A heritage site development model: Jewish heritage product formation in south-central Europe

ABSTRACT

Models referring to tourism product development are rather rare. This paper suggests a model of heritage tourism formation. The model is based on observations made and interviews conducted in three Balkan States and southern Hungary with respect to the formation of Jewish heritage products. Results indicate that the formation of the heritage product follows a structured line of development. This is presented in two phases, an initial phase concerning the development of major tangible products and a mature phase taking care of the addition of minor artifacts some of them of intangible nature. Each phase is composed of several steps, providing together a sort of protocol for heritage product formation. Although the suggested model does not fit all heritage sites, it appears to be applicable to several heritage products such as churches and shrines of other religious denominations, heritage of famous figures like writers, painters, musicians, and others, and sites of prominent events such as battles, films and the like.

KEYWORDS:

• Sacred sites
• tourism product modeling
• Jewish heritage tourism (JHT)
• synagogues
• Balkan states
• south Hungary

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Jewish community leaders and Tourism Information Center officers in the sampled towns and cities for their time and valuable knowledge provided graciously during the data collection stage in June 2015. Thanks are also extended to Professor Norbert Pap, Head of the Department of Political Geography and Director of the Centre of Eastern-Mediterranean and Balkan Studies at the University of Pécs, Hungary for his invitation and help in generating contacts in the study area.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Shaul Krakover holds a full professor position at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. He is also the Chairperson of Arava and Dead Sea Science Center. Currently, he specializes in urban and regional planning and development via the tourism industry with special emphasis on Jewish heritage tourism development.

Notes

1. Worms' Jewish cemetery and its reconstructed synagogue are marked top tourist attractions by TripAdvisor reviewers (2015) (2nd and 6th of 16 attractions, respectively).

2. On the Mostar tourism map, the synagogue is marked as 16. However, interestingly, in the explanation text that appears on the back side of the map, they go directly from 15 to 17, skipping the description related to the synagogue.

3. ‘The Hungarian government will also earmark funds for refurbishing the interior of the synagogue of Subotica (Szabadka) of northern Serbia' (Hungary Today, 17 September 2014) http://hungarytoday.hu/news/substaintial-funding-to-jewish-communities-884-4.