Heritage tourism

Heritage tourism is becoming an increasingly significant component of the global tourism industry. The growth in popularity of recreated and reinterpreted past has had profound influences on the presentation and representation of both tangible and intangible heritage within the tourism context. Heritage is both a complex and multi-faceted concept. It continues to evolve with fast changing political, economic and socio-cultural surroundings. Therefore, it is essential that heritage tourism needs to engage with the new forms of globalised communities and societies, which have become more assimilated to each other but yet strive to sustain their own distinctive locality.
There is an urgent need to incorporate both global and local perspectives and approaches in theorising and managing heritage tourism. While focusing on reviewing and analysing key academic concepts and debates including commodification, globalisation and heritage interpretation, this book aims to critically evaluate and discuss such topical and current issues as sustainable development, management strategies and consumerism. It is of crucial significance to theoretically locate heritage discourses in the analysis of heritage tourism development and management. This book is a timely and welcome addition to both social science based and management driven discourses on heritage and tourism, incorporating the professional practices of heritage tourism in both developed and developing countries. This book is based on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing from Tourism, Heritage Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Politics and Geography to Management and Marketing Studies.