Heritage Tourism

Heritage tourism is has become an increasingly significant component of the global tourism industry, particularly in countries striving to diversify away from sea, sand and sun. This growth has had profound influences on the presentation and representation of both tangible and intangible heritage within the tourism context. The concept of heritage continues to evolve with its fast changing political, economic and socio-cultural surroundings. Therefore it is essential that heritage tourism engages with the new form of globalised communities and societies, which have become more assimilated to each other but yet strive to sustain their own distinctive locality.

This book offers students a thorough critical examination and systematic evaluation of the unique dynamics of heritage and tourism development from both social sciences and management perspectives. It incorporates both global and local perspectives in theorising and managing heritage tourism. While focusing on reviewing and analysing key academic concepts and debates including commodification, globalisation and heritage interpretation, this book also evaluates and discusses topical issues such as sustainable development, management strategies and consumerism (digital technologies). It theoretically locates heritage discourses in the analysis of heritage tourism development and management drawing on various perspectives, from Tourism, Heritage Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Politics and Geography to Management and Marketing Studies. Including case studies of topical concerns, controversies and challenges it will encourage readers to develop a new and insightful understanding of the dialectical relationship between heritage and tourism development.

This book is essential reading for students studying Tourism, Heritage Studies, Cultural Studies as well as related disciplines.

Hyung yu Park is lecturer of Tourism Studies at Middlesex University, UK. Her main area of research and teaching is cultural heritage tourism, particularly its dialectic role in the reconstruction of national identity, social memory and nationhood. Other research interests include: qualitative (ethnographic) research methods in tourism studies; heritage management; heritage interpretation and consumption; sustainable development of cultural and heritage tourism; and the politics of heritage tourism.