Exploring Cultural Tourism

Traditional Cultural Tourism Focused on Cultural History, Landscapes and Land Monuments

Question:

Discuss About The Cultural Tourism Focused Cultural History?

Cultural attraction if one of the main topic of discussion in contemporary tourism. Traditionally, cultural tourism focused on the cultural history, landscapes and land monuments of a community. Today, people travel across different places for common aspects such as education, religion, and popular culture (Richards, 2011).  The diversification of heritage provides fresh opportunities for the industry because of the new patterns, which attract tourists. Globalization is one of the reasons for this diversity because it provides insight into new lifestyles, values, and events. Cultural exchange accounting global community has led to the development of these diversities in national, regional and global systems. These changes are evident in the customs, beliefs, social institutions and material products.

Using the Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions, this report explains the diversities in beliefs, attitudes, meanings and spatial relations while highlighting common attributes. It looks at the disappearance of cultural identifies caused by looted artifacts. It also identifies the role of conflict, wars, ownership, identity and commemoration. Cultural tourism also has an interest on repatriation and its destructive effects on tourism (Maria Munar, 2011). The emergence of a collective form of cultural identity in the global system comes about because of popular culture, repatriation and collective memory and other factors. Discussion about the dissonance arising from this change indicate a lack of harmony on cultural values. 

Hofstede’s cultural heritage describes elements of culture in relation to national influences to language, Arts & Sciences, Spirituality, Social activity and interaction (Hofstede, 2011). This explains the national variability and collectiveness in main cultures and their subcultures. He points out that people in a community share these aspects. The approach explains the adoption of global education, technology and innovation across different regions. These are what defines the variability in lifestyle, language, behavior, ideology and heritage.   Cultural tourism concerns itself with culture. It allows people to travel from different geographical regions in order to experience its diversities (Csapo, 2012). This includes the history, language, lifestyle, ideologies and traditions. Heritage attractions have economic and sociocultural benefits hence need maintenance and protection.

The varying geographical and cultural environments causes people to move from one area to another. Different factors draw visitors to heritage sites. Among these is education and religion, which has been the cause for tourism across different sectors. Research into the motivational factors in modern day tourism indicates changes in the choice of destination (Richards, 2011). Distinct geographical locations and landscapes indicate different lifestyles and people hence the elaborate distinct attributes. Visitors want an experience of the Mediterranean climate, the food, its people and natural environment. Tourists from Scandinavian and snow prone areas still crave the sunshine in the tropics.

Diversification of Heritage Opportunities due to Globalization

Globalization effects on tourism supports the collective memory, which highlights collective ideas behind tourism. The contemporary tourist looks for shopping sites, collective entertainment spots, and other social experiences. People build collective memory based on nationalistic roots. Australians tourists would visit Europe because it’s national affiliation. Among the attractions in this case is landmark sites in the UK institutions and landscapes.  The universalization of global issues such as terrorist attacks makes the US twin towers a tourist attraction as people make visits to play homage to the fallen. Cultural landscapes include symbolic experiences in which Jews, Christians and Muslims find motivation in visiting religious sites for pilgrimage.

Popular culture is also a motivation for (Yong, et al., 2016). This marketing Hollywood, Bollywood, and Disney land popular sites for global tourists today. The contemporary ideas in entertainment represents themes that receive global acceptance.  It has also led to the emergence of interest groups, which continue to gain autonomy in the national systems. Today, technology links, media and entertainment scenes influence the choice of vacation for newlywed couples and much more. People get influences from what they see online and in TV shows. 

The heritage policies in Australia provides leadership standards for heritage bodies (Australia ICOMOS, n.d.) . Among this is the recognition of indigenous communities as heritage. This calls for the effective management of tourism through policies and it features the involvement of the local communities. Changes in legislation has also led to the adoption of sustainability for conservation. The indigenous communities have also brought about repatriation debates and the disharmony on contested boundaries.

 Conflict affects heritage in many ways. In the recent times, civil wars and terror groups have destroyed heritage sites in Syria and Iraq (Curry, 2015). Terrorism has made important locations insecure for tourists. Christians who would have wanted to learn about Islam no longer have the confidence to visit Muslim countries like North Africa for fear of terrorism encounters. Terrorism affects all parts of the world and Europe has faced more attacks recently.

Looting of artifacts across history includes stolen Greek arts and modern day World Heritage Sites in the hinterland (Alcock, et al., 2015). This vandalism has had an effect on documentation of historical factors as well as the physical destruction of sites. As a result, other modes of tourist attraction have emerged. For some tourists urban development is an interesting phenomenon. Regions such as Dubai continue to benefit from this new tourist focus. Following historical events, suggestions for the repatriation of heritage elements like antiques came up. However, this led to looting of valuable items from museum artifacts.

