Role conflict and changing heritage practice: ancestral tourism in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Developing mutually beneficial outcomes in service encounters can be challenging due to resource asymmetry within co-created experiences. Such encounters can result in role conflict for service providers. Limited attention has been paid to the effect on service providers of highly collaborative exchanges which require specific customisation. An example of this is ancestral tourism, a dimension of heritage consumption, in which visitors actively participate in the co-creation of experience at museums, archives and related heritage sites. These institutions, previously seen as repositories of historical information, now act as conduits for visitors to investigate their ancestral past. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between changing professional discourse in the cultural heritage sector, specifically ancestral tourism, and role conflict amongst staff. Through interviews conducted with professionals, the extent and outcomes of role conflict in complex and collaborative exchanges are explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Role conflict
• heritage tourism
• ancestral tourism
• Scotland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Carnegie Trust [grant number 31785].

Notes on contributors

Samantha Murdy

Samantha Murdy’s research interests consist of exploring and examining marketing principles and theories in the context of tourism, with a focus on destination branding, destination image, visitor relationship management and visitor behaviour.

Matthew Alexander

Matthew Alexander’s research interests are focused on the complementary concepts of value co-creation and customer engagement. A particular area of interest in this area is in the collaborative activities of local communities, including with outside agencies to create a more positive environment and sense of place for residents and tourists.

Derek Bryce

Derek Bryce’s research interests lie mainly in the critical appraisal of the commodification of cultural heritage resources, the rendering of places into destinations and, more broadly, the political and cultural discourses underpinning commerce alongside intersections between tourism and wider socio-cultural phenomena.