Heritage Interpretation and Tourism: A Report on Three London Museums

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TOURISM AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
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TOURISM AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Concept of Heritage interpretation..................................................................................................3
Heritage interpretation in Tourism experience................................................................................4
Evaluation of the interactive approach in three Museums...............................................................6
Museum Of London.....................................................................................................................6
Science Museum..........................................................................................................................7
Imperial Museum of London.......................................................................................................8
Analysis of the different approaches of heritage interpretation.....................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Heritage is things or features of a particular place and time period that is related to the history of
that society and its culture (Park et al., 2019). It includes the languages, traditions, artifacts and
buildings of a place that has historical importance and was created in the past.
Tourism is referred to the business as well as the pleasure of accommodating, attracting and
attending tourists in a particular place. The place mainly has interesting elements that attract
people to the destination. It can be within both the country as well as international. It is a source
of leisure for people (Sharpley, 2018).
Heritage can be a source, which attracts a lot of tourists, and makes a destination a tourist spot.
Hence, they are co related. In this report, the concept of heritage interpretation will be discussed.
It will also discuss the tourism experience in context of heritage. They report will also highlight
the evaluation of interactive approaches in three well known museums in United Kingdom. They
are Museum of London, Science Museum and Imperial Museum of London. It will also provide
a detailed analysis on different approaches of heritage interpretation. Lastly, a conclusion of the
whole report will be provided.
Concept of Heritage interpretation
Heritage interpretation is referred to approach that is structured in nature. The approach is for
specialized non-formal knowledge and learning in communicating important ideas about a
destination and the people in it on leisure.
The culture of United Kingdom dates back and its deeply rooted to the long history of the place.
The heritage of United Kingdom is highly influenced by the elements of its countries like
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England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It is one of the oldest sovereign nations and hence has a
varied history. The major heritages are reflected through the British cuisine, British art and
literature, British theatre and music, British sports and leisure, British Religion, British fashion
and the worldwide famous British language.
The British cuisine has certain specific traditions and methods of cooking. These are related to
constituent countries of the place. High tea is a very important part of the culture of British. The
British culture has amazing art pieces and art history. They have has works of very talented
artists like John Constable and William Blake. It contains a history of different art movements in
history. UK is also very rich in the context of literature (Ashworth, 2017). The literature is
mainly in Old English and Celtic languages. The British literature has gifted us famous writers
like William Shakespeare, John Milton, J.K. Rowling and Geoffrey Chaucer. They have created
an impact through their writings all over the globe.
UK has also been very prominent in theatre culture. The Theatre Royal located in Westminster
is one of the oldest known theatres in Europe existing from the 17th century. Italian Opera is a
very famous and respected type of music all over the world. It has also pioneered new age music
like rock and pop and gifted us bands like Beatles. UK has a major contribution in the
development of essential and popular sports like football, tennis and golf. The most famous
fashion type of the world is the Victorian fashion. The inception of this took place here. English
is an internationally accepted language and the best thing United Kingdom has gifted the world
(Phelps and Ashworth, 2017).
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Heritage interpretation in Tourism experience
Heritage is a concept that developed in the multicultural society that is mainly focused on the
cultural aspects of a particular society in a prominent manner. In the words of Waterton, and
Watson, (2015), the UK heritage has helped in the development of the UK tourism industry by
almost 15%. The tourist who loves to enjoy the cultural background of the country should visit
the UK as it has a rich culture consisting of different work of art culture and scientific
breakthrough those are preserved in an effective and efficient manner in the Museums.
According to the data of UK, the heritage interpretation helps to generate more than almost 10 %
of total tourism revenue in the UK in a prominent way (Fu, Kim, and Zhou, 2015). The central
role of Heritage is to motivate tourist in an efficient manner to visit the United Kingdom and
especially London to enjoy the beautiful cultural heritage. The profit margin of the tourism
sector has enhanced form 375.3million to almost 400 million due to the impact of cultural
interpretation.
