Comprehensive Report: Heritage and Culture in UK Travel and Tourism

This report provides a detailed analysis of the heritage and cultural tourism sector in the UK. It begins by examining the growth and development of the industry, highlighting its economic contributions and key attractions like London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool. The report then delves into the conflicts surrounding the conservation of heritage and cultural resources, using Lhasa, Tibet, as a case study, and discusses issues such as commercial development, access versus conservation, and conflicts between different levels of government. The report further explores the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of diverse customers, focusing on education and research. Finally, it evaluates the impact of different ownership models on the management of heritage sites and analyzes the roles and responsibilities of various organizations within the industry, including the use of interpretation methods and media for tourists. The report concludes with recommendations for sustainable tourism practices and effective marketing strategies, including the use of virtual reality and interactive software.

HERITAGE & CULTURE
In
TRAVEL AND TOURISM
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Analyzing the growth and development of UK heritage and cultural industry.....................3
1.2 Conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources ..........................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
2.1 The purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of different customer
......................................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Evaluating the impact of various types of ownership on the management of heritage and
cultural sites.................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Analyzing the roles and responsibility of organization in the heritage and cultural industry
....................................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P4.1 The methods and media used for interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry
for tourists..................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism is the fastest growing service industry and has ample number of
growth opportunities for economy and individuals of the UK. Economic share of travel and
tourism sector in the world wide economy is more than 10%. This sector generates employment
for more than 277 million of individuals. Further, main reason for the growth of travel and
tourism sector of UK is due to rich heritage culture available in the country. UK can be regarded
as a land of heritage full with historical monuments, royal halls, buildings, museums etc. In
2013, heritage tourism generated more than £26.4 billion for the economy of country (Thomas,
2013). Thereafter, various studies have revealed that more than 50% tourists select their holiday
destination on the basis of heritage and culture of the nation. In this report, various aspects of
heritage and culture in travel and tourism sector will be explained. The report is based on the
provided case scenario and on the basis of this, all the tasks are elaborated. Furthermore, growth
and development of UK heritage and culture and conflict in maintaining the heritage culture as
per the case study of Lhasa, Tibet will be explained. Thereafter, purpose of heritage and cultural
attractions in meeting the needs of various customers will also be described.
TASK 1
1.1 Analyzing the growth and development of UK heritage and cultural industry
Heritage and cultural tourism refers to experience the rich beauty of historical places,
monuments, castles, artifacts and functions that are evident of stories and individuals related to
the past. This tourism is the highest growing sector in travel and tourism industry. Prolong
history of UK and pervasive culture are main reasons for the growth of heritage tourism. This
tourism is important due to large number of reasons like, it has affirmative impact on economy
and society, it helps country in maintaining its identity, it is focused on conserving the heritage
and culture of the nation etc. In addition to this aspect, it helps in serving compatibility and
apprehension among people. Further, to ensure progress in heritage tourism, it is significant for
country to preserve cultural values and resources by enhancing the level of tourism experience
for the visitors (Developments of cultural tourism, 2010). It further helps in generating large
amount of revenues which can be reinvested in the development of country. Therefore, it is
feasible for UK to conserve its cultural resources and prevent them from disappearing.
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According to the market research conducted by Heritage lottery fund, more than £26.4 billion
funds were generated by cultural tourism in year 2011 which has grown to £34.4bn in 2014.
Further, visitor expenditure has graded UK in the seventh largest global tourism destination.
Thereafter, heritage and cultural tourism is also contributing in the employment generation by
providing job opportunities to more than 3.1 million people upto 2013 (UK tourism statistics.
2014).
Furthermore, main reason for opting heritage and cultural tourism by tourist is related to
visit historical monuments of UK. Thereafter, London is a leading tourist destination which has
attractive culturally rich destinations like, Tower of London having 900 year old history, British
museum founded in 17th century, London's Tate modern, National gallery, Royal Museum of
Greenwich, National Marytime Museum etc. In addition to this, Westminster Abbey is 700year
old building of London which attracts more than 1 million visitors every year. Historical
monuments and places are looked after by professional bodies like, National Trust building and
English heritage (Pesonen, 2013). Thereafter, Queen's House and Buckingham Palace are also
among the world's famous heritage destination. Furthermore, Edinburgh, the capital city of
Scotland also has rich heritage culture. This city is full with attractive heritage destinations.
