While considering the concepts, purposes, and definitions of heritage tourism and cultural tourism, much controversy arises in terms of their similarities and distinctions. At a glance, both branches relate to the concept of cultural preservation, but revealed from various angles. Despite the fact that cultural and heritage visitors pursue similar purposes, it is still possible to highlight slight distinctions between those. In order to define the differences, it is purposeful to pay attention to the composite parts of heritage tourism and cultural tourism. More importantly, objects, geographic location, time frames, and representation groups are also among the limits of the two definitions. Because of the plethora of factors influencing definition, many complexities and confusions may arise. To define the differences, specific emphasis should be placed on the consideration of urban and rural areas, consideration of people as the object of tourism, and conventional attitude toward cultural and heritage tourism.
The term of heritage tourism is associated not only with economic and intellectual dimensions, as well as with the historic environment, including built and natural, but also with profile of material cultural, cultural identities, and intellectual inheritances (Timothy & Boyd, 2003). However, similar perspectives are also seen while considering the term “cultural tourism”. Though the linkages between these types are presented, there are still discrepancies. Specifically, cultural tourism “…goes beyond the visitation of sites and monuments, to include consuming the way of life of places visited” (Timothy and Boyd 2003, p. 5). There is also an assumption that cultural tourism covers the concept of heritage tourism, whereas the latter is much more specific. Hence, heritage tourism is considered one of the most importance forms of cultural tourism. More importantly, cultural tourism is a larger definition because it is more associated with tourism itself as a culture. Therefore, most of cultural attractions are created to encourage more cultural visitors.
Definition of cultural tourism, therefore, can be presented as follows: “all movements of persons to specific cultural attractions as museums, heritage sites, artistic performances and festivals outside their normal place of residence” (Richards 1996, p. 24). Therefore, cultural tourism does not only refer to historical places, but also to the people’s lifestyles, their cultural backgrounds, as well as cultural visitors’ perceptions and experiences. Hence, cultural tourism definition is more connected with the idea of lifestyles being part of culture. In this respect, cultural tourists are more concerned with experiential aspects of culture. In a broader context, this principle is linked with ethnic tourism, with people’s way of life as the central problem. Specifically, Smith argues, “the traveler is motivated primarily by first-hand, authentic or intimate contact with people whose ethnic and cultural background is different from their own” (Smith 2003, p. 30).
As cultural tourism is more tied to individuals’ perception and exploring people as a part of cultural, heritage tourism involves a more specific concept that is associated with places, but not with people and their ways of life. Hence, Timothy and Boyd (2003) define heritage tourism as “a subgroup of tourism, in which the main motivation for visiting a site is based on the place’s heritage characteristic according to the tourists’ perception…” (p. 6). Overall, cultural tourism is more concerned with subjective evaluation of historic sites and events because people often perceive attraction spots with regard to their own cultural and social backgrounds. In contrast, heritage tourism is more congruent with objective vision of events and is more linked to the location.
Heritage tourism, just like cultural tourism, is associated with both scientific and natural resources and, therefore, it contributes to the difficulty in defining the main differences in their definitions (Howard 2003). Specifically, heritage tourism is more concerned with natural resource as historical evidence of the past, such ancient places constituting archeological value, or old groves whose historical importance is underlines (Howard 2003). The natural locations can be linked to specific historical events happened to this place. In contrast, cultural tourism can also consider natural resource as the part of tourist attraction but they involve much broader categories, such as specific of nature itself, presence of exotic plants, minerals, etc that characterize the current state of culture in a country.
To define the concept of heritage definition, it is rational to outline the definition of the world heritage site, its scope and purposes. In this respect, Least and Fyall (2006) acknowledge that the main purpose of the World Heritage Site is to “to represent a masterpiece of human genius or to contain superlative natural phenomenon; or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance” (p. 7). In this respect, the problem of World Heritage Community is to assure reservation and protection of resources contained within the dimension of heritage site (Page and Hall 2003). Due to the fact that heritage site attractions are closely correlated with people’s life, these criteria are often related to cultural tourism. However, the focus should be made on the value of the place and the resource involved in creating the masterpieces of heritage tourism. Because of these close connection, the definition of both terms face a great number of complexities.
Apart from issues of place and people involved into definition of heritage tourism with regard to cultural tourism, emphasis should also be placed on the concept of the past and the present. In fact, cultural tourism embraces larger concepts and contexts whose trends and tendencies have been changing over time (McKercher & Du Cros 2002). Therefore, the actual process of cultural tourism development is not congruent with the processes introduced in the sphere of heritage tourism because it is associated predominantly with the preservation of the past. Therefore, the main value of heritage tourism lies in its antiquity, history of humanity that is related to the present times, but still is of paramount importance for heritage visitors.
