Tourism is now a global phenomenon, set to become the world’s largest industry and already crucial to many national and local economies. To a great extent it feeds off a wide range of heritage—
obvious monuments, movable treasures, indigenous cultures, ideas and images.
How can heritage sites be protected from, while being enjoyed by, ‘the ravening hordes’? What are tourist operators’ responsibilities, intellectually as well as to the monuments and museums which
provide their attractions? How are various heritages presented to not just increasing numbers of tourists but an increasingly wide range of culturally-differentiated people visiting heritage through armchair travel—and indeed while eating and shopping? And how does and should the interpreter approach this increasingly complex and
sensitive field, giving meaning to structures, artefacts and ideas for global villagers with different backgrounds, motivations and expectations? The book identifies a host of practicalities among a plenitude of examples from around the world, specifying good and bad practice in the inevitable, often uncomprehending culture clash. The discussion, including such sensitive issues as ethnicity, loot, eco-tourism and interpretive relativism, is firmly bedded in the concept of a dynamic global village, where all the inhabitants can and do visit each other and are everywhere faced with the challenge of communication—not
just linguistic, not just how to converse, but what to convey to each other. Priscilla Boniface worked for many years for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, and is now a freelance consultant in communications and heritage. Peter J.Fowler is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne |