Maori Culture and Heritage Tourism in New Zealand

Abstract

Heritage tourism is a rapidly growing segment of the domestic and international tourism market in New Zealand. Yet despite the important role that Maori culture plays as a tourism resource relatively little attention has been given to the implications of Maori conceptions of heritage and sacred space for the development of tourism in general, and heritage-oriented travel in particular. This article discusses some of the processes by which Maori heritage may become accessible to travellers. In order to assist in the preservation and promotion of Maoritangatourists and the tourism industry will require greater levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity than presently exists. Educationally-oriented heritage travel may be a mechanism for more appropriate tourism development than what has existed in the past. However, the pace of development must be controlled by the tangala whenua in terms of both location and management if the potential economic and cultural benefits of tourism are to be maximized.