The heritage of the UK includes wonderful art and literature that helps to attract tourism in an
efficient manner. Moreover, sustainable tourism includes the concept of heritage and its
preservation in the Museum in an effective manner. The Museums that are present in London
includes the imperial museum where the instruments and artilleries different sophisticated
instruments of war keep as a heritage that enhances the attraction of the tourists by almost 10 %.
Moreover, in the words of Leanza et al., (2016), the rich cultural heritage of the UK is included
in the invention of scientific machines that lead to the industrial revolution. The London science
museum preserves the heritage steam engine of Stephenson; the prototypes of the clock now are
preserved in the museum that attracts the consumers in an effective manner. Moreover, one of
the most important things is the cultural heritage of UK is interpreted in a beautiful manner by a
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perfect presentation that adds value to the heritage or cultural tourism in the UK in a prominent
way.
Evaluation of the interactive approach in three Museums
Museum Of London
The Museum of London contains the history of London, the capital city of United Kingdom. It
has history ranging from the prehistoric to modern times. It focuses on the social history of the
city. It is well known for having the largest collection of urban history in the world. They have
about six million objects in display. The museum depicts the story of London from the 1666
Great fire until the current time.
The museum displays the grand State Coach of Lord Mayor. It also exhibits the Georgian
Pleasure gardens, Debtors prison cells and the puppet stars Andy Pandy and Bill and Ben. The
museum has a Victorian walk that has designed shops, roads and public building of 1850s to
1940s. It also has highlighted places displaying West End, World Wars and Suffragettes.
Another section of the museum displays the punk era. It displays the contemporary London.
They display different clothes like Mary Quant dresses, Bondage trousers and many more. The
Sackler hall of the Museum of London has elliptical curtains that are LED (Whitehead, 2017).
This is used for displaying the works of young directors.
The various walks like the Victorian walk, guides, interactive shows that gives out knowledge
about the various objects and shows help in interacting great deal of knowledge about the
heritage and history of London and United Kingdom as whole.
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Fig 1: Museum of London
(Source: Shaw, 2017)
Science Museum
The Science Museum situated in London was found in 1857 and is 162 years in age. It is
considered one of major tourist spot in the world attracting over 3.3 million people annually. The
unique feature of this museum is that it does not charge any fee of entrance. This encourages
more people to visit the place and gain knowledge about the heritage of United Kingdom.
The museum holds over a collection of 300,000 items. Out of them, the very famous few items
are the Stephenson’s Rockets, Puffing Billy, model of DNA and many more. It also contains the
documentation of the first typewriter in the world. The museum also has a collection of things
related to the history of medicals.
The science museum organizes an event called the science night every year. Children are
specially invited in this event so that they can gain more knowledge about the science
developments in past and present taking place in UK (Cbe, 2018). It includes performing of
science-based activities and then the children sleep in the galleries of the museum in between the
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various displays of artifacts. In the morning, they are served breakfast and the event ends with a
sciebnce-based movie. The place has various events every month, along with daily shows and
displays that encourage and gives out knowledge about various aspects like history, art, space
and many more that are a part of the history as well as present of UK.
Fig 2: Science Museum, London
(Source: Humphrey and Gutwill, 2017)
Imperial Museum of London
Heritage interpretation is one of the most important concepts to maintain cultural and sustainable
tourism in an effective and efficient manner in the UK. In the words of Naef, and Ploner (2016),
the cultural heritage or the knowledge that is present should be comprehended by the tourist to
developing a feeling of love and attraction towards the place in a prominent manner. The
interactive approach includes the exploration and the communication with the tourist that is done
in an effective manner in the Imperial war museum of London to incorporate the values of the
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heritage in the tourist in an efficient manner. The Imperial Museum of London is mainly
developed to preserve the imperial history and war history of England.