In addition, the possibility to resurrect the buildings, places, and objects from the past is quite beneficial for heritage management development, particularly for the development of cultural tourism (Drummond 2000). For instance, industrial heritage, including obsolete machines and technological devices can contribute to the development of modern industry as well as to the increasing interest in protecting and developing the available heritage resources (Drummond 2000). In contrast, cultural tourism fails to consider the experience of the past and is more concerned with the meeting the needs of the visitors. Culture, therefore, is not confined to objects and places of the past, but to its representation in the modern context.
In order to develop successful heritage visitor attraction, heritage tourism is supported by historic preservation groups whereas cultural tourism is monitored by art and museum groups where cultural aspects of the present can also be represented (Leask & Yeoman 1999). Hence, both dimensions have various perspectives in terms of purposes. In this respect, heritage visitor attractions are indispensible in case the site meets organizational requirements. Specifically, cultural tourism does not include protection and preservation of resources because its resources are unlimited due to the constant development of culture and society. In contrast, heritage tourism is more linked to the ancient times and resources that are not possible to restore in the present time.
The major difference between cultural tourism and heritage tourism lies in its location. In particular, cultural tourism is focused mostly in urban areas whereas heritage tourism is located predominantly in rural areas. The current process affecting this field explains the urban character of cultural heritage. This is of particular concern to the globalization process, which can also be regarded as a part of cultural tourism. Because of the present character of culture as a representation of people’s lifestyles, cultural tourism can be more successful in places of greater foci of the population (Sigala and Leslie 2005). More importantly, the cultural tourism concept bears a constantly changing nature because of the constant shifts in cultural and social development of society, although the change occurs only to specific fields of culture. Urban life, therefore, is already a concept which has its own cultural characteristics. Its fast-growing rhythms contribute to the changing values of society.
Rural character of heritage tourism occurs more frequently in the developing regions of the world, where historical sites serve an important source of profits and economic prosperity. In this respect, Timothy and Nyaupane (2009) associate heritage tourism with “living and built elements of culture and refer to the use of the tangible and intangible past as a tourism resource” (p. 3). Though the cultural heritage includes consideration of the existing cultures, the reference is still made to the experience of these cultures, traditions, and ways of life. Such a perspective makes it difficult to distinguish between the heritage tourism and the cultural tourism, but with few exceptions. While referring the cultural tourism, it should be stressed that it is more concerned with the current status of the culture, as well as changes occurred to it. More importantly, it should not necessarily refer to the built-in environment, but to the overall economic, political, and cultural atmosphere in a country.
In the field of management, cultural tourism and heritage tourism are differently arranged because of the divergence in methods. In particular, heritage management seeks to define the most effective methods of conservation and preservation of indigenous culture, as well as historic buildings (Sigala and Leslie 2005; Feilden and Jokilehto 1998). They face various challenges in terms of protection of historical sites during the tourism activities (Hall and McArthur 1996). Thus, heritage visitor is of secondary importance to heritage tourism whereas cultural tourism itself is based on the visitors’ attendance of population attractions (Sigala and Leslie 2005). In this respect, heritage management is focused on strategic evaluation and planning as an important tool for handling heritage. In contrast, visitor management is more concerned with marketing, interpretation, visitor monitoring at a wider context with regard to the restriction imposed on heritage sites. In general, the indigenous dimension in heritage tourism is more important than the marketing one.
The main purpose of heritage tourism is to meet the intellectual concerns of the tourists, where the secondary importance is given to entertainment and recreational issues (Shackley 1998). Because a World Heritage Site provides visitors with authentic intellectual experience, which might not be received while attending cultural tourist spots, the heritage tourism is more concerned with genuineness and uniqueness of sites (Fyall et al. 2008). Therefore, quality is among the most important factors associated with heritage tourism because it influences the popularity of the historical places and buildings.
Cultural tourism managers are focused on the profit potential of the attraction sites, as well as it capacity to encourage more tourists to visit this place whereas heritage professionals pay more attention to the historical assets of the intrinsic value. Therefore, managers from these fields have different priorities while dealing with cultural tourism and heritage tourism.
In conclusion, it should be stressed that the terms cultural tourism and heritage tourism create a number of misconceptions concerning their definitions. The point is that both areas have similar purposes in terms of tourist management. Nevertheless, there are still some tangible distinctions between those. This is of particular concern to such aspects as place and location, people, historical value, management, and nature and purpose of visitors attending the attraction sites. In this respect, heritage tourism is more associated with build in environment where the location itself constitute a historical values where cultural tourism relates to the culture in a broader context because it is connected with the experience of people living in the country of interest, as well as the current traditions and norms. In addition, heritage tourism focuses on the past value of objects, buildings, and sites whereas cultural tourism traces its current status as well as tendencies in the cultural development of the contemporary society.
Reference List
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