Topic: Heritage management
Manage
visitors. services. safeguarding built heritage. from tourism point of view
Introduction
Tourism is a major industry and
strong economic vehicle that makes a significant contribution to overall
national economy. (Nicolette de Sausmarez, 2007) Tourism for many individuals
is about enjoyment and having fun, for governments tourism is generator of
important foreign exchange and job creator for allied industries. Tourist
industry has a major impact on host country’s civil society and social
landscape. Tourism provides economic benefits and influences the local
residents in many other ways as well (Oui, 2005). Tourists are exposed to local
politics implicitly by being exposed to conditions that are present for local
residents.
Only countries with safe and stable image draw
tourists in abandon, so in other ways increasing levels of tourists imply an
endorsements of concerned location’s ambient environment. Political regimes are
indirectly bolstered by tourists, therefore tourism not only aids in economic
development but for international support of governmental policies (Oui,
2005). In case of a crisis or disaster,
economy is disturbed and livelihood of many may be affected. Crisis indicators
may be useful in highlighting areas of concern and minimize affects on tourism.
The damage to tourist destination may be substantial, as in the case of SARS
outbreak or Bali bombings and full recovery may take a significant time and
effort. Crisis management requires intervention to manage the situation from
deteriorating and to minimize damage caused. (Nicolette de Sausmarez, 2007)
Keywords: Heritage Management, An Essay on Heritage Management, Research Paper on Heritage Management
Heritage tourism UK
As Emma (2006) reports
tourists are drawn to Britain because of its rich and varied heritage and by
preserving and maintaining tourism industry in UK could be improved further.
British governments have been using tourism as a political and social leverage
– an instrument of leisure as well as a political instrument. Leisure and
recreational policies were employed to mitigate the effects of large scale
unemployment and other problems in UK during the 1980’s. Thatch eristic
policies used tourism for regeneration of cities and towns. Such socio economic
changes may not be highly welcome in a developed city as stakeholders are not
very open to encroachment of aliens on their ways of living and working.
Influence of men with vision can transform towns into tourist industries. Bohan
and Elbe describe how Alvaden, Sweden was successfully turned into a tourist
destination without being an expert in tourism development - the important
point is cooperation amongst stakeholders (Kriyaki, 2004). Kriyaki also
mentions new tourism trends as a function of the increasing aging population
and the prevalent consumer segments.
Sustainable Tourism
`Sustainable tourism'
refers to the improved social and environmental impact of all forms of tourism
including mass tourism (Timothy, 1997). Some of the principles of sustainable
tourism include: Conservation of resources including social and cultural
resources; reducing excessive consumption and ensuing waste, thus minimizing
long term damages of over consumption; diversity is essential for producing a
strong base; tourism should be intermixed with planning, both national and
local strategic level; supporting local economic initiatives and incorporates
environmental costs and values; involvement of local communities in the tourism
sector, cross benefiting both the communities and environment; stakeholders and
public are to be kept apprised at all times to foster long term cooperation and
reduce conflicts; appropriate training by using local staff at all levels to
improve the deliverable product; marketing responsibly to end users to enhance
customer satisfaction and increase respect for socio cultural environment and
finally undertaking continual research and data analysis to resolve problems
and to bring benefits to end tourist destinations and overall tourist industry.
(Timothy, 1997)
Managing Tourism
Regulation of tourism
industry is difficult because of inherent complex nature of the industry –
tourism is a combination of activities from transport to hotel management with
each activity having a different business objective. UK tourism market is
extremely price competitive and suffers from decreasing margins as competition becomes
intense, so the focus is on short term profit taking rather than long term
sustainability. Thus tourism development may be cyclical climbing rapidly and
then declining at the same time shows virtual incapacity of individual
companies to make or introduce change by themselves.
Consumer perceptions
Survey to identify
tourism industry’s own perceptions about
sustainable tourism and self regulation
about environment responsibility identified practices like cost cutting, value
adding, long term investment and governmental legislation. These practices were
selectively followed with tour operators restricting themselves to offering
environment friendly or “green” holidays, hotel industry opting for cost
cutting measures and travel agents avoiding most of the practices. It was
generally believed that legislation would be necessary to produce long lasting
changes. A 1993 survey indicated willingness of almost half of local consumers
to pay extra premium for guaranteed clean beach and sand, hence what tourists perceive
to be desirable is of paramount importance in any form of sustainable self or
governmental legislation. Hence quality parameter may be added to qualify
sustainable practices and make sustainable practice more attractive to
commercial interests of the companies.
Tourism like other
industries has significant impact on environment, however effective regulation
in this industry may be difficult because of inherent complex nature of this
industry and the very fact that its main end product, recreation is perceived
and experienced differently by each customer. Thus sustainable tourism may
require change in current practices of both marketers and the incumbents for
better identification of common ground and for making sure that customers get
this message more effectively. (Timothy, 1997)
ICT as tourism enabler
Internet by its very
nature has changed the traditional paradigm of doing business. Internet allows
for rapid dissemination of quality information, universal accessibility and
minimal cost for deliverance. (L. Rayman & A. Molina, 2001)
Online access of
services has reduced the distribution costs, so the end product could be
individually customized according to perceptions and needs of the customer.
Take the case of Amazon.com, here each visit will customize the environment in
accordance with the shown preference of customer during prior visits. Internet
businesses are helping in growth and evolution in e-commerce aspects of tourism
industry.
ICT hasn’t helped in all
places as British Airways experience tells us. It though earlier that it could
do away with independent travel management companies and sell only though its
website, however it found that by reducing point of focus BA has reduced its
visibility so it decided to reengage with travel management companies (Travel
Trade, 2007)
Tourism Europe
European economic
dominion may have changed significantly since the turn of the century as
concept of individual entities, as country, have shifted to single EU umbrella,
leading to globalization of trade practices and significant changes in multiple
allied economic sectors. ICT is considered one main reason for this
restructuring, and ICT has been one of the major factors which has impacted on
the service areas and enterprises – as ICT practices are assimilated and
incorporated.
Newer ways of competing and cooperating are slowly becoming
accepted and changing face of business competition have allowed introduction of
more individualistic form of holidays which could be better fine tuned to individual
customer. The global market advantage is also driven by access of services like
transnational banking and enquiry systems, single currency across EU and
interactive internet based booking systems. European tourism accounts for
almost 50% of global tourism and is thus a major generator of business. It has
become much easier for customer to find specific right deals through customized
and most economical package. Priceline.com and Travelocity are but small
examples of tailored services available at no extra cost to savvy customer and
internet based travel transactions have become a significant portion of travel
sales.
Travel information
With increase in telecom
developments travelers have become more eager for specific and detailed travel
information – internet can easily whet the appetite of even the most demanding
of the customers, and internet has become and enabling technology for the
industry. Tourism has become a large constituent of internet based commerce and
resultant increasing competition for end users and evolving models of online
tourism has given end consumer additional advantage in accessing services in
full richer, sensory, multimedia availability to give hitherto unimagined
experiences to the consumer. Competitive landscape of Internet based services, including
tourism, is growing by leaps and bounds giving way to full sensory experiences
of distant lands without leaving the computer and possibly without ever
visiting! (L. Rayman & A. Molina, 2001)
ICT is lowering cost and
risk factors to entrepreneurs who want to compete in niche markets. The
availability and diversity of information in unprecedented, quantitative
(weather conditions, pricing and availability of seats, flight tracking) and
qualitative data (cultural conditions, environment, multimedia repository of
information to encyclopedic level). There are more opportunities to
differentiate with incorporating more culturally sensitive sites, beyond
language into that for example found in Spanish Tourist Office. (L. Rayman
& A. Molina, 2001)
Northern Ireland’s
Rathlin Island represents positive developments in the sustainable tourism
genre. This area is one of the most scenic bird and marine life sanctuaries and
has been being designated as special conservation area. Tourism has taken on
increasing role in the island’s development, a sustainable tourism strategy is
important to enhance the visitor experience. A study was conducted involving
local residents and stakeholders to compare tourism resources with other
comparable destinations so that this resort could be developed to attract more
visitors while safeguarding the natural beauty and scenery of the resort. This
vision for Rathlin island can later be replicated all across UK, mentioned
David Erwin, chairman of Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust. (The
Newsletter, 2005)
Disabled tourists
Tourism visits to UK
tourist attractions have been dominated by domestic tourists, who at times make
up to 65% of the total tourists. Disabled persons are very small percentage of
the total visitors to historical environments.
