Tourism and Heritage Management Essay: Museum and Cultural Attractions

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Tourism and Heritage Management
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Table of Contents
Assessment 1: Essay........................................................................................................................3
Assessment 2: Project Report........................................................................................................10
Reference List................................................................................................................................25
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Assessment 1: Essay
Title: Using academic literature and examples, discuss the role of museum and cultural
attractions for tourism.
Introduction
This report will have the discussion of the different heritage sites like Museum of London,
Science Museum, Tate Modern, Dulwich Picture Gallery, National Gallery, and British Museum.
The role of these heritage sites in creating heritage importance will also be deduced. Museum Of
London is situated in the city of London on the London Wall. It is one of the city’s most visited
heritage site and it is absolutely free for the tourists to visit it. Science Museum of London is
located on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was inaugurated in 1857 and today
it is the city’s major tourist attraction. Tate Modern is a house of four art galleries in the United
Kingdom. All these sites have great heritage importance and a lot of foreign tourists come to
visit these sites.
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Main Body
Museum of London
Museums are the institutions that conserve the artefacts and things of cultural importance.
Museum of London has been established in the year 1976 (museumoflondon.org.uk, 2019). The
director of this museum is Sharon Ament and the number of visitors as per recorded in the year
2018 has been 694,596 (alva.org.uk, 2018). This is located in the London, United Kingdom
nearby the Barbican Centre. This museum is a tourist attraction as it has largest collection of
urban history as recorded in the year 2016; it has been observed that it has above six million
objects to attract the visitors (Kennedy, 2016). It has doubled the number of visitors by moving
from barbican to nearby the historic market. The area selected for the museum is crowded thus;
the numbers of visitors will be high. This museum assists the country by enhancing its economic
aspect as it contributes to generate profit from the visitors. It displays the culture and history to
the visitors with the objects that reveal the stories of the globe and present the sense of the place.
The Museum of London has the role of attracting tourists from various countries as it consists of
the galleries that contain models, artefacts, diagrams, and pictures. It presents the archaeological
discoveries such as urban development, city as well as the cultural and social life of the London
(Tucker, 2016). People of every age are attracted to this museum because of its interactive
exhibits. It attracts the tourists from the fragments of the London Wall even from outside the
building. This museum has the cafes as well as a restaurant that enable the tourists to have their
fill inside the campus of museum. There is provision for lockers that the tourists can use to store
their valuable things while visiting every corner of the museum. There is also facility of free Wi-
Fi that is free of cost for the tourists. These facilities of the museum attract the tourists every year
and enhance the prospect of tourism industry of the country. The museum has the facility for the
disabled people that the users can use such as wheelchairs.
Science Museum
Science Museum is an incredible museum that highlights the implausible age of information.
This museum is a shrine to the technology that consists of amazing objects such as steam
engines, super-computers, cars, rockets and many other things to display. Science Museum has
above 15,000 objects (sciencemuseum.org.uk, 2019). This museum has been established in the
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year 1857 and has location in London, UK. The number of visitors as in the year 2017 has been
3,251,000 (alva.org.uk, 2017). Ian Blatchford is the directors of the museum. This museum is a
part of National Museum of Science and industry. Science museum attracts the tourists from
different regions of the world through its equipment and models from the 18th Century to the
Victorian engineering and the space and aeroplanes of 20th Century. Science Museum also has a
library that contains early books, periodicals and manuscripts. The tourist attractions include
steam locomotive, DNA helix plus, other attractive objects (forbes.com, 2019).
Figure 1: DNA helix plus
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(Source: sciencemuseum.org.uk, 2019)
The most visited objects of the museum are Iron Lung, Black Arrow Rocket, Mill engine, and
such astonishing things (timeout.com, 2015). The collection of Clockmakers displays the antique
watches and clocks that date in between the 1600s to 1850s. Science Museum also has the IMAX
cinema that shows scientific movies. The Dana Centre provides free lectures to the adults on
contemporary issues related to science. The gallery of Flight includes helicopters and aeroplanes,
aero-engines and fighters that are tourist attractions for the flight lovers. The chronological
gallery of Exploring Space contains the rockets and parades the exploration of space by human
beings. It also demonstrates the advantages of space exploration in telecommunications. Thus, it
is the tourist attractions for the science lovers as well as for the schools and universities’ trip. The
gallery of Art of Medicine displays the practices of the ancient days and has the collection of
objects form bioscience, public health, and clinical medicine. It displays the medical instruments
used in the ancient period before the advent of science.
