Cultural tourism began to be recognized as a distinct product category in the late 1970s when tourism marketers and tourism researchers realized that some people traveled specifically to gain a deeper understanding of the culture or heritage of a destination. Initially, it was regarded as a specialized, niche activity that was thought to be pursued by a small number of better educated, more affluent tourists who were looking for something other than the standard sand, sun, and sea holiday. It is only since the fragmentation of the mass market in the 1990s that cultural tourism has been recognized for what it is: a high-profile, mass-ITIarket activity. Depending on the source and the destination, between 35 and 70 percent of international travelers are now considered cultural tourists. Based on these figures, as many as 240 nlillion international journeys annually involve sonle element of cultural tourisnl. Today, arguably, cultural tourism has superseded ecotourism as the trendy tourisln buzzword. It is not surprising, then, that destinations are clamoring to get on the proverbial cultural tourisrn band-wagon by promoting their cultural or heritage assets for tourist consumption, often without due consideration of the impact that tourism 111ay have on them. Cultural tourism did not go unnoticed by the cultural heritage managelnent sector either. In fact, the growth of cultural tourism coincided with the emergence of a broader societywide appreciation of the need to protect and conserve our dwindling cultural and heritage assets. However, cultural tourism was seen as a double-edged sword by the cultural heritage managenlent comlnunity. On the one hand, increased denland by tourists provided a powerful political and econOlnic justification to expand conservation activities. On the other hand, increased visitation, overuse, inappropriate use, and the commodification of the same assets without regard for their cultural values posed a real threat to the integrity-and in extreme cases, to the very survival-of these assets. At about the same time, then, cultural heritage nlanagelllent advocates began to promulgate policies to protect cultural values froIll inappropriate tourisIll uses (International Council on Monuments and Sites [ICOM()S] 1976) (Source: Cultural Tourism: The Participation of Management and Tourism).
Cultural Tourism: Living New Cultural Milieus
