Heritage & Cultural Tourism: Growth, Conflicts & Management

This report delves into the management of heritage and cultural assets within the travel and tourism industry, beginning with an analysis of the sector's growth and development, from pilgrimage to modern tourism. It explores the purpose of preserving cultural and historical attractions, highlighting their positive social and economic impacts. The report also addresses potential conflicts in conservation, using Barcelona and Venice as case studies to illustrate the challenges of balancing tourism with the preservation of cultural sites and the well-being of local communities. Furthermore, it examines the roles and responsibilities of organizations involved in heritage and cultural site management, and evaluates the methods and media used for interpretation within the industry, considering the needs of diverse tourist demographics. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of sustainable tourism practices and the ongoing efforts to enhance visitor experiences while safeguarding cultural heritage.

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HERITAGE AND CULTURAL TOURISM MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within travel
and tourism......................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Analyze the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry........................6
1.2 Discuss potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources: Case
study of Barcelona (Spain) and Venice (Italy)................................................................................8
LO2 Understand the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions within the travel and tourism
sector..............................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Assess the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of different
customers.......................................................................................................................................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
3.1 Evaluate the impact of different types of ownership on the management of heritage and
cultural sites...................................................................................................................................12
3.2 Analyze roles and responsibilities of organizations in the heritage and cultural industry......14
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
4.1 Evaluate methods and media used for interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry
for tourists......................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Reference list.................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
Travel and tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. This sector is associated with the
leisure and travel activities for the interested tourist. The particular sector is behind the
employment of 200 million people throughout the world. The industry is providing leisure and
other travel activities in domestic or international context. In this context, it is also noteworthy
that the visiting places are significant source of income in many places, especially in case of
heritage or cultural places, where cultural and historical aspects were kept safely. In addition, by
strengthening the international relations in regards to the social, cultural, educational and
economic sectors, the sector is directly contributing in social wellbeing (Iriye and Saunier, 2016).
The current assignment would focus upon the heritage and cultural assets management in the
travel and tourism industry. Initially, the growth and development of the heritage and cultural
industry in this sector would be demonstrated here, followed by the demonstration of the purpose
of maintaining and keeping these heritage and cultural attractions safe in the travel and tourism
sector. In the following section, the roles and responsibilities of the owners of heritage and
cultural industry has also been discussed here. Finally, the key methods for interpreting the
heritage and cultural industry have been demonstrated in the assignment.

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LO1 Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within
travel and tourism

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1.1 Analyze the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry
It is important to understand the heritage tourism, prior understanding the growth and
development of this industry. The heritage tourism involves cultural and historical assets along
with natural resources, where visitors come to explore their interest. It has several importances,
including the positive social and economic impact upon the society. In addition, the heritage
tourism helps to establish the image and identity of the cultural places, while contributing
significantly in preserving those assets within the community. It makes the bridge, allowing the
culture to promote harmony and collaboration within communities and society people. The
heritage tourism is supporting the hospitality sector through the preservations of the cultural
aspects. For instance, in UK, there are approx 30 UNESCO recognized heritage sites along with
the natural assets including Henderson Island, Gough and Inaccessible Islands. On the other
hand, some these sites are archeological places as well as some places are cultural and historical
places like Maritime Geenwich, Royal Botanical Gardens, Westminster Abbey, and Saint
Margaret’s Church (Timothy, 2014).
The growth and development of the heritage and cultural tourism can be understood through the
evolving stages of society, from the pilgrimage to the current era. In the pilgrimage stage, the
purpose of visiting included a spiritual purpose, which causes the visiting places to be linked
with some spiritual experience along with some religion aspects; like the burial site of a famous
people, places having mystical significance and places where miracles took place, were the key
visitor’s attractions at that period.
In the sequence, the next era focused upon ancient and biblical attributes as the key visitor’s
attractions in the heritage tourism. The heritage tourism industry at that period attempted to
provide the evidences to the visitors about the presence of these visitor’s places from ancient era.
For instance, it is evident that the Greek citizens, keen to explore the heritage sites, used to go to
Egypt, where their tour guides provide them the instructions regarding the story and ancient facts
associated with the places they visited. In that period, the seven wonders of ancient world were
the key attractions for the (Moufakkir and Reisinger, 2013).
The next stage of tourism development was at the age of Renaissance, within the period of 14th to
17th centuries, when the heritage tourism included the attributes related to ancient Rome and
Greece. From this stage of tourism development, the industry concentrated upon the creation and