There have been major initiatives on inclusions in the historic
environments so that more disabled people could access these resources.
Disabled people still face restrictive choices in comparison, compromise
solutions include service provisioning to disabled in an alternative manner.
However social policies for inclusion may need to be examined in more detail so that increased access to
disabled is provisioned for the disabled. Furthermore by providing initial
investment, government may soon be able to recover its investment as increased
number of disabled start visiting historic resorts. (Brian et al, 2004)
Organic Images
Whenever a potential
tourist thinks of a place he or she has an image, be it perceived or real and
similarly the tourist would respond better if the marketing image corresponds
to the image he already has in his mind. Organic images are thus referred to as
images that have become rooted in traditions, linked with heritage, history and
culture. According to Graham Hickinson (2004) these images have been formed
over a long period of time and marketing may or may not change perceptions
about these core images. Reputation of a place as well as people’s assumptions
and presumptions, biases and opinions all color the respective organic image of
the concerned place.
These core organic
images that are derived from attributes of heritage, culture and history are
useful for promoting embodiment of these very values as tourist destination.
These results are very important for tourism and destination marketers as these
organic images have a strong bearing in determining perceptions and thus become
useful for successful positioning promotions, especially if resources are
constrained.
If the destination has
long political historical base then the organic image may be strongly positive
– and therefore the image needs to be nurtured – by maintaining the respective
site and its environment. Industrial decline, if over a long period, may mar
the organic image. Negative images cannot be changed through marketing alone,
but may require refurbishment of the end product itself. Further destinations
seeking repositioning and continued positive images need to maintain a steady
stream of marketing and public relation campaigns. Image attributes are dependent
on history, heritage and cultural elements, so image building and brand equity
measures should partake of wide ranging attributes that constitute the brand
images, and narrow focused images may veer off the mark.
Organic image is not the
sole criteria in building perception, it does help create ambience of the
place, the marketers have to be aware of this and not only extol the virtues of
the promoted place, manner in which promotion is done is very important.
Advertising should support the core image to be more effective and message
should be balanced with a place with not so strongly positive image. Organic
image may be central to success of theme, especially if it is tied in with
other aspects of marketing. (Graham, 2004)
Travel Planning
Leisure travel accounts
for 31% of all trips in the UK, so travel plans are thought of as ideal way to
change travel behavior – this helps in reducing car travel time, encourage car
pooling, more usage of public transport services and more provisions for
pedestrians and cyclists. Travel plans for leisure trip may not work in the
traditional way as the leisure trip makers may not be familiar with the place
or travel choices, hence tourists need to be better informed and advised. (Jo
Guiver, 2006)
Cities that have not been
traditionally seen as tourist destinations are becoming tourist favorites, but
to make it so involves differentiated marketing. The marketers need to broaden
their approach target various strengths rather than focus on one unique selling
proposition (USP). The quality of visitor services and resultant experience is
quite significant rather than availability of multiple services and visitor
attractions. Development as a cultural tourist attraction requires host of
interrelated factors, many of which may be specific to that place USP, like the
study in Glasgow suggests. (Clare Murphy & Emily Boyle, 2005).
Sustainable tourism
involves more accountability at the management level while it also increases
the onus on tourists, who largely show resistance to messages of
sustainability, and help of NGO might be required to effectuate tourist’s mind
set change (Kristen et. al, 2007)
Conclusion
Sustainable
tourism may allow redefining tourism from its traditional image that are not
very helpful for equitable development. Market demands may push otherwise
however sustainable tourism may require change in campaigns of both marketers
and industry (Timothy, 1997)
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