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ABSTRACT
In today’s tourism industry, merely offering tourists a variety of cultural events is not enough. Fully understanding their desire for an experience is the key. The attraction value increases if tourists can become personally involved and be affected by the narratives involved in place-making. This article examines the connections and cooperation among museums in a region where an important heritage trail is operating. When the old Telemark Canal was active (1892–1990), this enabled important products to be shipped from the upper mountainous areas to the coastal urban region in Telemark County, Norway. Shortly after being closed, the canal was transformed into a heritage trail and tourist attraction through renovation initiatives. Based on a closer examination of two of the attraction clusters along the heritage trail of the canal, we ask whether there is a key narrative that can link the local museums and cultural centres in the canal region. The discussion will consider how the widespread use of the internet has created new options for museums and cultural centres to benefit from neighbouring tourist attractions such as heritage trails.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Grete Swensen is research professor at Department of Heritage and Society, Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research. She is an ethnologist and her research comprises studies related to museum management, use of public spaces, adaptive reuse of industrial buildings and heritage’s role in sustainable urban development.
Laima Nomeikaite is researcher at Department of Heritage and Society, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, Oslo, Norway. She is a human geographer primarily engaged with Urban Studies, Cultural Tourism Studies, Heritage Studies and Art Studies.
Notes
1 The plans selected include the relevant municipalities and the plans that normally will deal with cultural issues. There is generally a difference among municipalities in Norway in this respect. The plans were analysed through a close study of the phrasing of the text in the plans, i.e. a discursive analysis of the plan as a text.
2 The short conversations, on-site observations and photo-documentation that took place were unstructured, but focused on activities that took place, number, age and gender of visitors etc.
3 For more discussions on case study as method and methodology, interested readers are recommended to study Flyvbjerg, Citation2006; Miles, Citation2015; Thomas Citation2011.
4 These museums and cultural centres were Vest-Telemark Museum Eidsborg, Dalen Hotell, Åmdal verk, Grimdalstuneet, Kviteseid Bygdetun, Bø Museum, Evju Bygdetun, Geo-senteret/Holla kirkeruin, Øvre Verket, Ulefoss Hovedgård.
5 MS Victoria boat was built in 1882; MS Henrik Ibsen was built in 1907, restored in 2010; MS Telemark was built in 1951, it operates between Akkerhaugen and Lunde.The riverboats Henrik Ibsen and Victoria travel from Skien to Dalen via Kviteseid.
6 There are a series of different web sites that bring information about activities available along the canal, among them for instance: https://channels.visittelemark.no/telemarkskanalen/; https://channels.visittelemark.no/telemarkskanalen/bat/dagsturer-pa-kanalen; http://www.kanalbaatene.no/kanalpakker/dagstur; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vEmRxwUd0Y; https://www.cyclingnorway.no/ruter/telemarkskanalen/
7 The information is mediated to the visitors via an enamel signpost placed on the hill by Telemark Museum.
14 They are situated in Nome and in neighbouring municipalities and include among others Holla kirkeruin, Bø Museum, Sauherad Museum and Evju bygdetun.
15 One is Olavsrosa, a quality stamp from the foundation Norwegian Heritage in 1999; another is a distinction from Europa Nostra in 2000.
16 It was originally named Lårdal bygdetun and the founder was a well-recognised silversmith Eivind Tveiten and his wife. His silversmith workshop is now an important part of the permanent exhibition in the new building.
18 Singing as well as a particular style of fiddle playing named ‘Hardangerfele’. Vest-Telemark museum, including the other interconnected museums and cultural centres provide a rich store of assets from this golden age in the national history.
19 Naturogkulturreisen.wordpress.com was a three year initiative that ended as planned in December 2015. It involved central institutions like the Norwegian Mapping Authority, the National Archive, Arts Council Norway and The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. The aims was to prepare for and stimulate increased use of public data in mobile, net based solutions and contribute to open and easy supply of more data of better quality. It meant to use exiting factual databases as a platform to develop new services for commerce, tourism, recreational interest and education. Two counties were selected as test cases, County Telemark being one of them. Cooperation between the involved public institutions has been continued, now under the name K-lad, where the work involves arranging thematic workshops.
20 Oddvar Bjørvik was County Antiquarian in Telemark in 1992 when the Telemark Canal was celebrating its 100 year jubileum.
21 The bus timetables appear random, for example if you plan to link a one-way trip by the ferry with a return trip with the bus to Oslo (or Skien) is difficult to find a suitable solution. The ferries on the other hands leave Dalen very early in the morning, resulting in the hotel guest missing a lovely breakfast at Dalen hotel, and visits to the museums in the neighbourhood. There is no additional bus service for tourists who want to visit the museum, and it hereby limits the user groups much.