Zhu - Elements in Critical Heritage Studies: Heritage Tourism

Elements in Critical Heritage Studies

edited by

Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg

Michael Rowlands, UCL

Francis Nyamnjoh, University of Cape Town

Astrid Swenson, Bath University

Shu-Li Wang, Academia Sinica

Ola Wetterberg, University of Gothenburg

Heritage Tourism

From Problems to Possibilities

Yujie Zhu

Australian National University

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Yujie Zhu 2021

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First published 2021

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Heritage Tourism

From Problems to Possibilities

Elements in Critical Heritage Studies

DOI: 10.1017/9781108914024

First published online: May 2021

Yujie Zhu

Australian National University

Author for correspondence: Yujie Zhu,

Abstract: As one of the worlds fastest-growing industries, heritage tourism is surrounded by political and ethical issues. This research explores the social and political effects and implications of heritage tourism through several pertinent topics. It examines the hegemonic power of heritage tourism and its consequences, the spectre of nationalism and colonialism in heritage-making, particularly for minorities and indigenous peoples, and the paradox of heritage tourisms role in combatting these issues. Drawing from global cases, the study addresses a range of approaches and the challenges of empowerment within the context of heritage tourism, including cultural landscapes, intangible heritage and ecomuseums. The research argues that heritage tourism has the potential to develop as a form of co-production. It can be used to create a mechanism for community-centred governance that integrates recognition and interpretation and promotes dialogue, equity and diversity.

Keywords: politics, empowerment, heritage, tourism, community

Yujie Zhu 2021

ISBNs: 9781108823395 (PB), 9781108914024 (OC)

ISSNs: 2632-7074 (online), 2632-7066 (print)

In my travels, I have often visited a town called Lijiang in the south-west of China, not far from Laos, Burma and Vietnam. Like me, millions of tourists from all over the world visit the place, fascinated by its mountain scenery, narrow waterways, traditional architecture and unique ethnic minority culture. After the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) listed Lijiang as a World Heritage Site in 1997, the rapidly growing heritage tourism industry has had a tremendous impact on the social fabric of the town. Heritage tourism has created employment opportunities and provided resources for building restoration and cultural revitalisation. At the same time, the original residents of the town have developed a collective sense of displacement due to spatial transformation, rising living costs and increased commercialisation.

These tourism impacts are representative of the global tourism industrys response to significant changes resulting from global interconnectedness (). Within this context, heritage tourism is one of the fastest-growing aspects of the tourism industry, employing millions of people directly and indirectly.

While the benefits can be substantial, the negative features of this rapid growth and adoption of heritage for tourism purposes can be significant. For Lijiang and numerous other sites around the world, heritage can become used for un(intended) purposes. What concepts and approaches are useful for understanding this global phenomenon? How does global tourism consumption shape the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage? And how can different stakeholders use heritage tourism to ensure a more sustainable future?

This research examines the key political and ethical issues that emerge through heritage tourism as one of the fastest-growing niches of the global tourism industry. It provides critical analysis to explain the multifaceted relationship between heritage and tourism. This approach is situated in the development of critical heritage studies and critical tourism studies, two interdisciplinary fields of academic study that have developed in recent decades.

Drawing from cases all around the world, I address a range of existing approaches and the challenges of empowerment and sustainable development within the heritage tourism context. Heritage tourism should not be taken simply as an economic and management business, but instead should be seen as a global political and ethical project associated with the power of dominant actors and the hopes of the marginalised. Furthermore, this research seeks to provide a critical account of how communities, international organisations and national and local governments manage heritage tourism as an exercise of co-production. In so doing, heritage tourism can be developed as a social movement to empower dialogue, equity and diversity. These issues become particularly relevant and essential today with the rise of deglobalisation and nationalism.

Figure 1

Mass tourism in Lijiang, China

Definitions: Heritage, Tourism and Heritage Tourism

Defining heritage tourism is not an easy task. Both terms (heritage and tourism) are value-laden concepts explored by all sorts of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, history, geography, cultural studies, political science and management. Each of them brings particular research methods and theories to study heritage and tourism as separate but sometimes interrelated subjects.

Traditionally, heritage refers to cultural performances, buildings and objects representing an authentic past or environment. In the past decades, scholars have called for a shift in the understanding of heritage from conservation of the past to the politics of the past ().