Hofstede's Model of Cultural Dimensions and National Variability of Main Cultures and Subcultures

Issues of ownership and identity continue to face political influences. Jerusalem as a major tourist point shows identity as a factor of influence for Muslim, Christian, and Jewish tourists (Mazumdar & Mazumdar, 2004) . This is a split between traditional, political and religious affiliations. Its destruction represents the destruction of heritage, ancestry, landscape and tourist sites. Conflict in ownership of heritage is also evident in the case of indigenous groups and the non-indigenous as seen in New Zealand and Asia. The destruction of cultural elements in order to put up urban development comes with negative effects on the cultural communities as well as the landscape.

 Commemoration as a tourist aspect of cultural heritage also shows new elements. The global community shares common commemoration in universal and sector events. People travel to different parts of the world for common celebrations like Valentines, weddings and anniversary celebrations. For example, the Caribbean receives visitors for vacation and honeymoons because of the climatic conditions. On the other hand, religious celebrations like Christmas, and Easter lead people to travel to their home areas to be with friends and family. Political and social commemorations such as commonwealth games dictate the tourism trends (Stone, 2012).

Discussions against the uniqueness of culture point at the risks of marinating cultural heritage. As discussed. Factors such as looting, ownership claims and conflicts have destroyed the essence of cultural attractions. As a result, tourists no longer feel the push to travel in different places for a unique experience. Contemporary issues like insecurity also influence the movement of people across destinations. National advisory against international travel in certain regions of the world redefines the tourism trend. This leaves people as the intangible tourist attraction across the globe (Lenzerini, 2011).

The changes in the global system also indicates the emergence of collective heritage, which encourages popular culture and events. Common events shaped by new social norms motivate people as individuals and groups. Modern tourists identify with common preferences such as hot spots or environmental attractions. Divers will visit beautiful ocean and sea locations for sports and businesspersons look for opportunities to visit China in order to learn from then production strategies. This negates the idea of individualism in the analysis of cultural heritage and it redefines future trends in cultural tourism (Hamamura, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cultural heritage is diverse but it has aspects of collectivism. In support of Hofstede’s approach, elements of cultural heritage such as language and artifacts still bring out differences. Adopting a common global language continues to face challenges because of this differences. The movement of people from one region to another does not erode this heritage as much as conflict and looting does. It is evident that globalization effects also affect the trend in globalization. Among its major effects is technology, which shapes the perception of tourists. Digital technology and multimedia applications influence people’s acceptance of global culture. People adopt common ideas that they can identify with. An example is the commemoration of events and celebrations. This affects the choice of travel location. However, diversities in geographical locations and people’s beliefs and values still define tourist attractions.

References

Alcock, S. E. et al., 2015. Looting and Vandalism around a world heritage site. Documenting modern damage to archeological heritage in Petras hinterland. Journal of Field Archeology, 40(2), pp. 221-235.

Australia ICOMOS, n.d. Heritage Policies; Autralia ICOMOS interim heritage policy-federal election 2016.

Csapo, J., 2012. The role and importance of cultural tourism in modern tourism industry. In: Strategies for Tourism Industry-Micro and Macro Perspectives. s.l.:s.n.

Curry, A., 2015. Here are the ancient sites ISIS has dmanaged and destroyed. National Gegraphics.

Hamamura, T., 2012. Are cultures becoming indvidualistic? A cross temperoral comparison of individualism in the United States and Japan. Perosnality and Social Psychology Review, pp. 3-24.

Hofstede, G., 2011. Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and culture, 2(1), p. 8.

Lenzerini, F., 2011. Intangible cultural heritage: The living culture of peoples. European JOurnal of International Law, pp. 101-120.

Maria Munar, A., 2011. Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, pp. 291-305.

Mazumdar, S. & Mazumdar, S., 2004. Religion and place attachment: A study of sacred places. Journal of environmental psychology, 24(3), pp. 385-397.

Richards, G., 2011. Creativity and tourism. Annals of tourism research, pp. 1225-1253.

Stone, P. R., 2012. Dark tourism and significant other death: Towards a model of morality mediation. Annals of tourism research, 39(3), pp. 1565-1587.

Yong, S., Whang, H. & Ko, E., 2016. Pop culture, destination images, and visit intentions: Theory and research on traveel motivations of Chinese and Russian tourists. Journal of Business Research, pp. 631-641.