Constructing Cultural Tourism

Focusing on the formative influence of the works of John Ruskin in defining and developing cultural tourism, this book describes and assesses their effects on the tourist gaze (where to go and what to see, and how to see it) as directed at landscape, scenery, architecture and townscape, from the early Victorian period onwards.

This book is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a literary critic and cultural historian, which examines and recovers a radical and still urgent challenge to the industrialisation of cultural tourism from the work of John Ruskin. Ruskin exerted a formative influence on the definition and development of cultural tourism which was probably as significant as that, for example, of his contemporary Thomas Cook. The book assesses Ruskin's overall influence on the development of national and international tourism in the context of pre-existing expectations about tourism flows and cultural capital and alongside parallel and intersecting trends of the time; examines Ruskin's contribution to the tourist agenda at all social levels; and discusses Ruskin's significance for current debates in tourism studies, especially questions of the place of the `canon' of traditional European cultural tourism in a post-modern tourist setting, and the various incarnations of `heritage tourism'. "As to be expected from Professors Hanley and Walton, this book offers a challenging examination of Ruskin's place in the history of British cultural tourism. However, it delivers far more than this; it brings a rich tapestry of historical experience to the understanding of contemporary European tourism. This rigorous and incisive critique of the role of Ruskin, the renowned 19th century polymath, is beautifully illustrated with pictorial and textual references; it is a must for scholars of tourism. It will also greatly benefit those whose studies include interpretation, leisure and outdoor education. It is written in a style which invites the reader to immerse themselves in a fascinating journey where new knowledge is unfolded in every chapter." Les Lumsdon, University of Central Lancashire, UK "Best known as a writer and art critic, this study makes a compelling case for the importance of Ruskin as a key figure in inspiring and shaping cultural tourism whether in Europe or in England for the serious minded of all social classes." Alastair Durie, University of Stirling, UK

A key tool in creating a destination experience is the experience economy. This is even more true for cultural tourism experiences since culture's intrinsic values are inherently linked to experiences.The book Creating and Managing Experiences in Cultural Tourism aims to provide theoretical and practical background on the experience economy applied in sustainable cultural tourism. This entails a wide range of subjects addressing cultural heritage, creative industries and contemporary culture. Theoretical approaches to experience creation are presented to offer the 'rules' of designing the cultural tourism experiences. With inspirational and innovative examples, it provides an insight into the field of cultural tourism from prominent editors, authors and contributors in their respective fields.

What does ‘heritage’ mean in the twenty-first century? Traditional ideas of heritage involve places where objects, landscapes, people and ideas are venerated and reproduced over time as an inheritance for future generations. To speak of heritage is to speak of a relationship between the past, the present and the future. However, it is a past recreated for economic gain, hence sectors such as culinary tourism, ecotourism, cultural tourism and film tourism have employed the heritage label to attract visitors. This interdisciplinary book furthers understanding on how heritage is socially constructed, interpreted and experienced within different geographic and cultural contexts, in both Western and non-Western settings. Subjects discussed include Welsh linguistic heritage, tango, mushroom tourism, Turkish coffee, literary tourism and the techniques employed to construct tourist accommodation. By focusing upon heritage creation in the context of tourism, the book moves beyond traditional debates about ‘authentic heritage’ to focus on how something becomes heritage for use in the present. This timely volume will be of interest to students and researchers in tourism, heritage studies, geography, museum studies and cultural studies.

Residential Tourism: (De)Constructing Paradise offers the first in-depth, critical exploration of the foreign retirement/expatriate communities proliferating in both size and number throughout Latin America. Amidst the widespread development and promotion of international destinations of residential “paradise” intended for retirement, leisure, and experiences of exotica, this book draws on a diversity of perspectives in order to analyze the social and spatial impacts that dynamic phenomenon has on the people and places it directly affects at the local level. Utilizing the community of Boquete, Panama as a case study, this book examines how two diverse residential groups – the native community who have lived in the area for generations and the foreign residential tourists who have just recently relocated abroad – coexist in a shared place of home, define their experiences of place and community, and confront the mass development of residential tourism in Boquete.

For centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.

This insightful book reappraises how traditional high culture attractions have been supplemented by popular culture events, contemporary creativity and everyday life through inventive styles of tourism. Greg Richards draws on over three decades of research to provide a new approach to the topic, combining practice and interaction ritual theories and developing a model of cultural tourism as a social practice.

Cultural Heritage and Tourism in the Developing World is the first book of its kind to synthesize global and regional issues, challenges, and practices related to cultural heritage and tourism, specifically in less-developed nations. The importance of preservation and management of cultural heritage has been realized as an increasing number of tourists are visiting heritage attractions. Although many of the issues and challenges developing countries face in terms of heritage management are quite different from those in the developed world, there is a lack of consolidated research on this important subject. This seminal book tackles the issues through theoretical discourse, ideas and problems that underlay heritage tourism in terms of conservation, management, economics and underdevelopment, politics and power, resource utilization, colonialism, and various other antecedent notions that have shaped the development of heritage tourism in the less-developed regions of the world. The book is comprised of two sections. The first section highlights the broader conceptual underpinnings, debates, and paradigms in the realm of heritage tourism in developing regions. The chapters of this section examine heritage resources and the tourism product; protecting heritage relics, places and traditions; politics of heritage; and the impacts of heritage tourism. The second section examines heritage tourism issues in specific regions, including the Pacific Islands, South Asia, the Caribbean, China and Northeast Asia, South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America. Each region has unique histories, cultures, political traditions, heritages, issues and problems, and the way these issues are tackled vary from place to place. This volume develops frameworks that are useful tools for heritage managers, planners and policy-makers, researchers, and students in understanding the complexity of cultural heritage and tourism in the developing world. Unlike many other books written about developing regions, this book provides insiders’ perspectives, as most of the empirical chapters are authored by the individuals who live or have lived in the various regions and have a greater understanding of the region’s culture, history, and operational frameworks in the realm of cultural heritage. The richness of this ‘indigenous’ or expert knowledge comes through as each regional overview elucidates the primary challenges and opportunities facing heritage and tourism managers in the less affluent areas of the world.

With the question, "What does it mean to show?", the author explores the agency of display in museums and tourist attractions. She looks at how objects are made to perform their meaning by being collected and how techniques of display, not just the things shown, convey a powerful message.

This book presents new directions both for tourism and cultural landscape studies in geography, crossing the traditional boundaries between the research of geographers and scholars of the tourism industry. Drawing on selected research from Europe, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and North America, the contributors combine perspectives in human geography and tourism to present cultural landscapes of tourist destinations as socially constructed places, examining the extent and manner by which tourism both establishes and falsifies local reality. The book addresses many critical themes which recent critiques in tourism studies focusing on the attitudes and behaviour of the tourist and on the industry as agents of social change have ignored, including the marginalization of the 'host' community, the privatization and commodification of local culture, and how tourism acts as both agent and process in the structure, identity and meaning of local places.