Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Trail in London emphasizes the heritages that have been largely ignored or
written out of the official narrative of the city. In this case, the Clerkenwell
Trail stresses the marginal places and peoples of immigrants who helped build
the city (Shaw & MacLeod, 2000). A related trend has occurred in the south-
eastern US. In recent years several black history, Civil War and civil rights
trails have appeared on the map to re-interpret a more balanced view of slav-
ery, the African American plight in the southern US and the essential role of
African Americans in the development of the American nation (Ebony, 1990;
Geiger & Werner, 2009; Kammen, 1993; Mahoney, 1999; Sevigny, 1992).
Another political use of trails is to help create a sense of regional, national
or supranational identity. The European Cultural Routes Programme aims to
further the cause of a united Europe, pan-European dialogue and the
'European ideal' (Moulin & Boniface, 2001: 237). The program was initiated,
in part at least, to embolden the common European identity through a net-
work of cultural routes (Hitrec, 1996; Moulin & Boniface, 2001).
Cultural Heritage Trails as Tourism Resources
The 'evolved', 'designed' and 'associative' cultural landscapes in the World
Heritage Convention's Cultural Landscapes Operational Guidelines were
adapted by Ramsay and Truscott (2003: 32-35) to classify trails as linear
cultural landscapes. According to their assessment, evolved trails are tracks
that began in ancient days as linear access routes for native peoples. From
there, they morphed into migratory and resource extraction tracks, and even-
tually into motor vehicle routes. Designed tracks, according to Ramsay and
Truscott, are purpose-built courses, including railways, bridges, timber
industry lines and fire management trails that have had important social
development implications. Associative tracks are historic in nature and still
highly valued by native peoples for their religious or heritage values, and by
others for their recreational potential. The associative value also connects
people with folklore, spirituality, romanticized images of place and past
ways of life.
Similar to Ramsay and Truscott's (2003) typology, the development of heri-
tage trails is observed in this topic from two broad perspectives (Figure 2.1).
The first of these is 'organically-evolved cultural routes', which today follow
the original tracks of a true historic trail of some sort, or a more recent inten-
tional corridor, many of which were based upon traditional indigenous hunt-
ing and migration routes. Some of these also follow linear-shaped natural
resources, such as rivers, escarpments or coastlines (Schutt, 1997; Timothy,
2009) but are, nonetheless, cultural in origin. The key element of note here
in the conceptual diagram is the movement from 'original' track to 'devel-
oped' track, where many of the original areas of tracks have been converted
from ones of interest to ones of use, represented in Figure 2.1 as nodes of
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