ABSTRACT
Given the pervasiveness and local particularity of heritage, it is not surprising that heritage tourism is among those tourism niches growing most rapidly (Timothy and Boyd 2006). The money visitors spend on admission fees, souvenirs, transport, food and accommodation contributes billions every year to the global economy and employs millions of people directly and indirectly (Timothy and Boyd 2003). Apart from economic incentives, heritage tourism serves important political purposes. On the domestic level, cultural heritage is commonly used to stimulate pride in the (imagined) national history or to highlight the virtues of particular ideologies. In the supranational sphere, heritage sites are marketed and sold as iconic markers of a local area, country, region or even continent, and the journey abroad as an opportunity to learn about the “Other”—some go as far as promising a contribution to worldwide peace and understanding. At the same time, tourism is increasingly recognized and used as an agent of socio-cultural change. Cultural heritage tourism in particular has been advocated as an attractive alternative to mass tourism, providing sustainable livelihoods to small local operators, protecting and sustaining the cultural resources, and educating tourists and locals alike (NWHO 1999). Cultural heritage management is now commonly seen as a strategic tool to maximize the use of heritage within the global tourism market (Nuryanti 1997). However, the transformation of sites into destinations and cultural expressions into performances is seldom straightforward.
