Development of the Heritage and Cultural Industry - Essay Example

? [Topic] – Heritage and Cultural Tourism Management Hassan Munir Khan No: E10186  BTEC Higher National Diploma in Hospitality Management  The City College, University House, 55 East Road, London N1 6AH Humans traveled from the beginning of their creation. In the past days people went for here and there in searching for food, water and acquirement of resources. But after that the ideas of pleasure and relaxation are associated to the motivation of travelling. In the recent days people choose to travel for gaining knowledge (Tourism, n.d.). Early day’s travelers used to walk or rode on domestic animals. Due to technological improvement travelling becomes very easy and much faster with the help of introduction of different vehicles. Roads are improved, governments are established, different purposes for travelling are coming towards the human race, such as educational purposes, religious purposes etc. In this context, it has been argued that, “tourism is a collection of activities, services and industry that delivers a travel experience, including transportation, accommodations, eating and drinking establishments, retail shops, entertainment business, activity facilities and other hospitality services provided for individuals or groups traveling away from home” (Introduction- what is tourism, n.d.). Tourism has some dimensions like attraction, which is the primary motivation for travelling. Mode of attraction could be of any type, such as natural resources, cultural and historical aspects, entertainment and ethnicity. Facilities is the another dimension that acts in favour of travelling, which includes lodging, foods, support services, infrastructure etc. Then transportation, hospitality are the remaining two. At present cultural heritage sites are becoming the attractive tourist spots as the mode of intention for travelling changes. So now among the tourism industry cultural and heritage tourism industry is in the booming stage (Introduction- what is tourism, n.d.). This paper is aimed at providing an analytical perspective of various heritage and cultural tourism places across the globe. The paper thus discusses about the growth and development aspects of these places. Task 1: Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within travel and tourism: LO (1.1): Heritage Tourism Location: Heritage is the practice or a tradition, which comes from one generation to another. Heritage locations are those locations which represents country’s historical, scientific and heritage offerings associated with entire community. Heritage locations are appearing to gain an enormous acceptance as a part of tourism and a source of attraction. Heritage tourism is a travelling experience of the places and activities which conveys the story of the people from the past. These places reveal much information about the famous historical characters and events. It includes historical sites, archeological sites, war and battle sites and old structures etc. as heritage tourism products. Heritage locations help for making a strong bonding between the host who provides the quality heritage experiences and the guests who enjoys those experiences. These kinds of activities are very important for describing the quality of life of and for the community (Edgell, 2006, p.62). Cultural Tourism Location: For the purpose of understanding the Cultural tourism locations we have to understand culture because cultural locations tell about the cultural aspects of a particular community. “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the member of one category people from another” (What is culture?, 2012). Culture speaks about the patterns of some kind of symbols consisted of various achievements of cultural groups. A cultural location tells about the various cultural aspects of the societies and the communities prevailing in the concerned area. The cultural and heritage tourism includes wide ranges of strategies and services. These strategies and services are consisting of cultural integration of various cultures across the globe and also revelation of some of the oldest cultures in the world (What is culture?, 2012). Place promotion- Place promotion is one of the most important strategies to attract the travelers to the cultural as well as heritage sites. A community is known by some of their historic events, heritage buildings or structures. For this, the host community invites others to visit their place and attend their festivals. One of the famous place promotion strategies is to promote the place through the organisation of world heritage sites, which consists of 215 cities where the UNESCO world heritage sites are located. Place promotion is more likely to be a branding of a cultural city based upon their cultural heritage sites (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Cultural Districts: These areas are based on the concept of creating a physical space within the community in which individuals may easily identify attention of institutional and home-grown tourist opportunities focusing on museums and cultural heritage sites. There are four types of models – Industrial cultural districts, which based on pre-existing localised culture that has a tradition in arts and crafts which are not standardise but have some good features, which made those districts unique (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Institutional cultural districts are those areas which has a specific level that gives exclusive naming rights. These policies are the part of “European Union economic and agricultural policy” (Rosenfeld, n.d.). The museum cultural district is usually located in a historical downturn area. Public policies are needed here to create these districts .This museum culture creates a demand for hotel services as well as craft and other services. Now-a-days many communities have their own museums that increase the economy of scale as well as economies of scope and external networking (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Lastly, the metropolitan cultural districts represent a special collection of buildings which are dedicated towards performing arts, museums and organisation that produces cultural related goods, services and facilities. The metropolitan cultural district is not just a community in which there is a collection of historical monuments and churches. Here the cultures are produced by creative people who need a place of work and to distribute it (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Legacy tourism: Heritage or legacy tourism is much diversified concept which includes collective history, art, science, lifestyle