Review of Rethinking cultural tourism, by Greg Richards (original) (raw)

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

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. ""

Culture and Tourism: Natural partners or reluctant bedfellows

Tourism Review, 2019

Purpose To review the development of the relationship between culture and tourism over the past 75 years, and to outline some future developments over the coming 75 years. Design/methodology/approach A review of previous major work on cultural tourism. Findings Tourism and culture have been drawn inexorably closer over the years as culture has become one of the major content providers for tourism experiences, and tourism has become one of the most important income streams for cultural institutions. In the future this is likely to change, as cultural institutions find it increasingly difficult to maintain their authority as the dominant producers of local, regional and national culture, and as tourism becomes increasingly integrated into the everyday culture of the destination. Practical implications Cultural institutions will need to change their relationship with tourism as flows of tourists become more prevalent and fragmented. Social Implications The authority of high cultural institutions will be eroded as tourists increasingly seek authenticity in the culture of everyday life and the 'local'. Originality/value A first attempt to sketch the long term future of cultural tourism.

Cultural tourists: Profiles, Motivations and Activities

This paper examines recent research on cultural tourism to draw a picture of the people who consume and engage with culture in the destination. Drawing on material from the ATLAS Cultural Tourism Research Project and the recent UNWTO review of Culture and Tourism Synergies, it reviews the motivations and drivers of cultural tourists and the different ways in which they encounter and interact with culture. In particular, we focus on recent trends towards the consumption of the ‘local’ and ‘everyday culture’ that is stimulating more integrated styles of cultural tourism. The basic question posed is whether we can still talk about cultural tourism as a coherent market segment, or if the fragmentation evident in recent years has now made it increasingly difficult to identify ‘the cultural tourist’. Paper presented at the Third Cultural Heritage Seminar, Tourism and Cultural Heritage: Confluences. Barcelona, 8th November 2018.

Culture in the era of mass tourism: Challenges for managers, marketeers and researchers

2022

The growth of 'mass cultural tourism' has been stimulated by the growing numbers of tourists consuming cultural attractions, particularly in historic cities. Whereas in the past destinations had the challenge of trying to sell themselves to visitors and generate interest among a broad public, just before Covid-19 the challenge became trying to manage a growing flood of tourists in search of culture. Cities also had to change their thinking about marketing (cultural) tourism, as residents in many places began to complain about 'overtourism', or even became 'tourismphobic'. This presentation considers the implications of the growing overlap between tourism and culture in recent decades, and asks whether we need to develop a new understanding of what cultural tourism is, and analyses the growing range of cultural practices it embraces.