Unit 19 Heritage and Cultural Tourism Assignment

Introduction

Heritage and Cultural Tourism is one of the most important components of the tourism industry in the world. A sustainable heritage is our responsibility. Many government and non-government agencies are responsible to protect and preserve the heritage & cultural assets. Through this Unit 19 Heritage and Cultural Tourism Assignment I have tried to understand the aspects of natural and cultural heritage preservation, the cultural tourism in UK and the various organizations that are involved in this work.

Task 1 Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within travel and tourism

P 1.1 Analyze the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry with special reference to UK. What were the main events triggering the development of heritage industry? Discuss as to when and how did the heritage industry start to grow? What are the main events in the development of heritage and cultural industry with special reference to UK?

The heritage and cultural industry has quite a good share within  travel and tourism  of UK. Many surveys, polls and studies have shown the rising trend in the inclination of visitors to UK’s heritage. As per an estimate, UK’s Culture and Heritage brings in close revenue of £26.4bn annually. Also it also supports more than 100,000 jobs in Britain. This estimate is for the spending done by visitors flocking in for British culture and heritage. Every year, close to 20,000 people is polled to understand their idea of the number of developing and developed countries. This provides a clear indicator of a country’s national brand. A similar survey for UK brings this result. The results show that Britain is the 4^th best nation. It has some of the best cultural spots including art, music, films and literature and stands at 7^th spot for its rich heritage. Taking example of specific sites, the visitors in 2007 to Croome Park were 30,000 in 2007 which has now grown to 135,000 in 2013 (Godwin et al., 1999). Its rich built heritage also drives visits. More than 50% of visitors to UK visit the built heritage. There has been an increase of close to 13% in heritage and cultural visitors. Of the nation’s domestic visitors, 28% of the total activities by them were to heritage sites.

The development of British Culture and related tourism

The rich literature of Britain is the most critical aspect of UK’s history. The famous works of many good writers like William Shakespeare, Robert Burns are read across the globe. Many tourists come to visit the marvelous museums holding unique and original editions of the renowned authors and poets. The other popular aspect of British culture is its Theatre. There have been efforts by the government to revive and reestablish the theatre culture. Old technology and equipment attracts tourist to museums and galleries. Britain is considered extremely rich in its built heritage. Magnificent castles and cathedrals, churches and palaces represent the enriching and unique culture that UK has. Tourists regard theatre as the most impactful and traditional medium of entertainment and is respected for the same by all visitors. Cinema, music and Visual arts hold a very special place in having built the British culture. It has its genesis very much lying in English soil, so a large number of visitors gather in to witness the Golden era of Cinema (Ravilious et al., 2009). The rich culture has spread all over the world because of the international English language and the colonial establishments by Britain. Because of this fact, that English culture has been taken to around the world because of these factors, travelers from different corners of the world have developed an interest for the same. Additionally, the aura of Hollywood movies that brings the colors of the rich heritage beauty of UK pictured on screens. These elements have boosted the cultural and heritage tourism in UK.

P 1.2 Having read the two case studies, discuss potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural resources – What are the conflicts about? What are the reasons for conflicts? What solutions have been proposed? Did they work? What is your opinion on this?

Potential Risks to conservation of heritage and cultural resources

Natural resources, cultural elements and heritage define a nation. Countries are identified largely for its destinations. Thus, there is an urgent need to preserve these precious jewels. But a large number of challenges hinder the preservation. Some of these are:

1. Rush of tourists- Many a times, heritage spots are damaged due to unchecked tourism. They end up defacing, spoiling and damaging the asset. The Giant causeway in North Antrim Coast is a live example of this challenge. With over 7, 50,000 tourist annually, it has faced serious challenges in preserving the magnificent setting.
2. Scientific exploration and research: At many places, due to scientific study reasons or archeological excavations, sites are damaged and left exposed for further damage. To dive into the history, cultural sites, natural forms are hurt and left unusable for tourist attraction
3. Lack of disaster preparation: Many a times, governments are not prepared for disasters and thus following the disaster, management becomes difficult and slow leading unavoidable losses. Disaster management plans need to incorporate cultural heritage consideration. Most cultural heritages are affected by direct damage from natural disasters.
4. Interventions by human like in the form of fishing, pollution and newer developments: With newer land tamed, commercialized and urbanized, a large number of resources are damaged due to human interruptions. Strangford Cough presents a live example that has been hurt due to these threats.
5. Risks during recovery: During rebuilding, reconstruction and recovery also, there are cases of threat to cultural heritage. Looting of resources, measures carried out with no regards to preserving heritage value and inability to recreate the original are challenges that hurt the conservation.
6. Illegal construction and uncontrolled relocation are responsible for the damage of assets and heritage landscapes.