etc. It has broad appeal. Legacy tourism is the part of cultural heritage tourism which is linked with the genealogical concerns and people search for a feel connected with the ancestors (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Cultural and Heritage route: In Europe the “Council of Tourism in Europe” has provided a specific path for the cultural development. This support is provided to the tourist as well as tour guides, which brings awareness of the European culture among the travelers. This route is created in a way that conveys the information about the rural habits, and historical legends (Rosenfeld, n.d.). Examples- Durham Castle and Cathedral is a structure of between 11th and 12th centuries situated in England. It is the valuable example of Norman architecture, which is used to classify the Romanesque architecture urbanised by the Normans. It was build 900 years ago to protect the England border (Durham Castle and Cathedral, 2004). Along with this, the forth bridge is one of the famous heritage sites. The Forth Bridge in Scotland has been chosen for UNESCO world heritage status along with St Helena and the Lake District. St Helena is the place where the famous leader of the world history, Napoleon Bonaparte, died in the year 1821 (Kennedy, 2011). Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City, in England, has been made in between 18th and 19th century. At that time it was the largest port globally. The port is very well connected, which helps to uphold the British kingdom and became the vital part for the mass movement. It was the pioneer of new dock technology. This site is located at the meeting point of the river Mersey and the Irish Sea. Within this the dock construction, commercial and cultural buildings have great global values in terms of material and design (Liverpool- Maritime Mercantile City, 2012). Taj Mahal, the great symbol of love comprises of marbles, precious and semi precious metals, is one of the greatest and most popular heritages sites made by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his lovely wife Mumtaj. Taj Mahal means the ‘Crown Palace’. It is situated at Agra in India, build between 1631 and 1648. The palace was made on the bank of the Yamuna River (Taj Mahal, 1983). Statue of Liberty was made in Paris by Bartholdi, the French sculptor, with the help of Gustave Eiffel, a French engineer. This monument was a kind of present from France in the occasion of American independence in 1886. Its design and construction were accepted as the biggest technical achievements of those days. It was represented as a connection between engineering and art (Statue of Liberty, 2012). The Mesa Verde National Park is a kind of landscape in the American South is the significance of the prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan culture, which exits for 900 years from BC 450 to BC1300. This exceptional site signifies the ancient cultural tradition of Native American tribes. This also represents the relation between past and present life of the Puebloan people of the south west America (Mesa Verde National Park, 2012). LO (1.2): Growth and development in heritage and cultural Industry: Cultural and heritage tourism industry is a major part of travel and tourism industry. In the past days culture and tourism was not strongly involved with each other; it seems to be a spare time activity. If we consider Europe, only few numbers of peoples used to go to the cultural and heritage sites for fulfilling their educational goal (Sustainable Tourism and Cultural Heritage, n.d.). Standing in 20th century the whole concept of travelling becomes changed, as tourist starts realizing their time in holidays by gaining knowledge’s of the values of traditions and culture as a prospective means. People developed as well as society. People now able to satisfy the basic need of food and shelter so they turned themselves into satisfying their higher order need of knowledge because well diversified knowledgeable person is consider to be a an experience one in the society. One route to gain knowledge is internet and another is travelling. As holidays provides some significant block of free time which can utilized by some class of people to earn some knowledge. These days tourism has gone through a major transformation with the new skilled consumption and changes of economy. . Now there is also a sign of discouragement because some cultural and heritage site is becoming a victim of its own success. Large number of tourist caused a degradation of service quality at the particular site. This growth of cultural heritage tourism can also have a negative impact like overcrowding, environmental problems and cultural degradation etc. Tourist always takes interest in the new things so in order to attract people the tourism always makes some kind of creative thing which gradually decreases the quality of delivering the actual values to the tourists. Besides its negative impact this particular segment of the tourism industry becoming the major service industry. In the later part of 20th century this industry regarding cultural and heritage sites will grow rapidly because the basic inputs to this industry is becoming cheaper day by day In the past day only Museums were considered to be the site from where people come to know the traditional and cultural aspects of a particular community but these days the heritage sites like commercial and official building are maintained well to convert them in to tourism site. So it can easily added that heritage and cultural tourism is became the important part of global tourism (Richards, 2009). LO (1.3): Potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural sites: Now a day’s protection of cultural heritage sites is very essential for this protective environment is needed. Conversion of cultural heritage is a kind of investment, which can use for the development of a nation. This heritage sites situated in a particular boundary of nation should not be considered as a single nation property. It should be take care by globally. These things are representing as a memory of mankind so it is our duty to safe guards these treasures of human history. Battle, terrorism has a negative impact upon these cultural heritage sites. During world war second the world noticed a huge destruction of these assets. For this kind of situation there was a formulation of UNESCO and ICCROM to make strategies and policies for the conservation of cultural heritage during the armed conflict. Now a day’s Non Government Organisations are playing a major role in raising public and political awareness. As an example during war in Iraq there was a massive