The ACACIA paradox: Built heritage conservation versus increasing tourism

Abstract

A superficial view over the tourism industry, which is not neglectful by any means, but something the average tourist usually does, can only reveal the obvious consumption relation created between the particular resources and their specialist consumer. Not taken very often into account, the tourist–destination interaction is an essential variable that can ̀make or breaḱ the experience because of the diverging interests of the two. While the tourist mandates the interaction to be authentic, intense and gratifying, the ̀destinatioǹ usually trusts fewer traces of the passage, some that would not alter its integrity. Where the two meet is the universally commended ideal, but the interaction rarely happens without leaving traces on either side.