Edinburgh can be refereed as a cultural capital as it is rich in magnificent castles telling stories of
past, amazing art galleries, museums and exhibitions. Therefore, millions of international visitors
focus to experience heritage beauty of Edinburgh (Historical buildings in London, 2013).
Thereafter, Glasgow and Liverpool can be referred as European capital of heritage and culture.
Various places like Royal Liver Building, Liverpool town hall, Victoria gallery and William
McKenzie Tomb are main tourist attraction points at Liverpool. Further, Holmwood and Pollock
house, Science centre, Tall ship and Kelvingrove art gallery and museum etc are also top tourist
attractions. Furthermore, as per Anholt Nations Brand Index research, UK is ranked at seventh
number for cultural heritage.
1.2 Conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources
Lhasa is an international tourism destination with rich heritage culture, divine religious
temples, mesmerizing high altitude treks, pleasing monasteries etc. Its cultural heritage is more
than 1300 years old. Further, China state council declared the cited city among the top 30
renowned historical and cultural sites of the world. In addition to this, many of tourist
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destinations of Lhasa like Jokhang temple, Potala palace etc are enrolled as World’s best cultural
heritage sites. Therefore, these places are an attractive force for more than 11 million, domestic
as well as international visitors in year 2015. Thereafter, Lhasa has ample number of growth
opportunities for tourism sector. Further, its contribution to tourism revenue was more than 15.49
billion yuan. Tourism researchers have predicted that upto 240 million tourists will be visited
Lhasa in the coming year. Therefore, tourism industry of city has ample amount of growth
opportunities (Tourism in Lhasa. 2013). By considering the economic potentiality of place,
Inter-Continental Hotel group is planning to build resort Lhasa Paradise in this city. In addition
to this, Chinese government is planning to renovate traditional sites of city like Barkhor town,
and build a theme park, Disneyfied on the outskirts of Lhasa. Main aim of Chinese government
is to boost tourism and enhance their revenue. For this aspect, an investment is made by
government that is up to $4.8 billion dollars. However, London based free Tibet group is against
these developments and renovation because they feel that this will destruct the heritage of Tibet.
It may result into following consequences:
 Propagation: Construction of theme park and luxury resort will result into the
propagation of tourism as tourists will be attracted towards them rather than visiting
Lhasa, Barkhor town etc.
 Commercial developments: Cultural beauty of city is also attracting commercial
enterprises which are aimed at increasing their profit margin from the expenditure done
by tourists (Moutinho, 2011). This has led to the development of shopping sites, hotels,
resort complex etc. Further, construction of such buildings is again damaging the
historical architecture of Lhasa. Impact on Local business: Development of Disneyfied, shopping complex etc may have
negative impact on the local business in terms of falling revenue and sales.
Various conflicts in conservation of culture and heritage
 Access v/s conservation: Tourism organization wants to make full utilization of
historical place, temple, Barkhor town etc for increasing their business and leading to
erosion. Their main interest is to get full return of their investment and generate profit.
Thereafter, local social groups like Free Tibet etc wants to conserve place in order to
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safeguard historical beauty. This is leading to conflict of interest among different
members (Bramwell and Lane, 2008).
 Brownfield sites v/s Greenfield sites: Brownfield sites mean the use of land for
commercial purpose therefore, it means building shopping malls, companies, hotels,
theme parks on the land for cultivating profits from tourist (Conflicts in Lhasa. 2013).
While green field sites refers to land used for agriculture and other purposes in rural
areas. However, investors are converting Greenfield land into brownfield for the business
purpose.
 Conflict b/w China and regional government: There is conflict of interest between
Beijing and regional government of Tibet. Beijing government is planning to increase
security measures across TAR while local government of Tibet wants to promote
tourism. This is biggest barrier in tourism and resulting conflict of interest (Scott and
et.al., 2008.)
