culture as tourism sites are
getting popular in short period of time and in turn tourist from all around the world can be
attracted easily to visit different type of places (Cole, 2004). In short globalisation has developed
the entire market of tourism and is allowing travellers from different places to visit places of
attraction and this can provide them remarkable experience in the field of tourism. It has
provided favourable environment to entire tourism industry and large number of heritage sites
along with museums can be represented in front of travelers who are from different places.
Further, it becomes easy to represent culture of one nation in front of other travellers and they
can easily gain knowledge and information associated with the tourism site. Globalization has
provided wider platform to the entire tourism industry and in turn large number of heritage sites
along with cultural places can be highlighted at global level and this supports in economic
7

development also heritage sites along with cultural one can be target of attack as large number of
tourists arrive to visit places at global level and same can be target of attack where main target
will be tourists.
In short it will have adverse impact on the nation where heritage sites become target of
attack. Du to presence of all these type of attack demand for tourism decline and in turn it acts as
hurdle in economic development. Terrorists are attacking large number of sites where majority of
the travelers arrives for visiting such site. Presence of such type of attacks is leading to loss of
life and is having negative impact on the nation where such type of incidents takes place. Apart
from this, the main reason behind attacking heritage sites is to accomplish personal goals in
which terrorists are interested. Terrorists search for heritage and cultural sites where large
number of tourists arrive on continuous basis and they prefer to target the same. It adversely
affects the entire market of tourism and is not favourable for the economy also. Therefore, in this
way heritage along with cultural sites can be target of attack and can harm travelers.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
All the major issues have been mentioned in the above section which seems to affect
cultural tourism. To support the content of the research, below discussion has been made
regarding importance of heritage and cultural tourism.
Museums are the non-profit making and permanent institution. The twin roles of museum
are to preserve and to make accessible the remains of the past. The main function of museum is
to research, outreach and collection management. The role of heritage is to redress especially in
those situations where histories have been silenced. Heritage is not homogeneous; its role is to
encourage people or visitors to accept diversity as the wealth of a nation (Latham, 2012).
In museum and at heritage places, two types of management issues arise. One is legal
issues while managing the museum and heritage places which impact the museum, staff and
board and they need to be aware about such issues. Boards and staff should evaluate the legal
implications on a regular basis (Mckercher and Du, 2002). They should craft the policies which
ensure the compliance with laws and they can seek advice from legal counsellors as well. Legal
issues arise on a daily basis in museum. For this purpose, museum and heritage must follow the
state, federal and international laws to avoid the impact of these issues. Issues which impact the
museums and heritage are non-profit business, contracts, tax, property, intellectual property,
8

insurance, employment and art law and also the other laws. Another issue in the management of
museum and heritage is of ethics. There was an unseen social responsiveness and cultural
sensitivity in the workers of museum and heritage (Dümcke and Gnedovsky, 2013). It is because
the exhibition of sensitive material and other cultural things should be done with due care and
great respect for the feelings of religious, ethnic and other groups. For this purpose, management
has to educate the personnel of museum about the ethics of museum and heritage sites so that the
sentiments of past religion and culture should not get hurt (Marshall and Villiers, 2015).
Decisions about the inclusion and exclusion, valuable and invaluable as well as languages all
lead to ethical style and thus, it shapes the perception of public who are visiting to museum and
cultural heritage in UK and Europe.
In this modern society, Heritage is playing a major role for the development of nation.
Key to balance archaeology along with the economic development is like balancing heritage
values with the needs and concerns of contemporary society. This allows heritage values to
compete with other things in a modern world while at the same time, it is allowing different ways
of viewing the past (Roders and Oers, 2011). For this purpose, it is required to apply economical,
legal, ethical, management and scientific perspectives to meet the cultural heritage concerns.
This should be done in a manner which is accountable, sustainable and includes the ethical
responsibility for interacting and working with the people who have a stake in the resource under
consideration in an effort to help advanced local economic conditions while at the same time not
compromising the quality of life for future generations.
Cultural value is not only the basis for understanding, protecting and managing collective
cultural heritage but it also assists in the economic development. Cultural heritage resources can
be viewed in terms of cultural capital or assets in the context of a market driven economy.
Although, defining heritage in such terms is often difficult for those in the heritage sector to
understand. It in fact provides a basis for the implementation of economic principles which are
measurable and applicable to the cultural heritage. Thus, it is providing a basis for long-term
planning, management, protection and economic development. Defining these values of heritage
is the key to understand the role of heritage in contemporary society and its application and it is
contrast to the economic development (Carbonell, 2012).
9

