- INTRODUCTION
Our natural and cultural resources are the engine that drives the tourism industry. Those working in the tourism industry have the responsibility to protect the environment, the society, and individuals being visited. People travel to see how other people live, to experience their neighbourhoods, and to understand the natural environments that define their existence. Culture and heritage sums up a community’s beliefs and values-shared behaviour acquired as the result of living within a group and a defined geographic area. We need to demonstrate through ecotourism and cultural heritage tourism that natural and cultural resources are irreplaceable and worth conserving. The threat is immense but there is hope. There is a growing global awareness of the need to protect the environment, special places, and indigenous people.
Tourism is now viewed as a political and economic development necessity and is quickly emerging as one of the basic development tools at all levels of government. International tourism is the world’s largest export earner and an important factor in the balance of payments in most nations (United Nations World Tourism Organization 2007). At this time, most communities are more interested in attracting tourism investment than in attempting to measure the environmental and cultural impacts that increased tourism development brings.
World Tourism Organisation defines cultural tourism as the movements of persons for essentially cultural motivations, which include study tours, performing arts, cultural tours, travel to festivals, visits to historic sites and monuments, folklore and pilgrimages (WTO 1985). Cultural tourism can also boost the preservation and transmission of cultural and historical traditions, which often contributes to the protection of local heritage, and a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts.
The new phenomenon of travelling in pursuit of leisure, culture and the quest of knowledge about alien lands connotes the concept of tourism. The growth of tourism is closely related to the case and speed of travel, economic growth and political development (NCT, 1988). It is a people’s oriented industry, facilitating interaction among people living under different political systems. It serves as an effective instrument for fostering national integration and mutual understanding with other nations of the world. It recognises no geographical frontiers, caste, colour, creed or any linguistic groups. It is an industry with great employment potential. In fact one in every 16 workers worldwide owes his or her job to tourism (Mohanti Pragati2008).
The difficulties of communication across cultures are real, as are judgemental issues raised by importance of cultural differences. But these recognitions do not lead us to accept the standard distinctions between our culture.
- REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Culture may be defined as learned behaviour and capabilities, values and technology that are transmitted from generation to human generation by symbolic means. As EB Taylor’s well know definition includes beliefs, ideas, customs, law, morals, arts and other capabilities and skills acquired by man as a member of society.
Nadel (1951) pointed both society and cultures are two dimensions which together present themselves to social scientist interested in either Culture as a whole is way of life of a people. It is both a part of nature and apart from nature (Singh Sagar, 2011)
Development can be seen in the time perspective, implying a change from one state to another; or on other criteria. Sustainable tourism was defined by the Globe,90 conference on environment and industry as “the management of tourism resources in such a way that fulfils economic, social and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological process, biological diversity and life support systems (quoted in Inskeep, 1992:31)
2.1 CULTURE AND HERITAGE TOURISM
Cultural tourism has existed since the days of Herodotus in ancient Greece, who, in about 440 BCE listed the seven ‘Miracles of the Ancient World. In the 19th century ‘culture’ was a major reason for travel as it was considered a necessary part of the education for the upwardly mobile. It was in the latter half of the 20th Century, however, that cultural tourism worldwide saw its biggest boom. With cultural tourism, tourism and culture come together to meet the particular needs and interests of travellers whose main motivation for travel are experiences in the performing arts, visual arts and crafts; museums and cultural centres; historic sites and interpretive centres, cultural industries and cultural events. With the rapid rise in levels of educational attainment among populations in both the developed and developing world, the development of tourism infrastructure prompted by the emergence and growth of mass tourism in the late 20th Century and into the 21st Century, and a sustained period of peace,
cultural tourism has moved into an era of unprecedented growth. Cultural and Heritage Tourism is a tool of economic development that achieves economic growth through attracting visitors from outside a host community, who are motivated wholly or in part by interest in the historical, artistic, scientific or lifestyle/heritage offerings of a community, region, group or institution (Silberberg 1995). Cultural and heritage tourists stay longer and spend more money than other kinds of travelers thus making such tourism an important economic development tool (Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 2002).
Culture plays a dual role in tourism. On the one hand, it can be seen as ‘part of the mix of what makes a particular destination appealing to a prospective tourist. It can be referred to as playing a ‘destination enhancer function and this aspect of culture in tourism is the focus of a range of studies and strategies adopted largely by destination marketers, local government and chambers of commerce, that relate to the value of “place-making. It has been proven globally that arts, culture and heritage are key ‘destination enhancers’ ie., they play a significant role in determining the overall desirability of a particular destination, whether or not these are cited specifically as reasons for travel. Cultural tourists tend to be motivated by “learning something new”, “hoping to enrich their lives through their travel experience’s and ‘education and enrichment’ (Walker John A.2005)
2.2 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
The UNESCO categorized cultural landscape into three types. First, landscape is defined as what is intentionally designed and created by men such as garden, park, etc. Second, landscape as what has evolved as a result from changes in society, economy, administration, religion, and belief. And finally, it refers to what is involved in religion, art and culture or natural elements. Cultural landscapes could be further categorized as historic
sites, historic designed landscape, historic vernacular landscape and ethnographic landscapes (Charles A, 1992). The contextual factors including social characteristics, behavioural patterns, economic factors, technology, climate, and local materials are assumed to determine cultural identities and physical settings, which further affect people’s perception in different forms. Secondly, cultural identities are prime factor structuring the cultural landscape and its physical setting. Cultural identities are highly associated with the dynamic of cultural landscape. Spatial settings of newly developed urban areas should taking into consideration the local livelihood and residents inherited pattern of believe and ritual practice reflected upon the planned cultural landscape. Urbanization had affected on the changes of dweller’s perception. It caused the loss of area identity. Besides, it obviously presented that cultural identity, such as beliefs, norms, functions, social beliefs, social structures, family structures of community, were involved with cultural landscape indicators. Moreover, it also affected the response process both in the aspect of cultural landscape changes and physical landscape of settlement in the area. Hence, in order to manage or develop any area, it should consider the cultural landscape perception of dwellers and effects towards cultural landscape changes and physical landscape in that area (Junjira Nuntaa et al, 2010)
2.3 CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
Building conservation is the way to protect built heritage in retaining its physical authenticity that represents a archaeological, architectural, cultural, historic, documentary, social and even political and spiritual or symbolic values (Feilden, B. et al, 1993), The Burra Charter defines conservation as being all of the processes of looking after a place so as to retain cultural significance (ICOMOS 1987). This suggests that it has to go through several procedures in order to retain the cultural significance of the places. Cultural significance of a place is defined as a complete range of social and cultural values that make every place has a unique identity and gave its significance to the society (Worthing, D and Bond, S. 2008). It is the perception of values on why the historic places matter and for whom as decided by diverse stakeholders including the community (English Heritage 2008).