Furthermore, to avoid negative impact of the conflict of interest and promote tourism,
various measures can be taken by government and other stakeholders of Tourism. In this respect,
modern technology and processes can be used to promote heritage tourism. It will help in
encouraging domestic as well as international tourist to visit Lhasa and other destination of
Tibet. For this aspect, modern marketing techniques like, virtual reality, interactive software etc
can be used. Virtual reality is computer based software technology that helps tourism marketers
to develop artificial environment of Lhasa (Serre and Chevalier, 2012). Prospective visitors can
be approached to feel tourism experience of the country and induced to visit personally.
Thereafter, interactive software can be designed where heritage tourism can be promoted through
attractive pictures of famous destination etc. Further, online portals can be designed through
using interactive portals where various queries of tourist can be resolved, information about
various tourism destinations, available accommodation, local culture etc can be provided for the
best interest of tourist. However, these marketing techniques involve large amount of
expenditure. Therefore, cost should be determined before making investment. This will also help
in assuring that cost of marketing does not exceed the benefits. Local people can be educated and
trained so that they can apply for the jobs in tourism organizations (Bramwell and Lane, 2008).
Tourism organizations can also provide training to its staff members so they can render best
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services to its domestic and international visitors, stimulate them to revisit Lhasa and promote
place among friends and relatives.
TASK 2
2.1 The purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of different customer
Heritage and cultural tourism market has been expanding worldwide by attracting more
and more customers to see the heritage and cultural attractions of United Kingdom. Heritage and
culture are two different types of tourism which are increasing day by day to gain new
experience of travelling (Byrd, 2007). Heritage tourism is a part of tourism attracts large number
of people towards the preservation of old buildings and places whereas Culture tourism is
concerned with region or the place’s lifestyles, art , architecture and others elements which are
combined to form a culture of that particular place. These both tourism sector are enlarging its
business and attracting large number of customers to visit the UK. There are different purposes
of heritage and culture tourism and these are as follows:
 Education: To learn something new about the culture and its heritage, University
organises various educational tour for their students because they want that their students
should gain knowledge about the heritage as well as its culture. It is not necessary only
students can visit to the British Museum, other people who are interested in knowing the
past of the building, its art and architecture can also come so as to gain more learnings
about the museum. Due to this, heritage and culture places are integrating with learning
process more than leisure process (Cappelini, 2005).
 Research: Heritage and culture tourism places are not only attracting customers for
leisure activity but also researchers for researching about buildings and places. To know
stories behind the historical places, its art and architecture, researchers are focused to
visit here. Researcher who is studying the human past stories through old material
culture and its ancient remains is known as archaeologist. British Museum and The
Natural History Museum are place for such researchers for searching facts through
various records like artifacts, biofacts, architecture and its historical and cultural places
(Edgell Sr, 2013). Thus, other purpose of heritage and culture is research which is
attracting large number of archaeologist customers.
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 Entertainment: Other than learning and research experiences, customers are attracting
towards heritage and culture places because of the entertainment i.e. to enjoy its leisure
time through vacations or holidays. For relaxation and to take time out from the busy
schedule, people visits to the places like British Museum and The Natural History
Museum to refresh its body and minds and also for their personal satisfaction. Along with
this, they also prefer such visit to integrate with historical, cultural and religious activities
(Girard and Nijkamp, 2009).
There are different types of customers with different needs and requirements. It is
necessary for historical and culture tourism to meet these requirements that are as follows:
 Students: These types of customers visit heritage and cultural places to know the past of
those places and further understand the importance of their local and states' history. It
also helps students to connect with the history of historical buildings and the culture of
British Museum and Natural History Museum. Heritage and cultural attractions also help
to develop skills and knowledge in the students and assist in gathering facts and
collecting sources of evidence (Matzler and Siller, 2003). Prices of travelling to historical
and cultural places are set by the educational institutions which are economically in low
rate as compared to others.
