Industrial railway heritage trains: the evolution of a heritage tourism genre and its attributes

Abstract

Heritage tourism forms a specific genre within the wider field of tourism; however, this genre itself encompasses a wide range of different types of heritage attractions, of which industrial attractions, military attractions, stately homes and attractions associated with historic people are all examples. This paper discusses the evolution of industrial railway heritage attractions from their original railway operations to visitor attractions; second, it examines the key attributes defining successful industrial railway heritage attractions; and third, it compares and contrasts these attributes for three industrial railway heritage attractions, spanning three separate locations and two countries (Australia and Malaysia). The findings from the study identify and support ranges of success factors and suggest a framework for examining the genre of industrial railway heritage attractions and their attributes. This framework can direct future studies that investigate the nature of industrial railway heritage trains, and contribute to enriching understanding and knowledge of this genre of attractions.

Keywords:

• industrial railways
• tourist attractions
• success factors
• heritage tourism and sustainability

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Diane Jarvis's contributions as a research assistant.

Notes

1 Commoditisation is a process by which things and activities come to be evaluated in terms of their value in monetary terms, with the expansion of markets across the world bringing about the commoditisation of an ever widening range of goods and activities (Cohen, 1988).