Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This paper draws on a research project examining visitor learning in five community-based ecotourism (CBET) projects in Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, and Vietnam, respectively. It proposes that the experience of visiting CBET sites can be conceptualized in much the same manner as experiencing a Living History Museum, but with a greater depth of engagement and learning, and authentic relationships. In CBET projects, visitors live with local host families, eat local food, engage in traditional livelihood activities, and participate in cultural events, and are guided by local hosts to see environmental attractions. These village-based CBET projects are located in natural sites of great beauty and biodiversity (pristine tropical forests, marine reef islands, high mountains), and are run by local or Indigenous Peoples. As in CBET, visitors to living heritage sites see their visits as educational, recreational and leisure pursuits. They expect interactive engagement with another time, culture and place, and may take on performative and interpretive roles. In the staging of living history, artisans typically explain and produce crafts and visitors can engage in hands-on activities. This paper further draws out these parallels and offers some conclusions for CBET as a sort of “inclusive museum” of living culture.