Furthermore, tourism can encourage promotion and development of local crafts and other cultural expressions that contribute to community identity. However, tourism can also pose enormous threats to fragile cultural and natural sites. Around the world, many historic locations are under increasing pressures from poorly planned and managed tourism.
Tens of thousands of cultural heritage sites worldwide are threatened by dangers such as natural disasters, looting, commercial development, armed conflict, and neglect. Unchecked tourism development exacerbates these threats and can result in damage or loss of national treasures. Poorly managed tourism can physical damage sites with daily wear-and-tear.
Overtourism can also erode the unique atmosphere and charm of destinations, destroying the very reason that a site is prized in the first place. Increased visitation results in increased waste, water, and energy use and the development of vendor outlets, facilities, and services in and around popular sites. Poorly managed tourism at historic sites and monuments can have unwanted social and economic impacts, including increased crime, prostitution, and culture clash between tourists and local residents.
Take the classic example of Venice, one of the most popular cultural destinations in the world. Cruise ships damage fragile architecture as they funnel hoards from 5, passenger boats to narrow, 16th-century alleyways.
So what can be done to bring more benefits — and fewer harms — of tourism to historic sites and the communities living around them? And how can destinations balance the demands of tourism with the protection of cultural values and historic areas? Heritage tourism is a growing sector of tourism involving travel to historic sites. I therefore propose the following definition:. To be truly sustainable, tourism must protect and promote development opportunities, balancing resources to promote economic, social, and aesthetic sustainability.
What steps can we take towards sustainable cultural heritage tourism? Cultural heritage tourism can benefit communities through the production and sale of goods and services. At Global Heritage Fund, we connect people with opportunities that leverage heritage to ensure sustainable tourism models. In the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco, our programs are creating new jobs and supporting local development by restoring ancient monuments and developing alternative local tourism routes that ensure traveler spending truly benefits all.
However, organizations such as GHF cannot shoulder the weight of conservation and site protection alone. Tour operators must encourage people to stay longer at sites and contribute resources to local economies, emphasizing quality over quantity — principles at the core of our new sustainable travel program to Morocco. All too often, the pressures of global cultural tourism disproportionately harm these communities.
Around the world, communities are cut off from historic sites or even fully evicted in order to make room for tourism developments.
At Global Heritage Fund, we know that communities are integral to the success of our programs. From China to Turkey to Morocco, we create new opportunities that enable people living in and around historic sites to thrive and build ecosystems for long-term sustainability. Through skills development and training, this multi-year partnership will build on our established community training programs to expand local capacities and support sustainable development and preservation of the archaeological site.
Rather than pushing aside or ignoring communities, organizations and governments must enable communities to manage their own resources.
These processes require capacity-building, training, and time — lots of it. Many cultural heritage attractions do not have active tourism management plans in place. Even when tourism management plans exist, they are oftentimes not integrated within larger management plans for sites.
The systems of modern day tourism were built before the internet, when travelers were forced to rely heavily on major brands. Carryovers of that system, such as standardized rating systems, focus on uniformity and fail to take into account the quality of tourism experiences. As tourism numbers increase in an outdated system, pressures build and disproportionately affect communities around historic areas.
Heritage sites and cultural experiences are commodified — to the aforementioned detriment of the residents living in and around these historic areas. Better site policies, planning, management, and monitoring lead to increased site protection and a reduction in the negative impacts associated with tourism. There are no easy solutions to balance sustainability and travel.
However, I know that sustainable tourism can benefit cultural heritage sites — and with tourism only expected to grow over the next years and decades, historic sites can scarcely afford to ignore the coming increase in global travel. Each mezuzah trace told a story that came to life through the Jewish item. Looking for mezuzah traces throughout Europe was just one way I was able to connect to the heritage of the Jewish people and learn what Jewish life was like in countries prior to World War II.
There are so many ways that heritage travel can enhance your time on programs abroad, even for a short trip, and it will make a difference in how you remember a place once you return home. KAHAL aims to create meaningful Jewish experiences for study abroad students, allowing them to interact with local Jewish communities and deepen their Jewish identities.
Wherever students travel, KAHAL arranges chances to attend Shabbat dinners, meet Jewish students, attend holiday meals, volunteer and advocate, and provides grant funding and travel assistance. By using our site you agree to our use of cookies. Read our Cookie Policy for details. Choose Experience. Online Programs. Interested in GoAbroad? Start Your Search.
Back to top. Tags Diversity Travel Inspiration. FAQs on heritage travel Get up close and personal with hundreds of years of history. What is Heritage Tourism? Study Abroad.
Studying abroad provides a unique opportunity to live what you are studying. For example, instead of sitting in school reading about the Holocaust, if you study abroad in Europe, your classroom becomes your surroundings and you can visit places from a textbook firsthand. You can walk on the natural grounds where your ancestors once lived and enter still standing historic synagogues and other places of worship. Study abroad is a great time to explore cultural heritage tourism!
Volunteer Abroad. Protecting special places is valuable to humanity. If you hope to spend time volunteering abroad maybe consider volunteering on a conservation project anywhere in the world, that assists in protecting a heritage site for generations of travelers to come. This type of volunteering will be beneficial as it ensures that heritage travel can continue to provide meaningful experiences for others. Intern Abroad.
During my time doing an internship in Warsaw, I went with the office I worked for to a cemetery clean up at the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, to a day of memorial ceremonies in Jedwabne, Poland at seven different memorials, and on a bike ride from the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau to the Jewish Community Center in Krakow. Naturally, internships you do abroad will come with similar opportunities to visit heritage sites as part of your work hours.
Additionally, you can take advantage of your temporary backyard to spend weekends traveling to visit heritage sites and learning as much as possible about the people who live or lived in the country you are working in. You will benefit from seeing a full dimension view of the country. Teach Abroad. You can learn about your own heritage by fully integrating into a local community!
In teaching abroad you can craft your own experience by specifically signing up for an English teaching program that places you with indigenous people at a heritage site. There, you can preserve their culture and help to sustain their local environment, while also getting to know your own family history through cultural heritage tourism.
Who participates in heritage travel? Add more context to some of those random traditions grandma forces around the holidays. The major benefits of heritage travel 1. Memorability Whenever you return from a trip, you are bound to face the question: So, what did you do on your trip?
Diversifies the tourism experience Relaxing at the beach is nice, but think how many more stories there are to tell when there is content and substance involved in a trip. Reinforces identity and creates understanding Heritage tourism provides a whole new angle to traveling and can make an experience both fun and educational. You might even find new things to love and appreciate about your personal history!
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