Etninės kultūros ugdymo reikšmė kultūrinio turizmo plėtrai

Abstract

This article offers analysis of the interaction of cultural tourism and ethnic culture, the need for education in this field, the situation and status of ethno-cultural education in Lithuania, content guidelines for such education and its interface with the main objects of cultural tourism. The concept cultural tourism is directly related to ethnic culture, its material and intangible forms. The Law on Tourism of the Republic of Lithuania does not include the regulation of cultural tourism, and only the National Tourism Programme for 2014-2020 devotes much more attention to this field relating to cultural tourism with cultural heritage and traditions, stating that cultural tourism has the greatest influence on creating a positive image of Lithuania as an attractive tourist country. Therefore, cultural tourism is proclaimed as one of priority trends of tourism in Lithuania. UNESCO in Baltic Cultural Tourism Policy Paper (2003), as well as the Lithuanian scholars, emphasise the undoubted benefits of cultural tourism in various aspects: contribution to country image building; contribution to harmony and understanding among people; contribution to national and local identity building, to preservation of cultural and historical heritage, and finally, to economic and social, as well as regional, development. The Baltic States were acclaimed as having rich sources of cultural and historical heritage and viable traditions, but their importance is still underestimated, cultural and historical sources are not fully understood and used for tourism development. Therefore, it is recommended for tourism industry to take advantage of cultural and historical heritage and adapt pre-Christian and Christian celebrations, handicraft traditions, local food and drinking culture. Moreover, tourism industry can promote traditional homesteads with rural traditions, involving older people in this activity as tradition carriers and source of knowledge. Finally, tourism makers can share information about festivals and other events in internationally by creating joint projects with the other Baltic countries so that to present ethnic culture and its elements. However, the above discussed recommendations have not been practised enough in Lithuania in terms of tourism development, i.e., ethnic culture is still very poorly integrated into cultural tourism, only small part of rural tourism homesteads have something in common with traditions. Furthermore, there is no cooperation between tourism and cultural institutions, the private tourism sector is left alone to organise its activities without any interest to create new attractive cultural products. Evaluation criteria for tourism development are based mostly on quantitative indicators only, excluding the qualitative assessment of cultural activities and their diversity. It is necessary to consider the quality of cultural services for to understand how tourism fosters cultural values, what are the competences of people working in the field of cultural tourism, etc. Special attention should be paid to the training of wide profile specialists in this field, because qualified specialists is one of the main means to achieve the set goals and priorities in this kind of tourism, as well as new and flexible forms of management by involving communities in tourism activities. Some elements of cultural tourism exist by themselves, but other elements require more efforts to integrate them into tourism - especially traditions and other intangible heritage, because the impact of tourism on cultural heritage and local communities can be both positive and negative. In order to avoid negative consequences and to improve the quality of cultural tourism, it is necessary to have deeper knowledge of local culture and, therefore, education in this field is especially important. UNESCO and EU documents state that education and science are the basis for the development of cultural tourism, thus it is necessary to integrate cultural heritage issues more in the regular secondary school curriculum, vocational and higher training. Also, there should be created systematic training opportunities to local authorities and company employers to take part in cultural tourism, as a source and instrument of gaining competences and quality management. According to the current Lithuanian legislation and strategies of tourism development the attention to integration of cultural tourism into education is insufficient. Even though, the variety of laws of the Republic of Lithuania emphasise the need for ethno-cultural education, cultural education, which is directly related to knowledge and transmission of values relevant to cultural tourism, is not well established in Lithuania. As methodological recommendations on ethno-cultural education for pre-school, pre-primary and primary teachers, as well as the programmes on ethno-cultural education for secondary schools have been already created and published, therefore, it is possible to carry out ethno-cultural education in Lithuania starting from kindergartens up to graduates. The guidelines set out in these documents are sufficient to proceed more extensive development of competent future users and promoters of cultural tourism. However, there is a lack of ethnic culture teachers, because ethno-cultural education is not compulsory at schools. Summarising the identified problems, it is suggested to make substantive decisions both in terms of ethno- cultural education and its interconnection with cultural tourism, namely: to introduce compulsory ethnocultural education in primary and secondary schools on the basis of the above-mentioned recommendations and programs for the ethno-cultural education; to include training of ethnic culture teachers by launching pedagogical study programs in higher education; to integrate ethnic culture into the training of tourism specialists; to adjust the legislation regulating tourism development so that to reinforce competences of tourism specialists in the field of Lithuanian culture; to include qualitative indicators in the evaluation of cultural services and competences of people working in this field, etc. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]