HERITAGE TOURISM

Heritage tourism helps make historic preservation

economically viable by using historic structures
and landscapes to attract and serve travelers.
Heritage tourism can be an attractive economic
revitalization strategy, especially as studies have
consistently shown that heritage travelers stay
longer and spend more money than other kinds of
travelers.
A good heritage tourism program improves the
quality of life for residents as well as serving
visitors.

The National Trust defines Heritage

Tourism
as
traveling
to
experience the places, artifacts
and activities that authentically
represent the stories and people
of the past, and heritage tourism
can include cultural, historic and
natural resources.

The
National
Trust
has
developedFIVE
GUIDING
PRINCIPLESfor
successful
and
sustainable
heritage
tourism
development as well FOUR STEPSfor
getting started.
These principles and steps have
been adopted broadly across the
United States and internationally.

Five Principles for Successful and

Sustainable Heritage Tourism
1. Collaborate
2. Find the Fit
3. Make Sites and Programs Come
Alive
4. Focus on Quality and
Authenticity
5. Preserve and Protect

COLLABORATE
Much more can be accomplished by working
together than by working alone. Successful cultural
heritage tourism programs bring together partners
who may not have worked together in the past.
Building partnerships is essential, not just because
they help develop local support, but also because
tourism demands resources that no single
organization can supply. Its success depends on
the active participation of political leaders,
business leaders, operators of tourist sites, artists
and craftspeople, hotel/motel operators, and many
other
people
and
groups.

Regional partnerships are also useful

to cultural heritage tourism efforts.
Cooperating
in
a
regional
arrangement lets you develop regional
themes, pool resources, save money and
expand your marketing potential.
Those resources include not only money
for marketing campaigns, for example,
but also facilities (accommodations for
travelers, say) or expertise in tourism,
preservation, the arts or another area.

FIND THE FIT

Balancing the needs of residents and visitors is
important to ensure that cultural heritage tourism
benefits everyone. It is important to understand
the kind and amount of tourism that your
community
can
handle.
Local priorities vary. So do local capabilities.
In other words, local circumstances determine
what your area needs to do and can do in cultural
heritage tourism.
Programs that succeed have widespread local
acceptance and meet recognized local needs.
They are also realistic, based on the talents of
specific people as well as on specific attractions,
accommodations, and sources of support and
enthusiasm.

One of the reasons cultural heritage

tourism is on the rise in the United States
is that travelers are seeking out
experiences that are distinctive, not
homogenized.
They want to get the feel of a very
particular place or time. Places can supply
that experience, and benefit in the process
but only if their cultural heritage tourism
program is firmly grounded in local
circumstances.

Base your cultural heritage tourism program on what is

appropriate and sustainable for your area.
Do the residents of your area want tourism?
Why do they want it?
Are there certain times of year or certain places they
do NOT want to share?
How will tourism revenues improve life in your area
and affect services such as fire and police protection?
What is the maximum number of cars or buses your
area can handle? On roads? In parking lots?
Can you accommodate group tours? Do sites
accommodate at least forty people at once with
amenities such as restrooms, snacks, and a seating
area?
Can you accommodate visitors with disabilities or
special needs?

Make Sites and Programs Come Alive

Competition for time is fierce. To attract
visitors, you must be sure that the
destination is worth the drive
The human drama of history is what visitors
want to discover, not just names and dates.
Interpreting sites is important, and so is
making the message creative and exciting.
Find ways to engage as many of the
visitors five senses as you can, as the
more visitors are involved, the more they
will retain.

On average, visitors will remember:

10% of what they HEAR
30% of what they READ
50% of what they SEE
90% of what they DO

Focus on Quality and Authenticity

Quality is an essential ingredient for all cultural
heritage tourism, and authenticity is critical whenever
heritage or history is involved.

The true story of your area is the one worth

telling. The story of the authentic contributions
previous generations have made to the history
and culture of where you live is the one that will
interest visitors, because that is what
distinguishes your area from every other place on
earth.
Its authenticity that adds real value and appeal.
Your area is unique, and its special charm is what
will draw visitors. By doing the job rightby
focusing on authenticity and qualityyou give
your area the edge.

Preserve and Protect

A communitys cultural, historic, and natural
resources are valuable and often irreplaceable.
As a good look around almost any city or town
will show, people are often tempted to provide
a quick fix of band-aid solutionto cover up
an old storefront inexpensively, for example,
rather than to restore it.
But when your historic and cultural assets are
at the heart of your plans to develop tourism,
its essential to protect them for the long term.