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inclusion of new attractions in the visitors’ places, which promoted via developing antiques and
other aspects for grabbing attention of potential visitors, which promoted the development of the
heritage tourism industry.
The next stage of development was significant for grand tour, within the period of 1600 to 1800s.
The era could be identified by the young people travelling to the historical places through Europe
for educational purposes for exploring the art sites and pre existing architectures in France,
Germany, Italy and Belgium, which is highlighting this era of development as the earliest version
of pre-packed tourism business (Mason, 2015).
During 19th century, the evolution of cultural tourism was seen again. Initially, museums did not
charge entree fee, in order to grab attention of more people. The involvement of various
activities was the path to save the cultural, places. This era highlighted the downturn of
England’s economic status.
In the final stage of development, i.e. in the current era, a range of activities are involved in the
cultural and heritage tourism in order to meet the needs of visitors via continuous monitoring to
the customer base. For instance, renowned tour groups including “the national Trust, The society
for the protection of ancient buildings (SPAB), the Woodland and Trust, Victorian Society” are
working with their unique aim and objectives, while contributing significantly to social and
environmental wellbeing, for sustaining their business and grabbing more attention of visitors
(Timothy, 2017).
Timeline of heritage and cultural tourism development
Period Region Travel motivation
3000 BC Babylonia Business
1, 500 BC Egypt Religion and pleasure – pyramids
6thC BC Egypt Heritage and culture – ‘Museum of
Antiquities’
5thC BC Greece Athens – religion – Acropolis or
Panthenon
4th BC Sparta, Athens, Guidebooks

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Troy
2ndC BC Roman Empire Roman infantrymen VFR
Middle Ages Europe ‘Haligdeg’ – ‘Holy Day’ (Holiday),
indicating a day of rest
16thC AD Europe Pilgrimages – religion: Rome,
Canterbury
17th – 19th
CAD
Europe Educational culture – ‘The Grand
Tour’
Table: Timeline of heritage and cultural tourism development
(Source: Garau, 2014)
1.2 Discuss potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources: Case
study of Barcelona (Spain) and Venice (Italy)
Though the travel and tourism sector is
achieving much benefit yet this industry is
facing some potential conflicts while
preserving the heritages and cultural
resources. The country takes pride for its
cultural assets and heritages. So these are
taken care and kept safely and are nurtured
with the resources. Nevertheless, in many
occasions when these natural and cultural
assets are exposed to the people, by any
known or unknown causes these are being
harmed (Ahluwalia, 2017). Many people
hinder with cleanliness of these preserved
artifacts while visiting these sites.
One of the key conflicts in the cultural and
heritage tourism is that, organizations in the
travel and tourism sector are making their
business more striking and approachable to
the public to attract more number of tourists.
As a consequence more population approach
to the heritage sites, which causes an
increase in chances of the aspects being
harmed and lost. Due to misuse these sites
are being harmed and lost and in order to
maintain these places authority has to
replace the old antique with the new one
(Mack, 2012). These cause depreciation in
the value of the beauty and approach of
these heritages and also cause a reduction in
the value of business. Enhancement in the
crowd means more number of people, and
more number of people includes such

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population who have no respect for the rules
and regulations of those places, which
creates many issues for the authority of
those heritage places to arrange proper
management.
One of the causes of the obstruction in the
business is the misbehavior and disrespect of
the stuff towards the tourist. Other conflicts
include “misinterpretation of physical
attributes, conservation threats against the
growth of the industry, less access and
involvement of innovative technologies in
the business, lack of consultation with
community and others”.
In another heritage place Barcelona in
Spain, conflicts has been witnessed, which
has significantly reduced the value of
tourism business of the place. It has been
revealed that the citizens in this city are
living under a threat due to mass crowd
gathered in the city. The city consists of the
tourism hotspot, which is making huge
crowd and ultimately reducing the quality of
citizens’ life, especially people, who are
living near the tourism hotspots (Barthel-
Bouchier, 2016).
A protest was raised by the citizen in 2014,
where they claimed to make the city visitors
free, as they have argued that visitors are
unable to understand that it is a city, instead
of being a theme park. Citizens are
continuously complaining about visitors’
rush lifestyle, which has been estimated to
be approx 32 million visitors (Edgell, 2016).
As a result, in 2017, legislation was
introduced for reducing the number of
tourists in the residential areas, by reducing
accommodations for tourists.
The tourism authorities are unable to
manage the natural resources at these
attraction places. Venice is another heritage