Preservation is indeed a need so that these treasures that we inherited from our ancestors could be seen by the coming generations. Some of strict measures to be taken for preservation are:-

1. Prohibition to illegal acts against the preservation of nature. Specific fishing, poaching areas are to be banned and others have to be declared conserved with strict prohibition to such activities.
2. Strong steps against defacing of monuments of heritage value. Government’s welcome tourism but tourists have no rights to deface the heritage. They have to be warned and given penal punishment that may be imposed if they are found hurting the assets.
3. Stringent laws against any form of damages to natural assets are must enforcement by Governments (Tanselle, 1998). Disaster management has to be coordinated with authorized authorities as quickly as possible following a disaster. This will help avoid losses that have no remedy.
4. Attractive incentives need to be created for conservation and preservation of properties.
5. Awareness and Proper education need to be inculcated in population at large. It is a common man’s responsibility to make sure that a country’s assets are preserved, and then the governments to maintain it.
6. Disaster Management, any work of conservation are to be initiated by experts in the area and also an assessment of the same is needed.
7. Demolition of bridges, existing houses, and moving groups of people is unethical and should be avoided. Many times for the recovery phase, such steps are taken and the vernacular towns are left to the mercy.

Task 2 Understand the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions within the travel and tourism sector

P 2.1 Assess the purpose of heritage and cultural attractions in meeting the needs of different customers with special reference to what is the main purpose of Science Museum and the V A Museum? Are they different? Are there different types of visitors? How is this linked to the travel and tourism sector? 

Varied tastes of the tourists: Tourism involves many different types of tourists, all having different requirements. The one going to science museum is a very different segment than the one visiting the art museum. Not just these destinations have identified their segment they want to treat; they have developed their facilities for them. While both receive millions of tourists every year, the demands, expectations, profile, wish list and purpose are all different for these two segments.

V&A museum: V&A museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is the world’s biggest museum of arts including, paintings, prints, photography, textiles, sculptures, jewellery, furniture, metalwork, instruments and architecture. Some of its noteworthy features are:-

• This museum holds the world’s biggest collection of post-classical sculptures, paintings and work from the renaissance days which are a treat to the art-loving population.
• Since the English culture and heritage is spread and known worldwide, international tourists also visit the art museum. The Glorious Victorian history is hidden in the complex architecture attracting thousands of visitors.
• More than 3 million tourists come from round the globe every year. Tourist destinations are domestic as well as international tourists.
• The mosaic in the pediment, ceramic staircase and the interiors as such, makes it the best destination for art seeking tourists. It is an ultimate destination for art lovers. These tourists visit the place for the purpose of the relaxation and zeal to see art related collection.
• These thousands of collections ensure a full day of enjoying for the tourists. The tourist show an interesting pattern of spending a good enough time around the objects, reading their details and feeling amazed with details. They are generally not seeking to learn things, but feeling amazed off the beauty and artwork.
• The age profile of tourist to this destination is typically adults more than 35 years of age. The tourists at these destinations are observed to carry smart devices like Smartphones, tablets and i-touch. They try to seek more information using the internet device and sometime take pictures to carry along when they return back home. Smart devices are used by them for looking up directions, maps and search of music while moving around the museum.