The hotel and tourism industry is one on which the economy of Cyprus depends (in 2003 it was 13.9 per cent of GDP) and is one that has been going through a sustainability crisis, it was decided to develop the framework for this sector and to recommend it to executives as a method of mitigating this current lack of confidence. It is now largely admitted that cultural heritage could be considered a set of tangible and intangible assets, which are developed, transmitted, processed to enhance the identity and also the economical situation of a territory. Besides its cultural values, heritage can be seen as an economic resource. It is a fragile resource, often irreplaceable, requiring careful treatment. After being considered as a conservation tool and as an essential constitution of the nation, cultural heritage has become a resource for the construction and development of territories (Necissaa Y, 2011)
According to Xavier Creffe 1990, there is another way to show the importance of heritage for economic development that is to say from its role as intermediate consumption for businesses seeking referrals for their new products. Xavier Greffe (2003), bases his analysis on the dissociation between heritage supports (non-reproducible and non-substitutable) and heritage Services (repeatable and largely interchangeable) by distinguishing for Heritage supply and demand for services.
Heritage activities can create jobs, generate significant economic benefits, these economic benefits can be approached from many aspects: monetary, non-monetary, economic, social, cultural, and environmental (A.F. Mohd-Isa et al, 2011).
2.4 MUNICIPAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL KIT
It contributes to an area’s “innovative habitat” by making communities more attractive to highly desirable knowledge-based employees and permitting new forms of knowledge intensive production to flourish. This may be effective not only in large central cities, but in smaller communities and rural areas as well. It is also the case that cultural and heritage tourism can satisfy the cultural and leisure aspirations of the local community, providing residents with a greater sense of belonging to their homeland (Chang 1999) as well as intercultural awareness both within and outside a community. In many sectors of the tourism industry (including travel and accommodation), ‘price’ surpasses ‘quality’ as the most important criteria for choosing a travel experience. This is not the case for cultural tourism (Throbsy David, 2001).
- CULTURAL TOURISM-CONTEXT& TRENDS
Globalization and the Internet have so impacted the motivations and methods of cultural tourism that the noods and expectations of the “cultural tourist” must be redefined. In the 21st Century, the tourist is motivated by being engaged in constructing the experience of a destination through active exploration and participation. This segment is most likely to be a knowledge worker engaged in the creative economy that ‘travels’ rather than “tours” and as such should be seen as the 21st Century Cultural Traveller.
3.1 INDIA
India has a unique mix of both western and traditional culture in its society as well as in its organizational setting. Today, there is widespread recognition, both at home and abroad, that India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world (Lahiri, 2005). For the first time in history, India’s economic prowess became an issue in the U.S. elections, and it continues to be a burning political issue with many countries abroad (NASSCOM, 2005). Drawing from the works of Sinha (2000; 2004) and Singh and Bhandarkar (1988), we integrate the literature on the necessity for transformational leadership-rooted in the Indian culture to bring about meaningful and efficient change.
- SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems” (WTTC 1998). The basic elements of sustainable development–ecological sustainability, economic sustainability, and equity form the core elements of the research framework. These represent the primary objectives of any sustainable tourism initiative. Thus, they can also be viewed as the key variables for assessing the success or failure of sustainable tourism projects. Applying the concept of sustainability to the study of tourism development requires that these elements are related to the tourism groups with their respective interests: national government, the local destination, and the tourism sector or industry operating in the destination (Ramon Benedicto A. et al, 2005).
The 1987 Brundtland Commission Report (WCED 1987) has been generally acknowledged as having introduced the concept of sustainability. It defined sustainability as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The resource assessment commission (1991) notes in its discussion that sustainable development should allow an equitable distribution of resources be this environmental or cultural. Such equitable distribution requires a long term perspective that pays attention to the rights of future generations.
- CONCLUSION
The cultural and natural resources are vital for tourism industry. It is important to protect the environment, the society, and individuals being visited. The threat is immense but there is hope. Tourism is now a political and economic development necessity and is quickly emerging as one of the basic development tools at all levels of government and International tourism is the world’s largest export earner. Cultural tourism can boost the preservation and transmission of cultural and historical traditions, which often contributes to the protection of local heritage, a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts. Thus, culture and heritage acts as an engine for tourism development which is truly sustainable and we can look forward to nourishing the balance of universe through tourism and culture.
– Olaniyan Akinwale Oluwafemi
National Museum of Colonial History Lokoja
