Sustainable Cultural Tourism

With the exponential rise in leisure mobility, tourism has increasingly become of great economic significance. Cultural heritage, such as museums, churches, historical landscapes, urban parks, and exhibitions attract many visitors and countries, regions and cities which house such historic-cultural amenities have seen increasingly large waves of tourists. While an avalanche of tourists has a positive impact on the local economy, such modern mass tourism also brings about negative externalities such as congestion, decline in quality of life, low access to cultural amenities and loss of local identity; to the extent that the sustainability conditions of a locality might be endangered. This tourism dilemma is particularly pronounced in cities with a rich cultural past, such as Venice, Naples and Amsterdam. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars from North America and Europe, this book examines the interface of local cultural resources and modern mass tourism from a sustainability perspective. It puts forward innovative methodologies and best case practice for future cultural conservation policies.

Cultural attractions play an important role in tourism at all levels, and attract huge numbers of tourists interested in heritage and the arts. Cultural Heritage Tourism has positive economic and social impacts but can also have negative impacts on communities and regions. This book draws together and links ideas of tourism from sustainable marketing perspectives and embeds it within a heritage management setting. Through a discussion and analysis of existing literature and practices this book aims to propose a marketing strategy framework grounded in sustainable principles that can be used to sustain and preserve the authenticity of cultural heritage for future generations, whilst appealing to the suppliers, the regulators, and the consumers. The book first explains the dynamics of cultural heritage with its authenticity underpinnings, marketing, and tourism, and proposes a strategic praxis drawn from core sustainable principles. This is followed by a pragmatic examination of the proposed framework from the shaper’s (provider’s) perspective. The material presented in this book is not merely an agglomeration of documented secondary research, but the theoretical concepts are grounded in empirical research and interactive discussions with students and the travel and tourism industry. A variety of heritage institutions across the globe are used as starting points to test the applicability of the proposed paradigm: these include museums, historic house museums, heritage hotels/resorts, festivals, and heritage merchandize. This is a timely offering to a growing and vibrant area of research; what is most pertinent is that it is a thorough and fresh take on the topic with primary research included. It will find a place in student materials for a variety of courses and it should be read by practicing academics and researchers.

This book includes research papers submitted to and presented during the first international conference on Cultural Sustainable Tourism (CST) that was held in Thessaloniki, Greece in November of 2017. Discussing complex relations between Culture, tourism, and the role of planners and architects in their maintenance, this conference was jointly organized by IEREK –International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange- and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The conference was an attempt to shed a light on the significance of Culture and Heritage as two important factors attracting tourists and promoting economic growth and convey civilizations through tourism. Themes covered in this book give an overview on current research and topics of discussion that focus on Cultural sustainable tourism through several sections. The first section, titled “Art, Architecture and Culture”, discusses urban regeneration as a road to the preservation of cultural and tourist destinations and the importance of understanding and benefitting from our heritage to allow for modern day improvements. “Heritage Tourism”, the section 2 of the book, is more focused on offering nontraditional solutions and management plans to sustain cultural tourism and improve quality of life around historically significant areas. The third section on the “City and Rural Tourism” follows by providing sustainable strategies to attract tourists and promoting the use of existing resources. The last and final section with the title of “Sustainable Tourism, Development and Environmental Management” maneuvers around the different yet common environmental issues existing today and proposes new and innovative solutions for their elimination. Presenting a wide range of topics in chapters, this book provides the scientific community with a collection of unique and enlightening literature.

