Editorial: heritage trails and tourism

ABSTRACT

This special issue presents a review of leading research on cultural and heritage trails and routes. The papers build on the seminal work by Timothy and Boyd (2015) in their book, Tourism and trails: Cultural, ecological and management issues [Bristol: Channel View Publications], where invited contributors focused on the following: the need for further theory and conceptual thinking in research on linear resource settings, operationalising trail and route development models that were put forward by Timothy and Boyd, towards better understanding of trail and route impacts and the role that communities can play in the development and management of trails and routes

KEYWORDS:

• Conceptualisation
• theory
• route development
• impacts
• community engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stephen Boyd is Professor of Tourism at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, UK. A geographer by training he has taught at Otago University in New Zealand, Staffordshire University in England and the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He has extensively researched and published in many areas of tourism but is more known for his work in heritage tourism, tourism and national parks, dark and political tourism, and the relationship between tourism and World Heritage Sites. He has had a long-term interest in Northern Ireland, and has published extensively on the changes this region has witnessed regarding tourism over the years. His most recent research has examined linear tourism space, co-authoring the first definitive text on tourism and trails with Professor Dallen J. Timothy (Arizona State University), and is now undertaking cross-cultural research on how visitors experience linear attractions, comparing the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland with sections of the Silk Route in China. Other areas of research at present include community empowerment in islands, food tourism with a special focus on slow food, and urban sustainable tourism development. Stephen is visiting research professor at Luoyang Normal University in Henan Province, China.