 Scientists: Archaeologist and scientists are other types of customers whose main purpose
is to do research about the places and discover about it. Here, travelling expenses as well
as research are costly because it needs many research tools, equipment and innovative
technologies for researching old heritage buildings and its culture. There are many
museums such as British Museum and Natural History Museum in which science
exhibition and old science research are stored from which many scientist can study and
formulate their research (Historical buildings in London. 2013). In the UK, culture can be
related to vintage cars etc. by which scientists can gain knowledge with all their artistic
works and further make innovation in its products.
 Family and Children: Major part of tourists includes family and children because such
types of tourists frequently visit heritage and cultural places. For freshen up the mind and
body, customers take out time from monotonous schedule to feel relaxed and to enjoy
their vacations. British Museum and Natural History Museum help children to learn
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something about historical monuments and cultural places as well as gain plenty of
opportunities for children to discover many new things (Cappelini, 2005). Cost of the trip
will be carried out by the class and lifestyles of customers.
TASK 3
3.1 Evaluating the impact of various types of ownership on the management of heritage and
cultural sites
Ample amount of revenue is injected by tourism and specifically by cultural and heritage
sites in the economy of nation. Further, both public and private bodies are intending to acquire
the ownership of heritage and cultural sites. However, most of the heritage sites are still managed
by government authorities and non-profit organizations while, some of them are managed by
private bodies (Girard and Nijkamp, 2009). Further, there is difference in the objective of these
bodies. Private bodies are mostly concerned about profitability while, public enterprise aims at
conserving heritage as they showcase the identity of nation. Further, non-profit organizations are
concerned about protecting the interest of society. However, the influence of various ownership
can be explained as follows:
 Public- Heritage properties under the control of government are provided much
protection from any kind of damage. Thereafter, various projects are taken by political
parties consistently to heighten the historical worth of various heritage sites. Main aim of
them is to boost tourism to use revenue in conservation of heritage sites.
 Private- Many times, private companies have control and ownership of heritage sites.
Main aim of them is to use heritage sites in attracting large number of tourist and increase
their profitability via expenditure done by tourism. Their main concern is profit
maximization rather than conservation of culture (Byrd, 2007).
 Collaboration- Presently, private and public bodies collaborate to enhance tourism by
safeguarding the heritage and cultural worth of historical destinations. For this aspect,
various rehabilitation projects have been adopted by these parties.
 Voluntary bodies: Local individuals or groups also aim at preserving heritage culture of
region to protect the interest of local business, society etc. Thereafter, various NGO
support local group in their actions. They willingly support the preservation of historical
monuments, buildings etc for the benefit of nation.
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Furthermore, various types of ownership are increasing competition between various
parties; public, and private. However, conflict of interest of these groups is constantly affecting
the tourism of UK (Serre and Chevalier, 2012).
3.2 Analyzing the roles and responsibility of organization in the heritage and cultural industry
There are large number of organizations that are concerned about the protection of
heritage and culture of UK for the best interest of country. The English Heritage and The
National Trust are among the leading organizations whose sole purpose is to conserve historical
monuments, buildings and cultural beauty of UK. Further, different roles and responsibility of
these organization can be explained as follows:
 English Heritage Trust: It is a charitable association that helps in preserving more than
400 historical sites to safeguard the heritage and cultural beauty of UK for the future
generation. Main aim of this body is to showcase the historical story of country to
existence for millions of tourist visiting the country (Kammeier, 2008). It looks after the
conservation of historical monuments, castles, gardens, forts existing for more than
historical 5000 years. Further, government of UK have given grant of £80 million so that
English Heritage can build separate trust that will look after the historical property. The
trust ensures investment in heritage sites so that historical tourism experience can be
provided to the present as well as future generation. It also helps in promoting heritage
tourism of England and encouraging walking tours to the listed 400 sites (UK tourism
statistics. 2014).
