What is Cultural Tourism? (original) (raw)

CULTURAL TOURISM: An Introduction

2005

Cultural tourism has been seen as one of the major growth areas in global tourism in recent years, and is increasingly being seen as a major area of product development by tourism destinations in search of diversification. The desire for 'quality tourism', the need to find resources to support culture and the ready availability of cultural resources makes cultural tourism an attractive option for both urban and rural areas. In spite of this, there is still little understanding of what cultural tourism is, and relatively little information about the cultural tourism market.

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Tourism

2012

""The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Tourism explores and critically evaluates the debates and controversies in this field of Tourism. It brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions, to provide state-of-the-art theoretical reflection and empirical research on this significant stream of tourism and its future direction. The book is divided into seven inter-related sections. Part I looks at the historical, philosophical and theoretical framework for cultural tourism. This section debates tourist autonomy role play, authenticity, imaginaries, cross-cultural issues and inter-disciplinarity. Part II analyses the role that politics takes in cultural tourism. This section also looks at ways in which cultural tourism is used as a policy instrument for economic development. Part III focuses on social patterns and trends, such as the mobilities paradigm, performativity, reflexivity and traditional hospitality, as well as considering sensitive social issues such as dark tourism. Part IV analyses community and development, exploring adaptive forms of cultural tourism, as well as more sustainable models for indigenous tourism development. Part V discusses landscapes and destinations, including the transformation of space into place, issues of authenticity in landscape, the transformation of urban and rural landscapes into tourism products, and conservation versus development dilemmas. Part VI refers to regeneration and planning, especially the creative turn in cultural tourism, which can be used to avoid problems of serial reproduction, standardization and homogenization. Part VII deals with the tourist and visitor experience, emphasizing the desire of tourists to be more actively and interactively engaged in cultural tourism. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study and will be an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in cultural tourism. This is essential reading for students, researchers and academics of Tourism as well as those of related studies, in particular Cultural Studies, Leisure, Geography, Sociology, Politics and Economics. ""

Cultural Tourism - concerning the definition

2008

Abstract After reviewing and briefly analyzing the contents and scope of several definitions of cultural tourism used in official classifications, in scientific considerations and in teaching practice, the author of the article proposes a functional definition of the phenomenon, by referring to the commonly used term of tourism as a primary concept. The suggested definition on the one hand takes into account both current (broad) understanding of culture and itineraries (goals and programs) of tourist expeditions, and on the other hand it considers the aspect of tourists’ culture-related motivation. The author’s goal is to provide and spread a useful tool to classify tourism products, and as a consequence, to contribute to standardization of Polish professional terminology related to cultural tourism. The proposal should be treated as a starting point for a discussion to be continued by specialists, concerning the definition of cultural tourism, where such discussion should also take into account entities involved in organization of tourism and their needs.

Cultural Tourism: Past, Present and Future

2007

This book is based on Lectures given at the ATLAS Winter University on Tourism and Leisure, especially that held in Sibiu, Romania in January 2007. The Winter University was initiated in 1989 by a small group of universities running courses in the areas of leisure, culture and tourism. The basic concept of the Winter University was to bring students and staff from different European countries together to analyse and discuss the implications of major social, cultural and economic changes for the development of leisure in Europe. Contents 1.Culture and Heritage in a Unifying Europe Greg Richards 2. Regional Marketing for Tourism Martin H. Groters 3. Culture, Tourism and Urban Regeneration in Europe Melanie Smith 4. Cultural Animation in Tourism Tadeja Jere Lazanski 5. The Tourism of Heritage in Historic Towns David Bruce 6. Tourism in a transition economy: the case of Romania Ilie Rotariu 7. Dracula as Cultural Tourism - from mass media to a cultural tourism product Ilie Rotariu

Book Review: Rethinking Cultural Tourism

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2022

Understanding the past, current, and future trajectory of cultural tourism has been the major focus of both scholars and industry stakeholders engaged both in the culture and tourism sectors. As an influential scholar at the leading edge of cultural tourism and creative tourism studies, Richards' Rethinking cultural tourism reviews the evolution of cultural tourism from the 1990s to the current research agenda, overviewing the work of major cultural tourism scholars. Over six chapters, the book discusses cultural tourism actors (consumers and producers), contexts (cultural attractions, creative cities, and regions, events), consequences and effects, as well as cultural tourism practices. In Chapter 1, through a review of the various cultural, mobility, performative, creative, curatorial 'turns', Richard discusses the essential concept of 'co-creation'. This requires tourists to become co-producers of the destination and to contribute more knowledge and skills when experiencing local everyday life. The cultural turn allows tourist to experience different cultures and daily life in an unfamiliar environment. The influence of globalisation, which shapes cultural differences, coupled with increased mobility, has driven culture to become "the ubiquitous global object of tourism consumption" (p.5). The performative turn, on the other hand, highlighted the role of interaction among tourists, and between tourist and cultural tourism providers. Furthermore, the creative turn drives the development of creative spaces, creative spectacles, and creative tourism in both urban and regional contexts. Finally, the curatorial turn describes how the transformation of art curators from aesthetics to value and connects this process to placemaking. Chapters 2-5 raise different research questions: how cultural tourism practices come to be through the interactions of actors and structures (Chapter 2); how social contexts shape cultural tourism activities, and how they are shaped by the dynamics of cultural tourism (Chapter 3); what the definition of cultural tourism from the perspective of practice-based research is (Chapter 4), and what cultural tourism practices are developing in new urban tourism (Chapter 5). Chapter 2 focuses on both consumers' and producers' roles as 'actors' in cultural tourism by examining their action through interaction and relationalities. It introduces past and present research on the segmentation of cultural tourism audience, their