ABSTRACT
Heritage tourism is often thought about and analysed in terms of the ‘commodification’ of culture and the objectification of local people for the ‘tourist gaze’. This raises questions linked to issues of authenticity and the shaping of identities. Who is involved in the appropriation of heritage for the construction of identities, what are their reasons and what stories to they formulate and tell? What are the complexities in the processes behind the presentations and consumption of identities, histories and stories, as they are articulated in heritage tourism products? These questions are of particular interest when one looks at heritage centres, which, although now conforming to a fairly standard heritage model worldwide, are employed in relation to the specifics of individual localities. When analysing heritage centres, it is important to take account of their unique contexts.
