Heritage and Tourism: The Rocks, Sydney - A Comprehensive Study

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of heritage tourism at The Rocks in Sydney, Australia. It explores the transition of The Rocks from an indigenous landscape to a popular heritage tourism site, highlighting its historical significance, cross-cultural encounters, and the government's conservation efforts. The document examines the economic contributions of tourism to Sydney, the increasing number of visitors, and the importance of preserving the cultural and architectural significance of the area. It also discusses the roles of tourism in heritage conservation, the impact of tourism industry modifications, and the rise of dark tourism. The analysis covers the factors influencing dark tourism, including media promotion, infrastructure development, and motivations of visitors. It also addresses the ethical considerations and challenges in managing tourism in the area, emphasizing the need for proper planning and policies to ensure sustainable heritage tourism.

HERITAGE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................4
Part 3..........................................................................................................................................5
Reference list..............................................................................................................................7
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Part 1
a) In the history of The Rock, it can be seen that a transition has happened from indigenous
landscape to a heritage tourism site at present. This place is carrying out the historical culture
that is worth to be shown to the next generations. This place has experienced a cross-cultural
encounter of European settlers and aboriginal people. As opined by Suswandari (2017), this
place is being considered as an important focal location that is connecting city, colonial,
maritime histories and continental concept. At present, government authorities are taking
initiatives to conserve heritage of this place. Tourism of the rock is contributing to the
economy of Sydney and it is the main reason behind interest of government to conserve the
integrity of this heritage place. Total visitors of this place have increased from 2.5 million in
2015 to 2.8 million in 2018 (Destinationnsw.com.au, 2018), as it is a commercial heart of the
city, many people are earning from taking part in tourism of this place. The Rock has become
a high tourism site and people from all over the world are visiting this place. It has become a
popular tourist destination and this tradition must be conserved. As mentioned by Holder and
Ruhanen (2017), its tourism industry changes anything in heritage site both potentially
positive and negative consequences must be evaluated. It means that The Rock is a perfect
tourist destination at present and changes must include making it more attractive to tourists
without harming the integrity of its heritage.
Domestic and international demand of The Rock is making it unique and heritage tourism of
this place must be maintained. In 2018, the total number of visitors to the Rock was near
about 1.5 million (Destinationnsw.com.au, 2018). More than 35% of international visitors
have spent one night in this place. This statistic is showing interest of international travelers
towards this place. It has been found that people from the UK, China, New Zealand, and
Japan are showing interest in visiting the Rock. In addition, more than 32% of French traveler
and 25% of travelers from Taiwan have visited this place in 2018 (Shfa.nsw.gov.au, 2018).
Visitors of all ages are visiting this place to know its cultural background and historical
values. Moreover, globally tourism industry is flourishing and need for more tourists spots is
increasing. Therefore, it is essential to preserve the cultural and architectural significance of
the rock and improve its infrastructure to gain more revenue in future.
The above statistics show that popularity of the rock as a heritage tourism site is growing
rapidly and it did not need any further change. However, for elevating the tourism demands
of this cultural and dark heritage site it is essential to bring some change in basic
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infrastructure and other facilities. Tourism and transport forum of Australia believes that The
Rock is a main attraction of tourism due to its cultural and architectural importance. Hence, it
is essential to do proper finding for changing and developing infrastructure in this city.
Part 2
b) Conservation of heritage sites is important as it helps to conserve and carry out old culture.
However, initiatives taken by government alone cannot conserve heritages sites. Cooperation
from different levels of society is required. More source of funding can help this process to
be continued. According to Fang et al. (2016), transforming heritage sites to tourist spots
helps in gathering funds for conserving the heritage. However, tourism industry plays both
positive and negative roles in conserving heritage sites. Tourism industry tries to attract
travelers towards heritage sites and try to earn maximum profit. It is good for the growth of
the country's economy and it is considered as one of the sources of funding to conserve
heritage sites. However, organizations of tourism industry make changes in the heritage sites
to make it more attractive to tourists. This kind of modifications cheapens the original culture
of heritage site. For example, The Rock is blessed with unique architectural style and it is a
superior factor that tends to attract maximum tourists towards this place. As argued by
Hingtgen et al. (2015), changes in the historical architecture damage the historic value of
heritage places. If tourism industry makes changes in building in this place, it will surely
damage the integrity of the heritage.
Government authorities try to protect and restore heritage building by taking many initiatives.
Tourism industry may change existing architecture for making it more attractive and that may
damage the integrity of that place. The rock has a dark side and it is the main area of
attraction for tourists. As stated by García et al. (2015), many people connected with the
tourism industry tell false stories to foreign tourists. They try to make realm stories more
interesting. However, this action cannot be considered ethical as it changes the real cultural
history. Those people do not bother that their false stories can be spread worldwide by
tourists and it is potential to affect the integrity of heritage site negatively. On the other hand,
it can be noticed that illegal activities are increasing day by day on tourist spots. The rock is
transforming into a better place and this is the main reason behind thinking of transforming
this place a heritage site. It has become easier to stay anonymous at tourist spots and this
aspect is allowing commencement of many criminal activities in tourist spots. As suggested
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by Baum (2015), the tourism industry must be more careful about handling tourists and must
maintain ethics to conserve the integrity of heritage places.