Tate Modern
Cultural tourist attractions include art galleries, cultural events, monuments, historical places,
and others. Tate Modern has been formed in the year 2000 nearby the Bankside of the United
Kingdom. The number of visitors in the year 2017 has been approximately 5,656,004
(alva.org.uk, 2017). It has ranked 2nd that year nationally for its large number of visitors after the
British Museum. At present, its director is Frances Morris. This art gallery exhibits modern
culture of international regions (tate.org.uk, 2019). The collection of this museum has British art
from the year 1900 to present that consists of the contemporary as well as international modern
art. In the year 2018, it has attracted 5.8 million people or visitors surpassing even the record of
British Museum (bbc.com, 2019). This tourist attraction displays cultural value through the
galleries of art. The galleries consist of renowned artists like Picasso, Rothko, Miro, and others
(Morpeth and Long, 2016). The layout of the galleries includes material gestures that comprise
of the sculpture and painting from 1940s to 1950s.
Major works from Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, and others attract the tourists. The poetry and
dream collection include surrealistic arts while the states of flux have collection of modern
century movements that features Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso among others. The art
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collection has been generated from more than 50 countries. The temporary exhibitions include
the Turbine Hall, Tanks, Project Space, and others.
There are also several shops selling merchandises, prints, ad books. The building comprises of a
cafe, restaurant, and room of members. There is also a community garden in the campus of the
Tate Modern.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in South London. The innovative and influential
method of illumination was used by Sir John Soane to design this art gallery. It is the one of the
oldest art gallery in London as it was opened to public in 1817 and later it was made an
independent charitable trust (Chatterjee and Camic, 2015). This gallery organises a lot of public
exhibitions. In order to make the tourists find themselves in art the gallery has adopted a vision
to make the gallery’s future as a welcoming and vibrant hub. It wants to connect people with
paintings and the creativity and contemplation. The gallery offers free access for children who
include entry for temporary running exhibitions, displays and collections. The gallery also
organise a number of activities for all age groups. The main access to the art gallery is through
the primary entrance from College Road and the exit is via the shop onto the Gallery Road.
The good thing about this gallery is that all areas within the gallery are all on one level. The
facility of cloakroom is also available and can be left at the owner’s risk. The tourists can gain
access to the folding portable stools by asking the staff members (Bromwell, 2018). There are
benches throughout the garden and in the exhibition place for the tourists to have a wonderful
heritage experience. The tourists are welcomed to bring packed foods and the people can have a
nice time with their family on the picnic grounds. The gallery also has a cafe which includes
children’s menu along with a bookshop inside the gallery. During the opening time the gallery is
at its quietest and especially during weekends. There are also facilities for the disabled people are
the tourist can gain access to wheelchairs as it is especially kept for them. The facilities at the
Dulwich Art Gallery create an amazing heritage experience for the tourists as it welcomes a lot
foreign tourists as well.
National Gallery
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National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster in Central
London. This gallery was established in 1824 and houses a collection of over 2400 pictures. This
gallery is completely charitable and a non-public body. The collections inside the gallery belong
to the government on behalf of the British public and the entry inside the gallery is completely
free of cost. Since its establishment the gallery has become one of the most visited museums in
the world. (Whitehead, 2017). The early directors of the shaped the initial purchase of the
gallery.
The museum work hard to maintain a world class visiting experience and continues to attract
new visitors. It provides a lot of facilities for the visitors. The relationship between the museums
and tourism is of great importance. The museum is under pressure to improve their social value
and its importance towards tourism. The increased of demand heritage interpretation is also
increasing. The gallery is using modern technologies to provide information on exhibitions,
ticket availability, opening hours and the prices. The audiences have a strong link with tourism.