Hearts
break
when
irreplaceable
structures are destroyed or damaged beyond
repair, instead of preserved and protected as
they deserve. A plaque pointing out on this
site a great building once stood cant tell that
story.
Equally tragic is the loss of traditions: a
way of crafting wood or farming, of celebrating
holidays or feasting on old world cuisine.
The preservation and perpetuation of
traditions is important to telling the story of
the people who settled the land. By protecting
the buildings, landscape or special places and
qualities that attract visitors, you safeguard
the future.

HERITAGE TOURISM: THE FOUR

STEPS
1. Assess the Potential
2. Plan and Organize
3. Prepare, Protect and Manage
4. Market for Success

Step One: Assess the Potential

Make good use of human and financial
resources. They are the keys that open the
doors to sustainable cultural heritage
tourism.
Assessing your areas potential for heritage
tourism is an essential first step. Evaluate
your assets in these five areas:
Attractions
Visitor Services
Organizational Capabilities
Protection
Marketing

 To assess historic or archaeological

resources, find out which of your areas
historic sites are already listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. List
the sites that are currently open to the
public or that add to the story of your area.
Also, look at sites that are eligible for the
National Registernormally at least 50
years old and significant for their
architecture or archaeology, or association
with an event or person. State and local
designations also exist so consider listing
these sites as well.

Step Two: Plan and Organize

Make good use of human and financial
resources. They are the keys that open the
doors to sustainable cultural heritage
tourism.
1. Human Resources
A community united can accomplish a lot;
a community divided is not ready for cultural
heritage tourism. So, begin to organize by
building a local consensus that supports
cultural heritage tourism.

2. Financial Resources
The question of how to finance a cultural
heritage tourism initiative has no easy answer,
and no single answer. Your goal is long-term,
stable funding. Your chances of reaching it
improves if you have built a strong local
consensus, for then the problem of funding
becomes one many people help solve.
Before you look for funding, draw up a
financial plan. You need to know just how much
money youll need for which projects, and when.
Potential backers want to know exactly what they
are supporting and how their contributions fit
into your organizations overall effort.

Step Three: Prepare, Protect and Manage

As you take this step, look to the future as
well as the present. When you prepare for
visitors, be sure that the choices you make
also improve your community for the long
term. Plan to win the war, not just the battle.
1. Prepare
Preparing for visitors means readying your
historic resources by preserving their
historical integrity, constructing new
museums, and generally cleaning up your
communitybut it is also the time to figure
out how you are going to tell your story and
make your community hospitable to visitors.

2. Protect
To ensure that your cultural heritage tourism
resources have a long and productive life,
you need to protect them. How?
Developing a comprehensive preservation
plan can provide overall guidance to help
protect your historic structures.
Other regulatory and planning
mechanisms include:
Seeking the designation of historic resources
(be sure to determine which designations
bring restrictions and which do not)
Using zoning to specify land uses and
restrictions on the density of development
near sensitive historic sites

 Establishing design review ordinances that establish

design guidelines so that renovations and new
buildings will be compatible with neighboring historic
structures and a design review board to administer
the guidelines.
Providing design assistance to people interested in
rehabilitating their property
Developing a sign ordinance that regulates such
matters as size, materials, illumination and
placement of signs.
Be sure that your museum collections are stored or
exhibited in protected environments. Remember that
collection items can be fragile. Sunlight, temperature
changes, humidity and even just handling the items
can have a negative impact over time.

3. Manage
Preparing,
protecting
and
managing
heritage resources is a big job, one that
involves not only producing tangible
improvements to places and structures but
also coordinating multiple activities and
maintaining momentum on numerous
projects simultaneously.
To keep the job reasonable and feasible,
develop a management plan.

A
well-managed
cultural
heritage
tourism program is one that balances
competing considerations.
Balancing the carrying capacity of your
areaits ability to host visitors without
compromising
service
or
overstraining
resourceswith the demands visitors make
on
it
is
one
particularly
important
consideration. Why?
Runaway success can destroy the very
resources
on
which
heritage
tourism
depends.

Step Four: Market for Success

Make good use of human and financial
resources. They are the keys that open the
doors to sustainable cultural heritage
tourism.
To draw new people and money into
your community, develop a multi-year,
many-tiered marketing plan.
Your goal is to reach your target market
and to seize opportunities to partner with
local, regional, state, or national groups.

Include these four components in your

marketing plan:
Public Relations
Advertising
Graphic Materials
Promotions
Keep in mind that developing a new
domestic market takes approximately
three years and producing results from
an international audience takes five
yearseven when you use every one of
the techniques presented here.