Science Museum: Quite on the Contrary to V&A is the Science Museum on the Exhibition Road London, catering to an entirely different tourist profile. Some prominent characteristics are:-

• It receives more than 2.9 million visitors in the year 2013.
• Science Museum has a collection of more than 300,000 items including the oldest surviving steam engine, earliest jet engines, Charles Babbage’s Difference machine, models of DNA and thousands of prototypes of scientific world.
•  The tourist group entering the Science museum are, unlikely the V A museum, are more interested in gaining information. They walk around the collection, collecting details, hearing to audio messages and reading description. Additionally, the medical collection has global coverage.
• Many tourists are observed to spend a good amount of time in the huge library that holds hundreds of periodicals, manuscripts, early books, and other books.
•  For the young learners, the museum is also a source of inspiration to achieve the career path they wish to pursue. Some kids who have a scientific inclination to professions like scientists, chemistry, or aerospace personnel show keen interest around the museum.
•  Experts and employees narrate some real interesting facts, models and stories from the technology world that is not just informative for students but also excites them to explore more. The Science museum thus solves the purpose of its visitors in more than expected manner.

The young students from schools are seen to be accompanied by their parents who are looking for learning in interesting way that the museum has to offer. An interesting concept of ‘Science night’ is quite famous among young children and is designed specifically for targeting this section of the tourists. This gives them the opportunity to spend an evening performing science based activities that involves fun, enjoyment and constructive engagement. Scientific instruments, hundreds of models and prototypes are also used as learning quotient by schools that bring students in groups as well. The tourist group also includes those adults who are inquisitive by nature and have a knack to learn new things. It also finds college students like us who visit the museum as a part of their learning and assignment.

The museum has many floors that depict specific collection for science, health care, atmosphere, mathematics medicine, cosmos and space, etc. It also holds a theatre and an IMAX 3D Cinema in order to offer a complete product to the visitors. Visuals are a great source of learning and retaining information and that’s why tourists generally like to complete their visit with a show in the theatre. Various exhibitions are also held in the museum to attract more visitors and put up a holistic image of the museum. Thus, V&A Museum and Science Museum of UK are a great attraction of visitors but due to their difference attract a different section of population. The offerings, collection, interiors and the value proposition all are different for them, but both add immense value to the tourism in Britain and add a new flavour to the wholesome experience that travellers get in UK (V&A, 2014). Both have evolved over decades and renovated and refurbished based on the demands of its visitors but have maintained the basic aim they are built with.

Task 3 Understand roles, responsibilities and ownership of Organisations in the heritage and cultural industry

3.1 Evaluate the impact of different types of ownership on the management of heritage and cultural sites – What are the types of ownership? How they are different? What are the objectives of different type organizations? How do they differ? This needs to be addressed with examples.

There is a positive conditions created to increase the conservation and preservation of natural and cultural heritage of sites across the world. In order to do so, there are various public, private and government organizations which are looking into it and trying to preserve these organizations. The responsibilities and tasks associated with each type of organization is explained below:

1. Public: These are government owner organizations which includes various departments’ viz. culture, park service, gardens, parks, museums, monuments and various heritage sites. These organizations works both at national and at subnational level. Their main aim is to conserve these site and educate people on the do’s and don’ts while visiting any heritage site and what efforts common public can make to preserve these heritage sites. By making all these efforts, their motive is to increase the tourism of the state. Since, the clean, and original state of these sites will attract more tourists from round the world and the site or the city will gain recognition. The increased tourism will also help in increased revenue which can help the state and also the same money can be put in again in maintaining these sites and hence making them more beautiful and attractive. These organizations also helps in preserving the culture and increasing awareness among the locals for the site. These locals after getting the sufficient knowledge can also get jobs in some of the departments and can help their family with the money. From political point of view, the preservation of these sites is done to show symbolic manifestation, maintain and construct identities for the state. Some of the examples are Heritage Lottery fund and CADW.
2. Private: They are generally owned by private people such as farmsteads, mine owners etc. The primary motive of these type of owners are to make profit for them by maintaining or preserving these sites. For doing this, they do publicity, advertising and other marketing gimmicks to boost their public image and thus help in generating more revenue. They also provide various entertainment things to the users to attract more tourists for their site. They mainly own historic sites, art galleries or any cultural centres. Although their basic purpose is to earn profit but they also work for conservation and preservation of the heritage sites. These sites are worked under the boundaries of the government and they work under the laws of the government. For getting various grants and permission these sites have to follow minimum standards and sometimes both the government and owners work together for preservation of the heritage site. Some of the examples are House Association (Steven, 2007).
3. Voluntary: These organizations are neither private nor public. They do earn money but not for the profit purposes but only for the operational expenses. The sites which these organizations own charge some basic fee from the visitors but the money collected is used only for self-sufficiency. Their main aim is only to preserve and maintain the heritage site. They maintain sites like museums, archaeological sites and other places with great historic importance. Sometimes, these organizations also provide various entertainment shows and relaxation items for tourists to attract more tourists. These programs also educate tourists about the history and culture of the site. Some of the examples are War Memorials trust etc.

