Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
centuries desired to visit the countryside, where the 'countryside idyll' exuded a romantic
notion of unspoiled nature and old-world charm, and it catered to urbanites' need to escape
their frenetic lives in favour of more tranquil surroundings (Willits, 1993). Much of this
sentiment still holds true today; however, cities are now also the province of tourists as they
provide the venues for most of the world's tourism activity.
Part of modern urban morphology, suburbs developed as city dwellers desired a closer
communion with the countryside. Leisure spaces were thus created intentionally in the
suburbs for residents, while historic city centres developed organically into spaces of leisure
for tourists (Towner, 1996). At least until recently, in most of the world's cities, tourists
congregated in the historic centres, often shunning the concrete and glass suburbs. Old cities
have long drawn tourists to their historic centres, and services have developed in clusters and
corridors to serve visitors' needs (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2004; de Bres, 1994). Museums,
historic houses, old buildings, factories, stadiums and ancient monuments are individual
resources that form a critical mass of place-based heritage that appeals to most urban tourists
(Pearce, 1998). As part of urban transformation, tourism has also been an important impetus
for gentrifi cation efforts, such as waterfront redevelopment from industrial harbour functions
to leisure and tourism settings (Richards and Wilson, 2006).
Not all landscape changes via tourism have occurred in urban areas; the nature of rural
spaces has also been altered. Connected to the earlier notion of immigration are rural settle-
ments that denote a distinctive ethnic imprint on the landscape. Architectural styles, agricul-
tural patterns and folklife are inextricably linked to tourism through festivals, ethnic theme
parks and 'tourist shopping villages' all over Asia, Europe and the Americas. Also in the rural
context is the development of second homes, either in sparsely populated wilderness areas or
in denser second-home subdivisions (Hall and Müller, 2004). Such areas are unique leisure
landscapes, created for urban populations who desire a piece of the countryside idyll (Wall,
1977; Wolfe, 1952).
Heritage and tourism
All of these perspectives point directly or indirectly to the notion of heritage tourism, or
the contemporary use of the past for touristic purposes. According to Nash and Graham
(2000: 2), 'historical geography is also increasingly informed by an interest in the ways in
which the past is remembered and represented in both a formal or offi cial sense and within
popular forms and the implications which these have for the present.' Heritage and its
resources are probably the most salient manifestation of historical geography in tourism today
( Johnson, 1996), because historical geographers are adept at 'identifying and interpreting
relics of past landscapes and communities' and 'unravelling meanings [and] facts' to under-
stand communities and individual lives of the past (Hardy, 1988: 336-7).
Heritage includes elements of a society's collective past and includes tangible and intan-
gible elements of culture that are 'grounded in particular spaces' and in a 'relationship between
space and time' ( Johnson, 2000: 260). The past is one of the most salient tourism resources
in the world today, especially in the fast-paced Western world, where a longing for past
conditions of a simpler life spurs throngs of people to leave their homes in search of nostalgic
experiences of Otherness that helps ground them in modern reality (Lowenthal, 1985).
This sense of self is now one of the most widespread themes in heritage tourism research,
because scholars today believe that heritage experiences, including authenticity, are subjec-
tive, varying individually based on each visitor's social baggage and personal connections to
place (Timothy, 2011). This is an important perspective when understanding personal
