Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Socio-economic Development - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 244

is material. At the time of writing there were 257 living culture elements on
UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity and 31 cultural features on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage
in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. UNESCO's efforts to safeguard and bring
attention to humankind's intangible heritage has done a lot for getting gov-
ernments to think outside the box of built and lavish heritage.
Heritage democratization
That personal patrimony and intangible culture are more prominent on
the tourism scene indicates what many see as the democratization of heri-
tage (Davis, 2004; Richards, 2001). This concept refers to the devolving of
cultural knowledge, heritage control and preserved heritage from the elites to
the common people and wider segments of society. For centuries heritage
was selected, protected and sold by the socio-economically privileged and in
the process only the large-scale, grand and choicest heritages were preserve,
owned and promoted.
Part of cultural democratization can be seen in the growth of agritour-
ism, industrial tourism and volunteer tourism in recent years. Agritourism
has a strong heritage element, for it involves farming methods and traditions,
rural and agricultural landscapes and horticultural skills that have sometimes
been passed down through multiple generations (Harlan, 1995; see Chapter
5). Tourism based on industrial heritage is also growing in importance with
more mines, factories, docks, railways, lumber mills and processing plants
coming to the fore as people become more interested in the working lives of
laypeople from the past and present (Otgaar et al. , 2010).
Another manifestation of the democratization of culture is the emerging
trend of 'ordinary heritage', which focuses on the ordinary landscapes, places,
people and events that have long been marginalized or left out of official
historic narratives (Timothy, 2014). Commonplace elements of the vernacu-
lar landscapes, such as cemeteries, farm buildings, slave housing, fish process-
ing plants, boathouses, fences and outbuildings, and other such vernacular
symbols of culture are finally gaining recognition as an important part of the
cultural landscape worth preserving and chronicling through heritage tour-
ism (Alonso et al. , 2010; Çela et al. , 2009; Derrett & St Vincent Welch, 2008;
Timothy, 2014). The current trends of considering indigenous worldviews in
conservation, presentation and interpretation, as well as the growing promi-
nence of heritage cuisines in the tourism narrative, are similar manifestations
of the democratization of the past.
Religious tourism and spiritual travel
For thousands of years religious devotees have traveled in search of the
sacred. The places they visit have been sanctified by angelic visits, healings,
associations with holy people, or other miraculous happenings. Pilgrimage is