destruction of historic sites. Many organisation like ICOMOS, the blue shield International, The agriculture Institute of America made an effort to save those but it was not successful (Watch, 2012). Task 2: Understand the purpose and importance of heritage and cultural attractions: LO (2.1): Assess the purpose and importance of heritage and cultural sites and attractions: Cultural heritage sites can be segmented in two parts. Site can be a historical one or a present day creation because what human creates at present becomes a historical heritage tomorrow if there are some terrific features in it like the way of construction, thinking behind the structure etc. Both this things help to make an identity for a particular nation. Any countries cultural heritage sites play its role for maintaining “Multi Ethnic” relation. A relation between the community and its history should not be neglected, heritage and cultural sites signifies these links. Tourism is broadly recognized for its tangible and intangible creation like creation of jobs, revenue and improves the quality of life. Heritage and cultural sites is the major part of global tourism. These sites can be determined as an economic development tool which can vastly used in the betterment of an economy of a particular country through tourism by bringing there lot of tourist within the nation or outside of the nation. These things can bring huge foreign currencies to the concerned governed which makes the country financially strong and make positive balance of trade because tourism industry is one of the major exporters for any nation (Rosenfeld, n.d.). LO (2.2): Cultural and Heritage sites meet the need of different customer and stake holder: Most of the cultural heritage sites are influenced by their large number of stake holders and customers like local people, authorities, supporters and sponsors etc. for this it is very much important to understand the different needs of different stakeholder which need a good stake holder management. A site manager must know his duties regarding site’s stake holder. Some key stake holder for the heritage sites are Government authorities, Sponsors, internal and external owners, ICOMOS, Environmental preservation organisation, Researching Institutes, Tourist and Tourism agencies etc. The stake holders are efficiently involved in the execution of work and its outcomes. The customer or stake holders having the same goal which conflicting with the project goal will be consider when they are affecting the program. There are two types of share holder one is positive and another is negative. Positive stake holder benefits themselves by the successful outcomes of the project. Negative stakes holder only sees the negative results due to the success of the project. If we consider a organisation from a particular community seeing its benefit from a particular tourism program is a kind of positive stake holder because they sees the economic benefit for its community and due to the program. Some of the negative stake holders may be against of the success of the project because they have seen some kind of bad cultural and environmental impact on their community due to the cultural heritage site project. Negative stakeholder may overlooked by the management team due to the risk of failing to end up the project successfully. So meeting the needs of the stake holder and customers depends on the management of the project (Hajialikhani, 2003). Task 3: Understand the Roles and Responsibility and Ownership in the heritage and Cultural industry: LO (3.1): Impact of different ownerships on the management of heritage and cultural sites: The owners have a great impact on the management of heritage and cultural sites. Owner is the only decision making body of an organisation that can run the management by its own way. Various groups from different segments like government authorities, stake holder from different organisation like ICOMOS, local people get involved. So it is the owners decision that how the management would cooperate with these peoples. There are presences of positive and negative stake holders who only care about the positive and negative impact done by the project success. So management depend on the owners that which way they should go. Most of the owner decides to avoid the negative stake holders for panic of failure of the project. They only care about the positive one because that gives them economical benefits (Hajialikhani, 2003). LO (3.2): Roles and Responsibilities of the organisation in the heritage and cultural industry: Organisations have some roles and responsibilities in cultural and heritage industry to achieve a set of objectives generally work are categorized in two ways either in projects or in operations. Operations are the regular part and projects are impermanent, which have social, environmental and economic influences. Organisation has to deal with three types of management such as benefit management which involves the benefits that the conversion program is aim to deliver. Then stake holder’s management which involves the dealing with the positive and negative stake holders and lastly program governance, this is to develop and implement the procedures of the program to achieve the goal. Project management is the important part for the organisation point of view because it involves lots of things such as scope management which required for completing the project successfully, time management for timely completion of work, quality management is to determine quality policies and responsibilities which satisfies the needs of the stake holders, cost management for planning the estimate budgets, human resource management for managing the project team, communication management for delivering the whole purpose of the project to the stake holders, risk management for analysis the uncertain event which can have the bad impacts on the projects and lastly procurement management to deal with managing the purchase and acquiring the products. This responsibility should be taken care of by the organisation in terms of handling the cultural heritage projects (Hajialikhani, 2003). Task 4: Understand the roles of methods of interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry: LO (4.1): Different methods and media used for interpretation within the cultural and heritage industry: Interpretation is the important part of the cultural and heritage tourism. This thing has certain goals and objectives to complete. This part motivates the different activities in the planning process of the tours. It creates the link between the resource and the audiences. Interpretation is the communication between the host and