Over the last few decades, there has been a closer association between tourism and cultural heritage. Millions of people visit historic cities, archaeological ruins, museums, and traditional communities across the world each year and these visits have a major impact on local economies. However, increasing tourist numbers bring new threats for the future of cultural heritage preservation and management. Therefore, sustainable tourism has become an increasingly important topic in cultural heritage studies today.
This means ensuring that we don’t just increase tourist numbers, but that tourism does not threaten the future of cultural heritage resources, while still providing economic and educational value to communities.
Cultural Heritage as a Commercial Resource
Tourism and commercial interests often play an important role in the development of historical locations. Tourist visits create employment for local people, help local businesses grow, and provide funds that can then be used to improve conservation efforts and public services.
In many cases, tourism is essential for funding local museums, heritage restoration projects, and cultural projects. Visitor spending often provides much of the income that enables historic places to maintain and protect themselves, and in many cases the site would not be in a position to maintain itself in the long-term if not for visitor spending.
Similarly, the unique experiences and authenticity that heritage can provide are also often some of the most valuable resources for the tourism industry.
The Impact of Overtourism
While heritage tourism often brings benefits, increasing numbers of tourists can place a strain on heritage sites and the communities they rely on for visitors. A high level of tourist presence can lead to deterioration of buildings and infrastructure, increased demand for conservation measures, and negatively impact the lives of local people who live near heritage sites.
In some cases, the heritage site and local culture may be threatened due to over-commercialization, as the authentic cultural resources and heritage values that first attracted visitors are lost to the modern world. It can therefore be very challenging for the management of heritage resources and the local authorities to preserve the cultural and historic authenticity of a site or community while ensuring economic benefits from visitors.
Managing heritage in sustainable way requires a good understanding of the relationship between visitors and heritage resources and the development of approaches which meet visitor expectations and conservation requirements.
Sustainable Heritage Tourism and Management
There are a number of ways in which institutions and organizations involved in the preservation and communication of cultural heritage resources can develop approaches for managing sustainable heritage tourism. Visitor management, ticket booking systems and educational initiatives, for example, can ensure visitor numbers do not overwhelm a site, as well as ensure better experiences for visitors to sites in the long-term.
Innovations in technology, such as online or virtual exhibitions, can also help ensure that the experience of the heritage site is enjoyed without putting a strain on the heritage resources themselves.
Additionally, it is often important to work directly with the communities in and around heritage sites, as these communities often have a wealth of knowledge and skills that can inform the development of tourism initiatives, while also helping them benefit from tourism in ways that respect their heritage and values.
Roles and Responsibilities of Heritage Professionals
Due to the increasing role of tourism in the development of cultural heritage, many heritage professionals specialize in working to promote and manage tourism at cultural heritage sites. These are often roles that bring together skills in heritage management, project planning, public relations and educational engagement and can be found with museums, heritage organizations, government departments, international organizations and tourism agencies around the world.
Given the increasing demand for sustainable tourism, the skills required for managing heritage resources in a sustainable way will likely become in more in demand in coming years.
Conclusion
Sustainable tourism practices can help ensure the conservation and preservation of heritage resources and help provide economic benefits for the local community without damaging heritage resources for future generations. By combining a sustainable approach to tourism with preservation efforts, we can ensure that future generations will also be able to experience and benefit from the heritage of the past.