Importance Of Heritage Tourism

Necessity of reinstating of historic buildings and its importance in strategic tourism

Tourism is one of the top five industries in the UK and heritage and culture are the basis of tourism in the UK as per above explanations. However, development of heritage tourism and cultural tourism would be a beneficial step to improve the growth and the development in the tourism sector. In the tourism sector, heritage tourism is evolving and becoming a crucial component in international tourism. According to Timothy (2011), heritage tourism is expected to provide the knowledge and experience of the tangible and intangible heritage to the tourists. It brings the economic development of a community. Heritage is a pride for communities as well as there

Natural heritages include beach or canyon etc. Whereas, cultural heritages include historic sites like palaces, churches etc. Westminster palace is the example of cultural heritage site too. Cultural heritage includes not only the tangible elements but it includes intangible elements too. This means just like artefacts and buildings, music, art and beliefs are the part of cultural heritage too. Many experts have emphasized that heritage tourism and cultural tourism though are not the same, both are the overlapping concepts. However, heritage tourism is much of a space bound. Whereas cultural tourism is related getting knowledge of and experiencing the tangible and intangible cultural aspects (Timothy, 2011). In addition to this, cultural tourism according to some experts, includes historical tourism, ethnic tourism, art tourism, museum tourism etc. Cultural tourism concept is four fold including tourism, tourists, cultural heritage assets, knowledge and understanding of assets and experiences. Under the cultural tourism the heritage assets and culture are presented to the tourists for economic gain. For example, the world class opera or the contemporary art in London (Mayor's cultural team, 2015). Cultural tourism used to be treated as a niche market, however in the recent times it has widened and came in to the mainstream tourism (Mckercher & cros, 2012). Culture and heritage are the key elements attracting tourists to London. According to the mayor cultural tourism generates around 3.2 billion pounds per year and create the job opportunities of around up to 80000 vacancies. However, London has a tough competition with the international cities like New York, Berlin etc. in attracting the tourists. However, London is a getaway to the Europe,