Cultural heritage has a major contribution in the sustainable growth by merging with
modernity and tradition. Through a creative combination of inheritance of the past with
innovative and modern ideas, they aimed at shaping the future. Heritage can be seen as a
resource which does not have a sole reason of preserving historic memory. But if used creatively,
it can also bring various social and economic benefits to many stakeholders. It raises the portrait
of places by making them more competitive in the contemporary world and it also serves as a
source of inspiration for the contemporary arts and creative industries.
Along with the positive impact, there are some negative impacts on tourism industry.
Development impact such as during construction phase can be severe (Smith and Robinson,
2006). Pollution generated by the hotels, pollution done by vehicles and tourist drop litters on
these sites. Government might penalize on hotels and transportation for doing the pollution. Due
to this, negative impact will be created on the minds of tourists. Hence, this affects the
profitability of industry. The pollution created by tourist and tourism industry has an adverse
effect on the environment due to which trees are disappearing and water bodies are getting
polluted (Timothy and Boys, 2003).
Tourism industry is spending a lot to protect the environment and the World Heritage
Sites in order to offset the negative impacts of tourism sector. For this purpose, tourism industry
is educating tourists not to litter and the hotel staff for not throwing wastage in water and on the
roads etc.
10

REFERENCES
Journals
Bickle, C. M. and Harrill, R., 2010. Avoiding cultural misconceptions during globalization of
tourism. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. 4(4).
pp.283–286.
Garcia, P. G., 2007. The destruction of a cultural heritage: with reference to the problems of Iraq.
New Library World. 108(7/8). pp.354–369.
George, W. E., 2010. Intangible cultural heritage, ownership, copyrights, and tourism.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. 4(4). pp.376–388.
Kratz, S. and Merritt, E., 2011. Museums and the future of education. On the Horizon. 19(3).
pp.188–195.
Kupisz, M. M. and Działek, J., 2013. Cultural heritage in building and enhancing social capital.
Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development. 3(1), pp.35–54.
Latham, F. K., 2012. Museum object as document: Using Buckland's information concepts to
understand museum experiences. Journal of Documentation. 68(1). pp.45–71.
Marshall, R. and Villiers, D. R., 2015. Marketing tourists gazing into the tourism domain.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. 9(4). pp.417–422.
Mitsche, N. and et.al., 2013. Intangibles: enhancing access to cities' cultural heritage through
interpretation. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. 7(1).
pp.68–77.
Pietro, D. L. and et.al., 2015. Cultural heritage and consumer behaviour: a survey on Italian
cultural visitors. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable
Development. 5(1). pp.61–81.
Cole, D., 2004. Exploiring the Sustainability of Mining Heritage Tourism. Journal of
Sustainable Tourism. 12(6). pp. 480-494.
Books
Carbonell, M. B., 2012. Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts. John Wiley & Sons.
Dallen, T. J., 2011. Cultural Heritage and Tourism: An Introduction. Channel View
Publications.
Forrest, C., 2012. International Law and the Protection of Cultural Heritage. Routledge.
11

Smith, M. and Robinson, M., 2006. Cultural tourism in a changing world: Politics, participation
and (re) presentation. Channel View Publications.
Smith, M. K., 2009. Issues in Cultural Tourism. Routledge.
Timothy, D. J. and Boys, S.W., 2003. Heritage Tourism. Prentice Hall.
Timothy, D. J., 2011. Cultural Heritage and Tourism: Introduction. Channel View Publications.
Leslie, D. and Sigala, M., 2005. International cultural tourism: management, implications and
cases. Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann.
Mckercher, B. and Du, C. H., 2002. Cultural tourism: The partnership between tourism and
cultural heritage management. Haworrth Hospitality Press.
Knudsen, B. T. and Waade, A. M., 2010. Re-investing authenticity: Tourism, place and emotion.
(Tourism and Cultural change). Channel View Publications.
Online
Cultural Heritage. 2015. [Online]. Available through: <http://sdt.unwto.org/content/cultural-
heritage-1>. [Accessed on 25th October 2015].
Dümcke, C. and Gnedovsky, M., 2013. The Social and Economic Value of Cultural Heritage:
literature review. [PDF]. Available through:
<http://www.eenc.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/CD%C3%BCmcke-MGnedovsky-
Cultural-Heritage-Literature-Review-July-2013.pdf>. [Accessed on 25th October 2015].
Hull, D., 2011. Assessing the value and impact of museums. [PDF]. Available through:
<http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/Documents/RaISe/Publications/2011/
Culture-Arts-Leisure/2911.pdf>. [Accessed on 25th October 2015].
12