Cultural heritage and Indigenous tourism

ABSTRACT

Tourism is acknowledged as a vehicle that can help sustain both tangible and intangible elements of Indigenous cultural heritage, including languages, stories, song, art, dance, hunting methods, rituals and customs. Often, cultural heritage products developed for tourism promise to provide many socio-economic opportunities for the communities involved, however, tourism can also present a challenge as the self-management of Indigenous cultural product and cultural identity can be problematic. Given the pivotal role culture plays in the sustainability of Indigenous tourism products, it is time for a twenty-first century examination of the nexus between cultural heritage and Indigenous tourism. This paper reflects upon tourism and contemporary Indigenous cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. Through a review of the current literature on Indigenous tourism and cultural heritage, the authors identify key areas for future research and aim to stimulate further discussion around the ways Indigenous tourism may be developed to sustain Indigenous cultural heritage.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous tourism
• cultural heritage
• intangible heritage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Lisa Ruhanen is an Associate Professor and the Director of Education of the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland. She has been involved in over 30 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas. Her research areas include Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism destination policy and planning, and climate change. Lisa has worked extensively as a consultant, external collaborator and executive committee member with a variety of divisions of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Dr Michelle Whitford is Dean (Learning and Student Outcomes) at Griffith University. Her research expertise is in the field of Indigenous tourism and events and event policy and planning. Dr Whitford’s research work includes co-coordinating projects in the area of Indigenous tourism and events with a focus on supply and demand, capacity development, entrepreneurship, authenticity and commodification and management.