the guest. Good interpretation makes a great impact on the visitors of the cultural heritage place because it makes them feel connected with the place and understand all cultural aspects of the particular place. This thing inspired them most by awakening interest (Earth heritage Interpretation and Tourism, 2003). Firstly the site authorities have to clear about their objectives, elements which they have to interpret then they will go for the selection of the interpretation media. These media is the communication channel to convey the information to the tourists. In interpretation centers, museums, recreational areas, galleries as well as historical sites Heritage interpretation can be seen. The interpretation has some kind of various methods like walk and talk with the guide, doing dramas related with the past events with the concern sites ,staffed stations, sites brochures containing the information of the place, projecting various things in large displays, maintaining some kind of symbols, labels artworks, interactive session with the tourist. Such kind of interpretation activities needs different medium like audio visuals, print media etc. In order to select the perfect interpretive media some points have to take the nature of the tourist in to consideration. (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.) LO (4.2): Importance of using different types of interpretation to meet specific needs of a variety of tourists: Interpretation is very difficult without proper planning. Interpretative planning is the important factor for interpretation program and the planning of activities. This kind of program does not mean to deliver the knowledge only. The connection between the knowledge giver and the tourist is very important. The communication gap depends on various factors (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Age: Different program will be depends on the age factor of the tourists suppose children require some special kind of activity. If the information is given to them in the adult way they might not able to understand the whole concept because different age groups have certain understanding and knowledge level. The Interpretation program should be done in a proper way by taking age factors in to its consideration (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Background knowledge: Background knowledge of the tourist is the thing for which the program has to be reconstructed. So assessing the potential of the visitor is essential. The tourists not aware about the basic concept of a culture of the particular heritage sites should be given the knowledge from the base level (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Country and place: The nationality of the tourists gives interesting clues to estimate of the traveler’s familiarity towards the cultural heritage site. Like tourist comes to visit a cultural heritage site from the same nation or communities have some ideas about the past cultural aspects (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Size of the group: Size of the group is also taken in to consideration while planning an interpretation program. From the number of visitor the interpreter can get some useful information’s., which will help to plan the services or the no of leaflets etc useful things (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Expectation of the visitors: If the purpose of the visit is known from the tourists then it is easy to plan the program for them. Tourist come with higher expectations of gaining knowledge should expect a good interpretation service from the management of the site (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Time factor: Availability of time of the visitors is very useful to get their program planned. If the tourist groups have lots of time, which they want to spend at the cultural heritage site then it will easier to plan an interpretation program for them. Availability of time helps to make a systematic schedule for the tourist and that can help them to understand better (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). The above mentioned factors are very important to understand the quality and capability of the tourist. These things are very closely related to each other. So the cultural heritage adjusts their method and Medias for their interpretation very carefully by giving these things a great importance (MODULE I: NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERPRETATION, n.d.). Conclusion- To conclude this report, it must be opined that the tourism depends heavily on cultural and heritage sites. This kind of tourism helps to maintain the tradition of the country alive. The heritage and cultural tourism with several strategies help for promoting this particular segment in the tourism industry. Moreover, tourism is regarded as one of the biggest growing services industries in the globe. A failure of improvement for the corporation agencies missed out several opportunities like creation of new jobs, development of the economy, cultural interchange and cultural heritage management etc. Many organisations, NGOs put their great efforts for the growth of the cultural heritage tourism. Lack in knowledge and awareness may also cause various problems within the industry. Development of the institutions their planning process, evolutions and different policies should consider to be the primary focus for the betterment of this tourism management. Involvement of the communities, training would be the key points for a site level approach. In case of cultural heritage approach the important thing is to maintain the cultural values properly. A wide range of stake holders’ involvement in the cultural heritage sites related to different projects creates many difficulties for the management of the cultural heritages. Above all, perfect interpretation programs are the key to success for this tourism because it is the only way to connect the tourists with the sites by proper briefing of the topics related that tourism sites. When a particular industry grows it can no longer be avoided for the fact that these more active partners are needed because of the associated fact that the growth of the cultural heritage depends on new ideas and partnerships. References: 1. Earth Heritage Interpretation and Tourism: Interpretation Training Workshop, (2003), Report on the workshop in Crna na Koreskem, available at: http://www.gov.si/aplikacije/mop/interpretacija_narave/arhiv/geoloska_dediscina.pdf (accessed on June 14, 2012) 2. Edgell, D. L. (2006), Managing Sustainable Tourism: A Legacy for the Future, UK: Routledge 3. Hajialikhani, M. 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