Tourism and cultural revitalisation: local perspectives

ABSTRACT

Many tourism studies have highlighted the issue of cultural revitalisation and/or how it should take place without considering the opinion of local people, especially in the developing world. This paper, which is based on a study undertaken in Benin, Nigeria, explores the views that the local people hold of cultural revitalisation through tourism. This qualitative research employed a semi-structured interviewing method in collecting data from community members, heritage managers, and local government employees. The analysis of the interview material highlighted three key ways in which participants viewed cultural revitalisation: cultural revitalisation as a means of rediscovery, cultural revitalisation as a means of imparting fresh life into cultural heritage, and cultural revitalisation as a possible means of takeover by outsiders. The findings of the study suggest the importance both of considering local people’s views during tourism development and gaining a nuanced conceptualisation of cultural revitalisation in research.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural revitalisation and tourism
• local perspectives
• development
• developing world
• Benin, Nigeria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maureen O. Ukaegbu completed her MA in Cultural Resource Management and Tourism in the Department of Archaeology and Tourism where she is a lecturer. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Tourism, University Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Her PhD research focuses on Local perspectives: Revitalization of cultural heritage through tourism development in Benin, Nigeria.

Neil Carr is a Professor at the University of Otago and the Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. His research focuses on understanding behaviour within tourism and leisure experiences, with a particular emphasis on children and families, sex, and animals. His recent publications include Dogs in the leisure experience (Wallingford, UK: CABI, 2014).

Hazel Tucker is Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Hazel has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Durham University, and is author of Living with tourism (2003) and co-editor of Tourism and postcolonialism (2004) and Commercial homes in tourism (2009). Her research interests also include the politics of representation, heritage tourism, emotion in tourism encounters, and gender issues in tourism.

Notes

1. 1897 invasion was when the British invaded Benin. This resulted in the loss of artefacts.

Additional information

Funding

This study was undertaken during a +3-year PhD study supported by the University of Otago PhD scholarship.