Heritage & Cultural Tourism: Growth, Conflicts, Management & Impact

This assignment delves into the heritage and cultural tourism industry, focusing on its growth, development, and inherent conflicts. It highlights the significant contribution of heritage tourism to the UK's economy, with millions of tourists visiting historical and natural sites annually. The report explores conflicts arising from tourism in destinations like Venice and Barcelona, emphasizing the negative impacts on local societies and ecologies. It examines the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting diverse customer needs, using the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum as case studies. Furthermore, the assignment analyzes the impact of different ownership types (public, private, voluntary) on the management of heritage sites, and discusses the roles and responsibilities of various organizations within the industry, including funding, legislative implementation, and technological advancements.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
LO1...................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HERITAGE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRY...................4
POSTER.............................................................................................................................................5
1.2 CONFLICTS IN THE CONSERVATION OF HERITAGE AND CULTURAL RESOURCES.................7
LO2.................................................................................................................................................10
2.1 PURPOSE OF HERITAGE AND CULTURAL ATTRACTIONS IN MEETING THE NEEDS OF
DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS................................................................................................................10
LO3.................................................................................................................................................13
3.1 IMPACT OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF OWNERSHIP ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HERITAGE AND
CULTURAL SITES.............................................................................................................................13
3.2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF ORGANISATIONS IN THE HERITAGE AND CULTURAL
INDUSTRY.......................................................................................................................................15
LEAFLET......................................................................................................................................15
LO4.................................................................................................................................................17
4.1 MEDIA USED FOR INTERPRETATION WITHIN THE HERITAGE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRY.....17
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................20
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INTRODUCTION
Heritage and culture tourism has a major contribution to the UK's economy. Last year, domestic
and overseas tourists made over 200 million trips to various natural and historic heritage sites
of UK. According to a study conducted by Heritage Lottery Fund, heritage sites like Tower of
London, Edinburgh Castle and Westminster Abbey are attracting huge revenues for the UK
economy and there has been a continuous increase in the number of international tourists
every year (Ashworth, et al. 2013).
The current assignment highlights the growth and development of the heritage and cultural
tourism industry over the years and the purpose of the visitors for visiting these tourist
destinations. The assignment also highlights the conflicts in the heritage and cultural tourism in
the tourist destinations like Venice in Italy and Barcelona in Spain. These tourist destinations
are experiencing a negative impact of these travel and tourism activities on their society and
ecology (Hiltunen, et al. 2013).
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LO1
1.1 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HERITAGE AND CULTURAL
INDUSTRY
Heritage is the places of historic importance, archaeological sites, sculptures or monuments.
Heritage also includes natural landscapes, forests, national parks, wildlife and natural habitats.
The culture of a country, traditional dances, music, costumes, myths, legends, foods are also
included in the heritage of a country (Iossa, et al. 2015).
These heritage sites are a great wealth of the UK and genuine efforts should be made to
preserve these ancient and natural sites. These sites are also a medium to introduce the history
and culture of the country to the present generation.
The UK has a large number of heritage sites, millions of tourists visit the UK to experience these
beautiful sites of art and culture and natural beauty. The UK is the fifth most visited tourist
destination in the world. There are 31 UNESCO world heritage sites in the UK, like Giant's
Causeway Coast, Cathedral and The ruins of Fountain's Abbey. The recent addition in the list is
Lake District in London.
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POSTER
NATURAL SITES
Natural sites include the coastline, forests, wildlife and other natural habitats. The natural
heritage sites in the UK include the Inaccessible islands, Giant’s Causeway and Causeway
Coast.Durham coast is the home to a large variety of flora and fauna and the seabirds.
CULTURAL HERITAGE
Cultural heritage is the songs, dances, food, stories and myths that existed in the past and are
present in the life and culture of the people for a long time. These cultural identities are a part
of country’s most important wealth and need to be preserved for the upcoming generations
(KolarandZabkar, 2010).
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CONSTRUCTED SITES
These are manmade siteswhichinclude the historic buildings, museums, monuments and
archaeological sites. Edinburg and London have a number of such traditional sites like Tower of
London in England and castle and festival organized at Edinburg.
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1.2 CONFLICTS IN THE CONSERVATION OF HERITAGE AND CULTURAL
RESOURCES
VENICE
Venice is a world famous tourist destination
for its art and culture and beautiful homes
surrounded by water. It has a number of
tourist attractions like La Sagrada church,
Ponte degli Scalzi, and Ponte di
Calatrava.The three bridges while crossing
river Novo is one of the main tourist
attractions at Venice.
