Heritage tourism: at what price?

Abstract

Heritage and sustainability share a common theme of inheritance. Heritage tourism is, as an economic activity, predicated on the use of inherited environmental and socio-cultural assets in order to attract visitors. Sustainability requires that those assets are carefully managed to ensure that future generations inherit a resource base that is sufficient to support their needs and wants. The purpose of this paper is to consider how sustainability principles might best be applied in the context of heritage tourism, with particular reference to the management of historic properties and gardens. In doing so, the paper considers the findings of a postal survey in the UK of owners of historic properties, heritage consultants, visitor attraction managers and heritage industry representatives. The survey results suggest that while overcrowding, wear and tear, pilfering, graffiti and traffic problems were all significant and widespread causes for concern, the principal dilemma for heritage attractions is how to satisfy visitors' expectations, and manage their impact, without compromising the authenticity of the visitor experience itself. The results also highlight the predominance of revenue targeting as the major determinant of admission pricing decisions. Little evidence was found to suggest that admission prices are being used either as a device for achieving more sustainable levels of visitor demand or as a means of generating the funds required for the maintenance and conservation of the heritage assets being employed. This finding is very worrying in view of the very serious impacts that excessive visitor numbers evidently have on many heritage properties.