In many places across the world, many cultural tourism attractions are suffering visitor overload already, while others are visited to capacity. Elsewhere, and often in these very same overall locations, there are cultural items which are intended to attract visitors yet, for a reason or reasons, they are not fulfilling that role with much success. In other places cultural tourism has scarcely, or not at all, been begun as an industry or activity. In the situation so described, it is not difficult to see that the tourism aims for one group are scarcely likely to be the same as another. World Heritage Sites might be thought, by their nature, to fall entirely into the first category described above—to be over-visited or visited to capacity—and certainly many are, such as Mesa Verde, Mont St Michel, the Pyramids (at least until the radical change in situation brought about through tourists in Egypt becoming a focus of religious fundamentalists’ attention), the Tower of London and the Taj Mahal. Yet, it is not this simple, even with a World Heritage Site. First, a total global heritage overview is precluded because not every country in the world is a signatory to the World Heritage Convention. A country which has put forward its site to the World Heritage Committee for inclusion on the World Heritage List in the first instance, for very good reasons of its own, may know the Site is under stress but, for economic reasons, not care to admit it. In other instances, one part of a Site may be worn down while another may be almost deserted, possessing the capacity to bear plenty more visits: either way, local people involved in associated entrepreneurial activity may be ‘crying out’ for more people to visit, while other disinterested locals might want to be left in peace. The physical state of what remains of the original fabric of the relevant portion of the—immensely long overall—Great Wall of China, where VIPs tend to be taken for valuable photo-opportunities, is scarcely likely to be a first concern of host or visitor. Here, looking good is the prime requirement. Among the reasons for promoting, or not promoting, one attraction at the expense of another, those of economic and/or political or social prestige are usually to the fore. As will be demonstrated, however, there are also many other possible reasons. And, as will be shown, all the promotion in the world may not be able to overcome a basic element of ‘turn off to tourists about a site. The explosion in tourism in general is principally rooted in better communications, increased affluence and more leisure. In regard to what is seen as cultural tourism, any tourism, even tourism ostensibly of the ‘sun and sand’ variety, or, for that matter, with the purpose of Visiting a friend up the road’, would have little power of attraction without the presence of some alien culture, of differentness.
Ethnic Cultures in Iran: Azeri Musical Heritage