Figure: Venice
[Source:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-
do/venice-italy]
REASONS FOR CONFLICT
The present conflict in the travel and
tourism industry is the over tourism that
has created environmental problems in the
ecosystem of the city. Due to the increased
popularity of the city through movies and
media, foreign tourists are buying homes in
the city which has exorbitantly increased
the prices of property in the city and the
local people are moving out to the city to
countryside areas which provide more
affordable accommodation.
Every day, an estimated 90,000 tourists are
present around the streets and canals of
Venice. This figure far exceeds the
population of local residents which is
50,000. The local residents are getting tired
of looking at the sea of tourists on daily
basis, clicking pictures of everything and
everyone. This is the reason a number of
local residents chose to flee the city.
The fragile canal system of Venice is
experiencing a great pressure due to
movement of a large number of cruise ships
and boats. These activities are affecting the
delicate structure of the city and the local
people have started protests to regulate
these tourism activities in the city. In 2013
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the large cruise ships were banned from
entering the city.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the most visited tourist
destination in Spain. The great artworks
ofAntoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i
Montaner, are included in the UNESCO
world heritage sites. The city also hosts
anumber of international sports events.
Barcelona is known for its beautiful beaches
and there are a large number of beach bars
around these beaches which attracts
millions of tourists every year (Bakıcı, et al.
2013).
Figure: Barcelona
[Source:
https://www.happycow.net/blog/vegan-
in-barcelona/]
An anti-tourism campaign ‘Tourists go
home’ was started by the youths of
Barcelona in August 2017. The tourism
activities have caused overcrowding and the
city and recent years alarge number of new
hotels and restaurants opened in the city.
The locals are experiencing a problem of
rising in rent of the apartments in
Barcelona.
Many incidences have been observed
where the visitors caused damage to some
important historical sites. These incidences
cause great harm to the original structure
of thebuildings. The government has
started the refurbishing process to restore
the original structure which causes huge
expenses and complete restoration is also
not possible.
PROBABLE SUGGESTIONS
United Nations world tourism organization
(UNWTO) has given many suggestions
regarding sustainable tourism and reducing
the ill effects of over tourism on theculture
and traditions of the local community.The
tourists should be encouraged to buy items
like purse and bags which are made by the
indigenous community and it helps to
support the local economy (McKercher, et
al. 2012). The government accepts that the
tourism is creating large revenues for the
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city's economy but the main problem is the
over tourism activities which need to be
regulated. The government has banned
opening of any new restaurants in the
city.The government should ensure that the
local population is receiving the benefits of
the tourism activities
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LO2
2.1 PURPOSE OF HERITAGE AND CULTURAL ATTRACTIONS IN MEETING
THE NEEDS OF DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS
PURPOSE OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
According to Association of leading visitor attractions (ALVA), British Museum is the favourite
tourist attraction for the tourist since last 11 years. In the year 2017, around 5,906,716 tourists
visited the museum. Victoria and Albert's museum is the fifth most visited tourist destination in
2017.
Both the museum haslarge number books onart, history, cultural heritage of the country. The
British Museum has also started digitization of these works in order to preserve these great
artworks for the future generations (Mei, et al. 2012).
Victoria and Albert's museum has a vast collection of Jewelry, furniture, costumes, glass and
wooden items from many European, Asian and North American countries.A variety of tourists
like student scientists families, mediavisit these places for different purposes like recreation,
education or research, which are discussed below:
EDUCATION
A large number of students visit British Museum to understand the culture and the history of
the UK. Along with knowing the history, customs and traditions of the country, students can
also know the science and the technological development.
The Britishmuseum allows the students to conduct experiments which help the students to
increase their knowledge about the culture and history in a practical way.
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RESEARCH
Victoria and Albert own a large collection of ceramics, drawings and furniture. Antique pieces
which are more than 5000 years oldand are collected from various archaeological sites are a
great attraction for researchers. These masterpieces provide deeper insights into the human
history and the journey of art and cultural development from ancient to the modern period.
Large numbers of historians and research scholar visit the museum every year to observe the
art pieces and monuments in a subtle way (Parry, 2013).
RECREATION AND ENTERTAINMENT
British Museum organizes a variety of recreational activities like dance and music shows,
drama, acts, role plays, festivals and picnics which attracts a large number of families.To
increase the number of visitors, Victoria and Albert's museum organizes light shows, dance and
Music shows and food festivals which serve the purpose of entertaining the tourists (Robertson,
2015).
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Figure 1
[Source: http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423]
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