ABSTRACT
In 2003, UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage came into effect. Since then, a wave of “protection of cultural heritage (tangible and intangible)” has swept the globe and various international collaborations as well as national and regional action plans have been launched and implemented. Meanwhile, commercial institutions are also seeking market opportunities devoted to heritage-related business projects, such as heritage tourism (Cros and McKercher 2015; Loulanski and Loulanski 2011; Poter and Salazar 2005; Timothy and Boyd 2006), tourism products with cultural heritage characteristics. Many kinds of external forces have played different roles in heritage issues. This includes negotiating between competing political and economic claims in the process of heritage preservation, economic development, and profitable utilization (Bendix 2009; Stefano et al. 2012). Unfortunately, those groups of people actually carrying out heritage activities are marginalized and undervalued.
