Tourism’s Impact: Balancing Conservation and Community
The sustainable development of tourism is clearly dependent on the involvement and empowerment of local communities. According to Ashworth, “All management of the past is a partnership of some sort between regulatory planning designed to manage functional change to achieve desirable goals and private individuals and companies pursuing their interests as owners, entrepreneurs, or customers.”
Visitor Management Techniques
In order to implement a successful visitor management policy, some possible techniques include:
- Protective measures
- Use management
- Tourist education policies
Carrying Capacity
One concept more commonly used when considering how to manage tourists in visitor attractions is carrying capacity. According to Glasson, the carrying capacity of a destination is “when the marginal costs of tourist are likely to exceed the marginal benefits and when serious problems begin to appear.”
Conservation
Today, many areas are being threatened or destroyed by the impact of urban development. In order to face up to this situation, ICOMOS created the “Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas.” According to this charter, the conservation of historic towns and other historic urban areas should be an integral part of coherent policies of economic and social development and of urban and regional planning at every level.
The built heritage should be preserved, reconstructed, or appropriately utilized.
Heritage Management Planning
Relating conservation with heritage management is the critical issue in heritage management long-term planning. According to Cunliffe, it is not possible to think about the management of a site without including in the plan the protection of the resource for present and future generations.
To conclude, it can be said that conservation is the most conflicting issue in tourism since its objective is to preserve and protect heritage, while tourism interests want to market sites and generate economic benefits by attracting as many visitors as possible.
Interpretation and Presentation
Tilden described interpretation as “An educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by firsthand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.”
He made 6 basic principles of the interpretation:
- Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile.
- Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based on information.
- Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical, or architectural.
- The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.
- Interpretation should aim to present the whole subject rather than just a part, and must address itself to the whole person rather than any phase.
- Interpretation addressed to children should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach.
Once visitors are on site, interpretation is a key tool in adding value to visitor experiences, in both educational and entertainment terms.
Conclusion
The importance of heritage in the tourism market is increasing. The increase of leisure in the modern world has led to an increase of the use of heritage. As a consequence of the visiting increase, an issue has been raised: the balance between conservation of this uniqueness and the need to provide access and understanding to visitors.
Considering this problem, the only possible solution that would manage to solve the conflict and avoid the degradation is the establishment of a good heritage management plan for the World Heritage Site.
Heritage managers should establish strategic planning, with the central issue being a long-term plan view.