These three types of organizations sometime work closely and cooperate with one another to preserve these sites. By this it helps in increasing the revenue for the state, and also helps in development of the state. Various grants and other helps are received from the government and private donors to these sites which help in conservation of these sites (Cooper, 2005).

3.2 To the above chosen organizations or examples: Analyse roles and responsibilities of organizations in the heritage and cultural industry.

The organization which are discussed above perform various tasks and various responsibilities which are under their purview. These organizations work hard to maintain these cultural and heritage sites so that the future generations can also see them any appreciate their beauty and the architecture. The government also pass various laws to protect these heritage sites and helps these organizations with various operational challenges they face. The laws formed by the government defines the roles that are to be performed by these organizations so that there are no clash between the responsibilities. In 1983, UK government passed National Heritage Act for the preservation of these sites. Some of the role and responsibilities which are taken care by these organizations are mentioned below:

1. They do lot of fundraising campaigns to collect money by the rich and affluent people. The money collected is used in various activities in the heritage site.
2. These organizations also help in making important connections to various people via social network and other sources and help the sites like museums etc. to gain various arts masterpiece and other items.
3. Raising money through various sources such that sites can improve their facility and also can buy some of the new historically important art collection.
4. They also help in increasing awareness about the site and the city.
5. These organizations also help in case if there is any emergency like fire etc. They provide support and assistance to all the staff and helps in full recovery.

These organizations are supported by various  global business level organizations like UNESCO, ICOMOS etc. These global level organization helps these organizations and provide various trainings and assistance. They help them in proper management of the site and helps them to develop reporting system. Sometimes, these organizations help in fundraising and other activities so that these sites can be preserved well (Theobald, 1998). Organization like ICOMOS provides information on heritage and preservation of sites. This can be in the form of videos, documents, journals and other books and materials which can help these organizations in proper management. They just don’t dump information on these sites but helps them to understand it by conducting proper training sessions.

Conclusion

The cultural and heritage for any country is important as it helps them to understand their culture, their past and is a great source of learning. Apart from this, by these sites the country or the state or city gets recognised internationally. From the tourists which comes to visit these sites, it helps in revenue creation and creating various job opportunities. Hence, preservation and maintenance of these sites are important so that they don’t lose their beauty. If the sites gets damaged or is not properly maintained they it will lose the attention of the tourists. To maintain these sites various organizations have come up and have shared responsibilities. Various government laws also have been passed to make sure that there is no damage to these sites. So, in this assignment we learned all these things and it helped us to give proper insights on tourism business and gave holistic understanding on why preservation of these sites are important.

References

1. Botterill, D. (2002) Tourism Studies and Research Quality Assessment in UK Universities. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 1(2), 71-74.
2. Cooper, C. (2005). Tourism: Principles and Practice (3rd ed.). Harlow: ISBN 0-273-68406-X.OCLC 466952897
3. Dodds, D., Ravilious, E. (2009) The Factory Project: digitization at the Victoria and Albert    Museum, Art Libraries Journal, 34(2).pp.10–16.
4. Lowenthal, D. (1985) The Past is a Foreign Country, New York, and Cambridge University Press.
5. Science Museum (2014). About Us. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us.aspx. [Accessed on 24th August 2014].
6. Soros, S.W., Godwin, E. W. (1999) Aesthetic Movement Architect and Designer, pp. 45-47.
7. Steven R. (2007) Watson's bad science. The Guardian. Accessed on 24th August 2014.
8. Tanselle, G. (1998), Literature and Artifacts, Charlottesville Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia.
9. Theobald, W. F. (1998). Global Tourism (2nd ed.). Oxford [England]: Butterworth–Heinemann. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0-7506-4022-7. OCLC 40330075.
10. V&A (2014). V&A Architecture. Retrieved from http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/architecture/. [Accessed on 24th August 2014]

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