Clarifying Heritage Tourism

Abstract

In their paper Managing Heritage Tourism (Annals 27:682708), Garrod and Fyall provide a useful and expansive investigation about constraints and imperatives relating to the long term management of heritage attractions. There they employ Yales definition for clarifying heritage tourism as that centered on what we have inherited, which can mean anything from historic buildings, to art works, to beautiful scenery (1991:21). Adopting such an approach presents problems, however, as it can lead to some confusion when dealing with heritage and historic tourism in general and their management in particular. Yet, Garrod and Fyall are not alone in assuming a position which regards heritage tourism as a subgroup of tourism based on the historic attri- butes of a site or attraction; indeed their view is quite common in the literature (Langlois, Theodore and Ineson 1997; Palmer 1998; Peleggi 1996; Percival 1987; Prideaux and Kininmont 1999; Seale 1996).