 The National Trust: It is also a charitable organization formed in 1894 with the main
concern of protecting and safeguarding the heritage and culture of England. Main aim of
this organization to preserve places having natural beauty (Murphy, 2013). Further, the
concern of body is to ensure preservation of historical places for ever and everybody. The
body has ownership over large number of natural places, heritage buildings, castles,
gardens and forts. It further provides membership to more than 4.2 million individuals so
that members of body can independently enter the property of National Trust which are
chargeable for the non-members (Xiaojian, 2012). Therefore, through membership
subscriptions, income is generated by trust which is further invested in the protection and
promotion of trust property. In addition to this, total income of trust is £494 million
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involving subscriptions, physical property and legacy (National trust. 2015). Further,
major regions served by National Trust comprises of England, Northern Ireland and
Wales. Main aim of these organization is to not only protect heritage of these regions
but also protect the interest of those tourist that visit these destinations specifically for
visiting historical and cultural sites.
Furthermore, to enhance the tourism interest of visitors, British government ascertains the
needs and preferences of tourists (Moutinho, 2011). For international visitors, guides and escorts
are provided so that they do not face language barriers in the UK. Thereafter, cultural shows or
events are organized to educate tourists about the cultural norms and values of the nation.
TASK 4
P4.1 Methods and media used for interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry for
tourists
Main methods include importance of interpretation which is given in form of feedback by
the old visitors of The British Museum and The Natural History Museum. New visitors of the
museum first check feedback given by the old visitors then visit to discover new things and
experience. When, museum has been opened the attendance of visitors of 5000 per year has been
increased to today's 6 million (Visit Britain, 2014). Museum is looking ahead to construct new
building projects i.e. World Conservation and Exhibition Centre and it already been awarded
with Carbon Trust Standard because of efforts for reducing carbon footmark. Now, customers
are visiting more to the museum and natural places to see ancient things and facts as well as
natural history of the museum (Roders and Oers, 2011). It is also focussing on the needs of
customers such as students who are coming for educational programmes to gain knowledge
while researchers are coming to discover new things about museum etc.
Media used for interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry for tourists
includes published material such as newspapers and magazines in which organisation can give
articles about heritage and culture. Audio-visual is also other media to interact with the
customers in which it considers television campaign, advertisements, radio and other
promotional activities (Xiaojian, 2012). For the direct interaction with the customers, industry
can put drama, role play in front of the customers. It can used interactive technology like social
media such as Facebook, Twitter etc. and other online websites in order to interact with
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customers and to know their suggestions. Other sensory technique can virtual reality etc. by
which customers can easily connected to the customers and take suggestions. Media is one of the
effective tools for the promotional activities as well as to attract large number of customers to
visit heritage and cultural places. The British Museum and The Natural History Museum use
these types of media to interact with customers, know its feedback, take suggestions from them
etc (Byrd, 2007).
Main objective of heritage and cultural industry is to meet the requirements of customers.
There are different types of customer’s needs i.e. language level which is the major problem for
the tourists. Customers which are coming outside the UK have problem of speaking English
language which is not understand by all of them and organization can remove this problem by
keeping translator in the team which will help them to get better experience (Park, 2014). When,
there are number of channels available then there is a possibility of mixed up and this can lead to
negative impact. So, company should use media effectively and to take more advantages from it
in order to attract more customers to visit historical monuments and its cultural places. There is
necessary to establish effective media interpretation among customers in order to interact with
the heritage and cultural industry because by only this, it will expand their business, its
profitability and market share in the market.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the entire report, it has been identified that heritage and culture tourism
plays a vital role in the growth and progress of present travel and tourism sector. Further, it is
significant for the country to ensure preservation of sites having historical and cultural worth for
present as well as future generation in its natural identity. Major rationale behind this is that
international visitors visit UK for getting knowledge about historical places, ethical norms and
cultural dialects. Further, destruction of heritage and culture may lead to the downfall of
international tourism. English heritage and National trust are some professional bodies that assist
in preserving heritage and cultural values of England. Conflict of interest of public and private
body can lead to issue in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources. Further, there are
different types of tourist that visit historical places for various reasons like, education, research
and entertainment.
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Chang, L. and et.al., 2014. Creative tourism: a preliminary examination of creative tourists’
motivation, experience, perceived value and revisit intention. International Journal of
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Edgell Sr, D. L., 2013. Managing sustainable tourism: a legacy for the future. Routledge.
Girard, L. F. and Nijkamp, P., 2009. Cultural tourism and sustainable local development.
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