Sustainable Tourism
Sustaining Heritage through Children: The Role of Museums and Interpretation Centrums at South African World Heritage Sites
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas van der Walt
Children are influenced by what they see and hear from a young age. It is therefore important that they learn about their heritage, both natural and cultural, and how this contributed to who they are and how the society and nation in which they live, have evolved. This is even more important in a divided country like South Africa. If heritage is to survive, young people should appreciate its value. Learning about and becoming aware of their natural and cultural heritage lead to understanding and pride in their heritage and raise their consciousness on the value of heritage. This is the only way in which children may become committed to maintaining and preserving their heritage and ensure its sustainability. Museums have a long tradition of attracting children and together with interpretation centrums they obviously can contribute to children understanding their heritage. South Africa has ten World Heritage Sites – sites deemed to be so unique by Unesco that they deserved to be protected for humanity. Some of these sites have museums or interpretation centrums attached to them. This study reflects on research done on the following two research questions regarding children as an audience of these museums and interpretation centrums: How do the museums and interpretation centrums at South African World heritage sites reach out to and encourage individual children and young people to visit the site?; and what impressions do children and young people have about these museums and interpretation centrums?
Commerce, Culture, and Heritage: Souvenirs as Communicators of History and Heritage
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ulrike Zitzlsperger
Today, for both exhibitions and museums souvenir shops are of commercial importance; furthermore, they add to the overall experience of visitors (Hampel, 2010; Brook, 1997; Cave, Baum and Joliffe, 2014). Souvenirs usually confirm a particular experience; they may be even educational and they serve as a memento of something that has left an impact (Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt, 2006). Extending the approach by Maurice Halbwachs, souvenirs are in fact ‘tangible ideas’. This contribution seeks to explore the narrative quality of selected souvenirs. It questions not so much the role of an individual item available for purchase, but the meaning of thematic objects in museum shops that reflect on a country’s history and heritage. For this purpose, I focus on three examples: 1. Souvenirs depicting the Berlin Wall – moving from a historical event towards the symbolism of a far more generic idea of ‘freedom’. 2. Souvenirs commemorating the First World War and their particular importance for the British public in the context of the War’s centenary. 3. Souvenirs that reflect the experience of dark tourism. It is argued, that what is often at play is an emotional and social ‘imagineering’ that serves to dislodge the souvenir from the reality of historical events and the actual heritage.
When Museums and Religion Intersect: Tourists, Pilgrims, and Sustainable Practices
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephanie Machabee
This paper explores issues of visitor sustainability at two types of sites: de-sacralized spaces which today function as museums (Rotunda in Thessaloniki, Greece and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey), and religious spaces that have undergone or are undergoing museumification (White and Red Monastery churches in Sohag, Egypt). When museums and religion intersect, visitors may be tourists, pilgrims, or both. Thus, issues of visitor sustainability at such sites must consider how both tourists and pilgrims interact with these spaces. Pilgrims at the White and Red Monastery churches, for example, often touch and kiss icons. Should preservationists limit ritual encounters of pilgrims in such spaces? This paper has two aims. First, based on on-site observations, I describe the kinds of interactions that tourists and/or pilgrims have with the two types of sites mentioned above and I identify some of the preservation issues that pose a challenge to heritage management. Second, based on my conversations with heritage specialists, and engaging with relevant museum and cultural heritage scholarship, I note what has been done to address these preservation issues, what concerns still remain, and some preliminary thoughts on how best to address them. In my analysis, I give special attention to the sustainability of religious interactions.
Knowledge Is Not Always Power: The Effects of Antiquities Looting on Bhutan's Cultural Heritage
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laura Evans
Bhutan’s reputation as a peaceful, pristine, and culturally-unspoiled Buddhist kingdom are challenged by surprising statistics around looting, theft, murder, and the complicity of the caretakers of Bhutan’s cultural heritage. In 1999, a reported 1,132 chorten (stupas) and 136 lhakhang (monasteries) were looted or vandalized, and their monk caretakers were assaulted, murdered, or an actor in the crime itself (Kuensel, 1999). A former director of the National Museum of Bhutan estimated that 50% of Bhutan’s chortens have been vandalized and looted (Former Museum Director, personal interview, December 22, 2018). These impactful statistics are at odds with the image that Bhutan has taken much care to cultivate: that of a peaceful, non-violent, and sustainability-conscious country focused on preserving its cultural heritage (Berthold, 2005). Changing times and technologies and increased global influences have shaped Bhutan into a source country for antiquities trafficking, a once unheard of crime in Bhutan before the introduction of tourism (embraced, in earnest, in 1974), television (gifted to Bhutan in 1999 by the 4th King of Bhutan), and technology (also a gift from the King in 1999) (Whitecross, 2008). In this study, I introduce Bhutan, its cultural heritage, and give context around its antiquities trafficking trade and how arts, goverment, and museum professionals have responded in Bhutan.