The role of tourism is to inform and educate the visitors about the culture and the history of a
city. National gallery is equipped with a lot of facilities to help the tourists have a wonderful
visiting experience (Brook, 2016). It has installed lifts and escalators for the tourist to feel
comfortable while seeing around the gallery. This brings quality and economic benefits to the
visitors.
British Museum
British Museum is located at the Bloomsbury area of London in the United Kingdom. This
museum is a public organisation and it completely dedicated to the people of London. There is a
collection of more than nine million works and currently it is the largest that exists. It was
inaugrated in 1753 which largely has collections of Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.
This museum was first opened in 1759 in Montagu House. The library department was detached
from the British Museum but it still has a separate reading room and a British Library. It is non-
departmental public body (Home, 2016). The museum was established on 7 June 1753 by King
George.
The Museum has the collection of the most ancient things in the world. The museum’s vision is
to motivate the visitors and other users of the Museum and it also helps the users of the museum
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to have enjoyed the collections inside the museum. The aim of the museum is to continuously
improve the quality of the tourist’s experience. It also deepens the opportunities for the tourists
to explore the collections. The museum also aims at improving the facilities for cultural
endeavour. The close alignment between the museums curatorial objectives and the public
programmes is also the responsibility of the museum.
The museum uses new marketing strategies to attract more tourists. The staffs of the museum are
very welcoming and ensure safety for all the tourists. The normal entrance for the museum is
absolutely free but sometimes organises cultural events and exhibitions which is chargeable.
There are guide dogs which makes sure that there is complete safety inside the museum. The
tourists can gain access to different guide books available inside the museum which contains
information about all the collections present inside it (Hoogwaerts, 2016). Since the museum is
spread over a large area the tourists can gain access to motorised vehicles to look around the
museum by booing it in advance. This way the museums create a wonderful experience for the
tourists and create a hassle free tourism experience.
Conclusion
It can be deduced from the task presented above that the role of cultural attractions such as art
galleries and museum has been explained in attracting the tourists. The examples of some
famous art galleries and museums have been provided that are located in London to carry out the
project. Museums such as British Museum, Science Museum, and Museum of London have been
presented along with their features. Some art galleries have been discussed such as National
Gallery, Tate Modern, and Dulwich Picture Gallery that reveals the art of renowned artists all
over the world.
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Assessment 2: Project Report
Title: Heritage interpretation as part of the tourism experience. Evaluate the different
interactive approaches through which heritage was interpreted at each of the sites visited.
Introduction
The present report will have interpretation of the heritage of the United Kingdom that will
include some museums and art galleries. The examples of Museum of London, Tate Modern, and
Science Museum have been taken to conduct the report. The cultural tractions will be discussed
in the context of the tourist experience in these sites. The role of the interpretation will be
explained that can influence the visitors or tourists of the place.
Heritage interpretation
The activity of revealing the relationship and value by using the objects to communicate the
information is called heritage interpretation.
Role of Interpretation and Impact on the Visitors
Interpretation has the role of stimulating interest as well as promoting learning of the visitors so
that they would enjoy visiting the place and get satisfaction in this activity. It is an educational
function for sustainability in tourism.
Museum of London
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Figure 2: Museum of London
(Source: museumoflondon.org.uk, 2019)
The primary focus of the Museum of London is presentation of the social history of the city of
London and the native people throughout different eras. The visitor of this particular cultural
heritage site has the learning experience through the urban collection that has been comprising of
more than six million things of attractions.
The story of London is told here through the galleries that consist of the artefacts from
prehistoric regions to the modern era. The design of the museum is innovative, as the architect's
Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell have designed the museum in which the galleries are laid out.
There is one route through the palace.
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Figure 3: Inside view of the Museum of London
(Source: museumoflondon.org.uk, 2019)
The exhibition space has been enlarged by 25% that has been able to show around seven
thousand objects. There are pleasure gardens and facility of lift. As observed from the map of the
museum, the ground floor or level 1 has the city gallery, garden court, and other facilities and
amenities like cloakroom, restaurants, cafes, and washrooms. The level 1 or first floor has
Weston theatre while the third floor has archaeological places, new acquisitions, and Roman
London as well as Medieval London artefacts.
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