Study Guide: Tourism and Cultural Heritage (NUR)

Unit 1: What is Heritage?

• Heritage encompasses practices, objects, places, and traditions passed down through generations.
• Tangible heritage includes physical artifacts like monuments and artifacts.
• Intangible heritage includes practices, traditions, and knowledge, such as languages and ceremonies.
• Natural heritage includes landscapes and biodiversity.
• Digital heritage consists of digital archives and photographs.
• The concept of heritage has evolved from focusing on elite monuments to including everyday cultural practices.
• UNESCO's 1972 World Heritage Convention played a crucial role in defining heritage.

Unit 1a: Key Definitions and History of the Concept

• Heritage is rooted in nation-building efforts.
• Heritage classifications include movable (e.g., artifacts) and immovable (e.g., buildings) tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage (rituals), natural heritage (landscapes), and underwater heritage (shipwrecks).

Unit 1b: Heritage Classification, Uses, Values, and Agents

• Heritage has uses in education, identity formation, the economy (tourism), and politics (nationalism).
• Heritage holds historical, aesthetic, social, economic, and symbolic value.
• Heritage is affected by various agents including governments, UNESCO, local communities, NGOs, and tourists.

Unit 1c: Heritage, Identity, and Collective Identity

• Heritage shapes cultural and personal identities.
• Shared heritage strengthens group identity.
• Examples for understanding this connection include national holidays and language maintenance.

Unit 1d: Heritage, Identity, and Collective Identity - Food and Gastronomy

• Culinary heritage represents food as a cultural symbol.
• Food traditions impact identity, local economy, and tourism.
• Examples of food and gastronomy heritage include the Mediterranean diet and Spanish cuisine like Paella and Catalan gastronomy like Escudella and crema catalana.

Unit 1e: Dark Tourism

• Dark tourism involves visiting sites associated with death or tragedy.
• Motivations for dark tourism include education, curiosity, and reflection.
• Ethical issues of dark tourism include commercialization and respecting victims.

Unit 1f: Oral Memory

• Oral memory refers to stories, traditions, and knowledge shared verbally across generations.
• Oral memory is part of intangible cultural heritage.
• Examples include indigenous storytelling and oral histories.

Unit 2: How Do Heritage and Tourism Interact?

Unit 2a: History of Tourism

• Tourism has evolved from religious pilgrimages and elite travel to the mass tourism and cultural heritage tourism of today.
• Key developments include the organized tours of Thomas Cook and universal exhibitions.

Unit 2b: Heritage, Tourism, and Gender

• Women often serve as custodians of cultural heritage (e.g., crafts and traditions).
• Gender stereotypes can affect tourism marketing.
• Promoting women's participation in heritage tourism jobs is crucial. Examples include programs like Apropa Cultura.

Unit 2c: Classifying Cultural Tourism

• Cultural tourism includes a variety of typologies such as heritage (monuments), arts (theaters, festivals), religious (pilgrimages), urban, and industrial tourism. Natural heritage tourism, like the Pyrenees and biodiversity parks is also included.

Unit 2d: Tourism Activation

• Tourism activation involves initiating or strengthening tourism activities.
• Phases of tourism activation involve identifying resources, developing infrastructure, marketing and promoting destinations, engaging communities, and continuous improvement.

Unit 2e: Heritage Becoming a Tourism Attraction

• Heritage tourism can benefit conservation efforts, economic gains (investment and infrastructure development), and cultural understanding.
• Drawbacks include over-tourism that can damage and spoil heritage sites as occurred in Barcelona. Further problems include the commercialization and loss of authenticity that can occur during this process.

Unit 3: How Can We Analyze Heritage?

• Heritage analysis frameworks cover historical impacts, sociocultural effects on identity and community, economic contributions to tourism and development, and environmental management and conservation challenges.
• Tools for analysis include SWOT analysis and case studies.