Cultural Routes and Heritage Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 25

Tourism Organization or UNESCO) aim to establish long-distance cultural
routes based upon the commercial activities that once defined them.
Perhaps one of the longest and most complicated trade routes (gold, ivory,
silk and bronze) to have existed in recorded history was the Silk Road, which
operated between 300 BC and the 14th century AD. Spanning nearly
7000 km from China in the east to southern Europe in the west, the Silk
Road comprised many interconnected branches and sub-routes (Misra, 2011;
Tang, 1991). The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (1996) and
UNESCO (Shackley, 2003) have since the early 1990s had an interest in
developing the Silk Road as a viable tourism product through Asia and the
Middle East to afford modern travelers the opportunity to walk in the foot-
steps of Marco Polo and the trade routes that connected Asia and Europe in
the past. The Silk Road has been a longstanding project of the UNWTO
since 1994, today involving 24 countries all linked by a special promotional
logo. There have been three circles of involvement as to how the project has
been promoted and developed over time. The first circle of involvement
focused on encouraging the Central Asian countries to open their borders to
tourism. The UNWTO has been able to help these countries prepare for tour-
ism through the development of action plans, assisting with tourism work-
force training, as well as working with government bodies to write legislation
that affords ease of movement across borders. The second circle involved
working with countries that have relatively open borders with respect to
tourism, including in particular China, Pakistan and to some extent Iran.
The focus here on sections of the Silk Road that traverse these countries is to
strengthen tourism development. The last circle of involvement focused on
countries at the start and end of the 'road', namely Japan, the Koreas and
Southeast Asian countries at one end, and the Arab and European countries
at the other. Here the UNWTO has focused on creating greater awareness of
the Silk Road in the main and emerging tourism-generating markets. Efforts
have been made by the UNWTO to market various sections of the route,
particularly through China and the countries of Central Asia, using package
tours, flight connections, train services and automobile travel on major road-
ways. China and Uzbekistan are the two countries most dependent on Silk
Road-based tourism (Shackley, 2003; Tang, 1991).
The Frankincense Route is a similar long-distance trade route with
ancient origins (Blair, 2003). Frankincense is a balm generated by certain
trees that grow in arid regions of the Middle East and Africa. Owing to its
aromatic features, in the ancient world it was one of the most valuable trade
commodities. Many merchants and traders set out to harvest, purchase and
deliver frankincense to their customers in the Mediterranean region and
Asia. Ancient records show the development of frankincense trade routes,
many of which were still in use in medieval times (Shackley, 2003: 12).
In the last 20 years or so, primarily before the onset of large-scale terror-
ist activities, a handful of countries on the Arabian Peninsula (e.g. Yemen