This book is an assemblage of diverse yet homogenous research papers that bring together the issues and challenges of cultural heritage conservation and tourism sustainability. The richness of this book stems from its inclusion of diverse case studies from around the globe while scrutinizing the cases of both deterioration and sustainability of cultural heritage belonging to different eras. This book sheds light on the connections between culture as an essential dimension of local sustainability and cultural dimensions of sustainable tourism, further contributing to the complex discussion between culture and tourism. This book gives an overview of current research and subjects of discussion that focuses on cultural sustainable tourism through several sections, such as planning and management of sustainable tourism, sustainable cultural tourism development in a digital era, social and economic impacts of cultural tourism, and sustainable tourism development in urban areas

Written in a practical style, this text guides planning and development efforts from within culturesaddressing regional linkages, the tourism plan, visitor surveys, marketing, cultural centers and museums, job creation, enterprise development, and evaluation of sustainability. A value-based paradigm is discussed, planning processes illustrate ways of integrating culture, and case studies at the end of each chapter identify community-based success factors.

Today, tourism has become one of the largest and fastest growing industries accounting for nearly 700 million people travelling all over the world and spending more than 7.4 trillion US dollars. Besides promoting people-to-people contacts, ethnic and cultural understanding, mutual appreciation and co-operation and thereby promoting peace, tourism provides unlimited opportunities for employment generation, social and economic upliftment of the people and contributing to the economies of the nations. Cultural heritage tourism has a number of objectives that must be met within the context of sustainable development such as; the conservation of cultural resources, accurate interpretation of resources, authentic visitors experience, and the stimulation of the earned revenues of cultural resources. Tourism is an important issue at world heritage sites. Most managers at natural sites regard it as a key issue. Important features of world heritage tourism are local protection, conservation and restoration. Such a tourism also requires special training management skills. Different visitor management strategies, interpretation and site promotional activities have to be organised. Culture and heritage have also become major forces in economic and urban revitalisation. As cultural tourism becomes an increasingly important factor for tourist destinations involved in developing their cultural capital in order to attract more international visitors, there is value in assessing how cultural and heritage tourists can be better understood and serviced through marketing, planning and programming with local and regional communities. This book also provides readers with global charters developed for promoting cultural tourism and for preserving heritage sites. Focus lies on ICOSM and WHC. World Heritage Sites, identified and conserved around the world, have been listed and the initiatives to preserve cultural sites and conserve heritage sites.

The process of globalization based on major forms of entertainment consumption has promoted the interest of enlarged social actors toward cultural experiencing. Disseminated by social media, new forms of information and knowledge about exotic tourism destinations have endorsed an increasing interest in forms of cultural tourism. This cultural tourism turnout results from a significant change in the traveler’s demands and behaviors and has led to a new and renovated interest in cultural heritage that must be studied further. The Handbook of Research on Cultural Tourism and Sustainability explores theoretical concepts related to cultural tourism and cultural routes and provides original viewpoints and empirical research with case studies and best practices for the future of cultural tourism. Covering a range of topics such as creative tourism and sustainable tourism, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, practitioners, professionals, policymakers, government officials, instructors, and students.

Cultural Tourism remains the only book to bridge the gap between cultural tourism and cultural and heritage management. The first edition illustrated how heritage and tourism goals can be integrated in a management and marketing framework to produce sustainable cultural tourism. The current edition takes this further to base the discussion of cultural tourism in the theory and practice of cultural and heritage management (CM and CHM), under the understanding that for tourism to thrive, a balanced approach to the resource base it uses must be maintained. An ‘umbrella approach’ to cultural tourism represents a unique feature of the book, proposing solutions to achieve an optimal outcome for all sectors. Reflecting the many important developments in the field this new edition has been completely revised and updated in the following ways: • New sections on tangible and intangible cultural heritage and world heritage sites. • Expanded material on cultural tourism product development, the cultural tourism market and consumer behaviour, planning and delivery of exceptional experiences • New case studies throughout drawn from cultural attractions in developing countries such as Southeast Asia, China, South Africa and the Pacific as well as from the developed world, particularly the United States, Britain, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Canada. Written by experts in both tourism and cultural heritage management, this book will enable professionals and students to gain a better understanding of their own and each other’s roles in achieving sustainable cultural tourism. It provides a blueprint for producing top-quality, long-term cultural tourism products.