The museum uses an interactive approach that includes guides who interprets the valuable war
history of England. The museum mainly includes the different weapons and the artilleries of the
first and the 2nd world war that were used at that time. The museum has a pictorial guided
approach that helps the tourist to learn about the rich imperial history of the UK. This adds to the
flavor of cultural tourism and enhances the number of tourist in the museum according to the
data the visitors in the Imperial Museum of the UK has increased by almost 15 %. The main
reason for an increment is the guided tour and video graphic approach to narrating the history of
War by describing the use of the weapons in a multilingual system to avoid language barrier
(Lai, and Ooi, 2015). This creates a different level of interest within the tourist and helps in the
conservation of the heritage and portraying it as a tourist attraction to enhance revenue by almost
10 %. There is the presence of aircraft, and different boats and missiles used in the First and
Second World War and the presentation is done in an efficient manner so that the tourist may get
attracted to the imperial history of UK (Imperial War Museums. 2019). One of the most
important approaches that are used in the museum is the display of the different mechanism of
the aircraft and that enhances the heritage sense and tourist attraction in a detailed way.
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Fig: Display in the Imperial Museum of London
(Source: Imperial War Museums, 2019)
Analysis of the different approaches of heritage interpretation
In the opinion of Scarles Casey and Treharne, (2016), the most important approach that may
enhance the tourist attraction is the implementation of multilingual guides in the museum that
should help in different tourist to understand the rich heritage of UK in these three museums in
an efficient manner. The language barrier may be mitigated in an efficient manner. On the other
hand, in the opinion of Reddy, and Wilkes (2015), the visual approach is one of the best
interactive approaches as the attraction level of the tourist is enhanced by showing explanatory
videos of the different heritage in different language in a prominent manner. According to the
statistics, the video and explanatory approach of interpretation of the heritage of the UK in the
three museums has yielded more tourists by almost 5% compared to the concept of the tourist
guide. Moreover, one of the most efficient concepts is the demonstration of the machinery and
concept of science especially in the science museum that portrays the rich scientific knowledge.
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This kind of heritage interpretation should attract scholars from all over the globe to visit the
museums of London and enhance sustainable heritage tourism in the UK.
Conclusion
This report dealt with the explanation of the concept of heritage in the cultural and social accepts
and its relation to tourism. UK tourism is using the heritage interpretation approach to enhance
the number of tourist in the country. The London Museum, the imperial museum, and science
museums use different approaches like a guided tour, video graphics to attract the consumers in a
prominent manner. Moreover, the multilingual systems are present that mitigates the language
barrier, promotes cultural tourism, and interprets effectively the rich heritage of the UK.
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References
Ashworth, G.J., 2017. The construction of built heritage: a north European perspective on
policies, practices and outcomes. Routledge.
Cbe, G.T., 2018. Museum environment. Routledge.
Fu, Y., Kim, S. and Zhou, T., 2015. Staging the ‘authenticity’of intangible heritage from the
production perspective: the case of craftsmanship museum cluster in Hangzhou, China. Journal
of Tourism and Cultural Change, 13(4), pp.285-300.
Humphrey, T. and Gutwill, J.P., 2017. Fostering active prolonged engagement: The art of
creating APE exhibits. Routledge.
Imperial War Museums. (2019). Imperial War Museums. [online] Available
at: https://www.iwm.org.uk/[Accessed 27 Apr. 2019].
Lai, S. and Ooi, C.S., 2015. Branded as a World Heritage city: The politics afterwards. Place
Branding and Public Diplomacy, 11(4), pp.276-292.
Leanza, P., Porto, S., Sapienza, V. and Cascone, S., 2016. A heritage interpretation-based
itinerary to enhance tourist use of traditional rural buildings. Sustainability, 8(1), p.47.
Naef, P. and Ploner, J., 2016. Tourism, conflict and contested heritage in former
Yugoslavia. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 14(3), pp.181-188.
Park, E., Choi, B.K. and Lee, T.J., 2019. The role and dimensions of authenticity in heritage
tourism. Tourism Management, 74, pp.99-109.
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