It is the duty of both government and society to protect heritage sites to showcase these sites
to next generations. Tourism increase expense of living in heritage sites and old residents
face trouble to live their life. Many old communities shift to other places and it is a potential
loss of tourism industry as well. Old residents have experienced cultural change and they are
the witnesses of history. Presence of these people is an important part of heritage tourism.
Hence, cooperation from local residents, trade unions, government, and tourism industry is
required to protect the integrity of heritage sites.
Part 3
b) The term of dark tourism has been incorporated by Foley and Lennon in 1996. It can be
defined as product of circumstances related to late modern world. In can be considered as an
intimation of post-modernity and in this case, death is rendered or mediated to make less
threatening and can be made suitable for consuming. There are different factors that impact in
rising of dark tourism. As stated by Light (2017), national tourist organizations and other tour
operations have focused on promotion of dark tourist sites. They promote dark sites and helps
in increasing popularity of these places. They use different media for increasing popularity of
dark tourism. In Sydney, there are different tour operators that manage tourism in "The Rock"
at Sydney. Different attractive advertisements in social media and other blogs and sites create
a thrust among visitors regarding the dark site. Moreover, Gmelch and Kaul (2018)
contradicted that media is a great factor that influence rise of dark tourism places. Different
attractive blogs and electronic media project image of dark places by providing different
about dark history of that place. For example, terrorist attack on 9th November in USA twin
building, which is now popularly known as ground zero. In addition, media also projects the
unique architectural design at "The rock", Sydney and bubonic plague at this place in 1900.
Moreover, development in infrastructure and site-specific characteristics acts as a major
factor in rising of dark tourism places (Podoshen et al. 2015). Unique architectural style and
rich history act as a driving force to attract visitors from different places. These pull factors
that attract visitors and helps in rising of a dark tourist place. In addition, motivation acts as
push factors that attract tourists towards a place with dark history. As opined by Powell and
Kennell (2016), a part of new generation visitor are searchers instead of tourists. They prefer
to acquire knowledge about history and culture of a place. This also helps in increasing
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popularity of dark tourism places. Emotions like humility and gratitude also act as
motivations for tourists to visit a dark tourism place.
Factors like operations of tour operators and media are difficult to manage in this competitive
age. They may adopt unethical practices to attract tourists in a dark place. For making a place
more attractive they may concentrate on dark incidents rather than focusing on rich cultural
history of that place. Government's policies are essential to managing operations of tour
operators. Moreover, infrastructure and other facilities need to be provided by local
government for attracting tourists. Improper policies and poor planning can impact on this
tourism and it is hard to manage. In addition, excess tourism pressure can impact on basic
infrastructure like waste management. Hence, it is essential to make proper planning for
managing infrastructure of this dark site. Negative publicity decreases image of a place that
is done in many articles and blogs. Highlighting the dark phase impacts on emotions of
people, this is also difficult to manage properly.
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Reference list
Baum, T., 2015. Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change?–A 2015 reprise.
Tourism Management, 50, pp.204-212.
Destinationnsw.com.au (2018), The rocks visitor profile, available at
https://www.destinationnsw.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-Rocks-Visitor-Profile-
YE-Dec-2018.pdf?x15361 [Accessed on 5th June 2019]
Fang, B., Ye, Q. and Law, R., 2016. Effect of sharing economy on tourism industry
employment. Annals of Tourism Research, 57(3), pp.264-267.
García, F.A., Vázquez, A.B. and Macías, R.C., 2015. Resident's attitudes towards the impacts
of tourism. Tourism Management Perspectives, 13, pp.33-40.
Gmelch, S.B. and Kaul, A., 2018. Tourists and tourism: A reader. Waveland Press.
Hingtgen, N., Kline, C., Fernandes, L. and McGehee, N.G., 2015. Cuba in transition:
Tourism industry perceptions of entrepreneurial change. Tourism Management, 50, pp.184-
193.
Holder, A. and Ruhanen, L., 2017. Identifying the relative importance of culture in
Indigenous tourism experiences: netnographic evidence from Australia. Tourism Recreation
Research, 42(3), pp.316-326.
Light, D., 2017. Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship
with heritage tourism. Tourism Management, 61, pp.275-301.[Online] available
at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517717300092 [Accessed on 5th
June 2019]
Podoshen, J.S., Venkatesh, V., Wallin, J., Andrzejewski, S.A. and Jin, Z., 2015. Dystopian
dark tourism: An exploratory examination. Tourism Management, 51, pp.316-328.
Powell, R., and Kennell, J., 2016. Dark cities? Developing a methodology for researching
dark tourism in European cities. In Tourism and Culture in the Age of Innovation (pp. 303-
319). Springer, Cham.
Shfa.nsw.gov.au (2018), significance of the rock, available
athttp://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-About_us-Heritage_role-
Heritage_and_Conservation_Register.htm&objectid=170 [Accessed on 5th June 2019]
Suswandari, S., 2017. Ternate Historical Site as an Object Based Education for Sustainable
Development. Journal of Education, Teaching and Learning, 2(2), pp.151-163.
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