Cultural Routes and Heritage Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 21

Organically-evolved Routes (i)

Phase 1

Original areas of interest

Original track/route

Phase 2

Start Intervening Opportunity Finish

Developed track/route

(ii)

Purposive Routes

Phase 1

Zone of thematic interest

Thematic nodes within a
defined geographic area

Phase 2

Start Developed Thematic Nodes Finish

Designed track/route

Figure 2.1 Types of cultural heritage trails

intervening opportunity. In terms of real-world application, organic tourist
trails can be reduced into several subtypes: long-distance routes that were
part of an original trade route (e.g. the Silk Road); explorer, settler or migra-
tion routes (e.g. the Cabot Trail); ancient pilgrimage routes (e.g. Camino de
Santiago); and human-created linear courses that were not developed specifi-
cally to be a tourist trail but function as one anyway. This last category
includes railway lines, highways, international borders, canals and other
such features.
As noted in the introductory chapter, many original hunting, trading and
migratory paths have evolved into the highways and motorways of today;
many remain in rural or wilderness areas and function as recreational foot-
paths. Some long-distance tourist routes were once part of an original trade
or migration route (Goodey, 1975; MacLeod, 2004). There are numerous