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site, which is exploring natural resources,
i.e. cruise ship tourism; which has become a
threat to citizen’s lives. It has been claimed
that every day the city is visited by more
than 60000 visitors, which is more than the
total residents (Colau, 2014). On the other
hand, the fragile structure of the city has
also been argued to be the reason behind the
threat of cruise ship tourism at Venice.
LO2 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
Introduction
The heritage and cultural tourism industry is providing significant and attractive travel packages
in order to satisfy their customers. In this context, different tour authorities have various aims
objectives and visions, which are ultimately concerned about the provision of high quality tour
services, providing good experience to the visitors and earning profit from them. In order to
understand the purposes, the assignment has focused upon the British Museum and Victoria as
well as Albert Museum.
Purpose of British Museum
 To meet the global customer’s needs, while expanding the business
 To keep the cultural and heritage sites safe and protected, convey the stories and
importance of these heritage and ancient attributes of the world to the global population
(British Museum, 2017)
Purpose of Victoria and Albert Museum
 To provide good tourism services at the cultural visit and tourist places to the visitors, for
satisfying them
 To gain significant market revenue by addressing current market needs
 To expand the current customer base (Victoria and Albert Museum., 2017)

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 To develop services via enhanced customer awareness in order to enhance the brand
value in the global platform
Type of customers
The above discussed two heritage sites are classified within the most visited tourist destinations
in the England and UK. However, mostly people, especially these places are visited by the young
people, i.e. students for educational purposes, who are interested in literature, history, leisure and
research.
Ways to meet the needs of visitors
Role of British museum
 The museum authorities are providing the opportunities for communicating with the
bigger world via the experienced tour guides, which are required by media
 They are providing the facilities to the tourists to appoint tour guides, who can convey
historical information and stories related to the artifacts preserved in the museum
 The museum authorities are helping the researchers to gain in depth information about
the historical and heritage cultures, by arranging tour seminars and historical campaigns
(British Museum, 2017)
 They are arranging programs related to technical and pictorial interpretation of heritage
and cultural tourism related to the museum, in order to meet the changing needs of the
key visitors including students
Role of Victoria and Albert museum
 The museum authorities are arranging different exhibitions, like ‘Wedding dresses
exhibition’, ‘constable exhibition’ for meeting the needs of media
 Another type of visitors are families, who needs to gain knowledge from heritage and
cultural aspects of the visited places; for them the museum authorities are arranging
award winning back pack activities, which makes those places more striking and
enjoyable for these group of visitors, while fulfilling their desires to know the heritage
and cultural aspects (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2017)

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 They are also arranging seminars for researchers, allowing them to gain in-depth
information about the historical attributes
 They area also arranging educational tours on every Friday and campaigns for students
for enriching their heritage and cultural knowledge base
Conclusion
In the report, the purpose of key heritage and cultural sites have in the heritage tourism industry
have been demonstrated. With the help of this information the following part would be
concerned with the ways through which the key needs of these customers are met by the tour
authorities.
Task 3
3.1 Evaluate the impact of different types of ownership on the management of heritage and
cultural sites
The heritage and cultural tourism service of United Kingdom is divided into different section
which are based on the ownerships to maintain the sites. The government of the country has
focused on this section only to make the flexible service and maintenance of this service sector.
There are three different sections to manage the heritage and cultural tourism service of United
Kingdom. They are – public ownership, commercial ownership and voluntary ownership. This
ownership has the great impact on the mind of the international tourism service.
The public ownership of the heritage and cultural sites of the country refers to those heritage and
cultural sites which are operated and maintained by the governmental body. The aim of this type
of ownership is to keep the valuable cultural and heritage site alive to present the precious
ancient time of the country (Litman, 2015). The government of the country has created many a
governmental bodies to maintain the service of this tourism sector. The Department for Digital,
Cultural, Media & Sport is there to take the main responsibility to control the whole tourism
policies of the country. The museums and natural sites come under this section. The examples of
the public ownership are the British Museum, English Heritage, Natural England and others.
Another objective of this ownership is to present the nation positive impact to the international