ABSTRACT
The demand for cultural tourism and corresponding attention to the development and promotion of cultural heritage has witnessed substantial growth over the past decade. This rise in both demand and supply has been influenced by a combination of the ongoing growth in international visitor numbers, and continuing expansion in the range and choice of destinations fuelling a highly competitive marketplace. As the choice of destination for traditional forms of tourism has increased, so too has the diversity. Countries and regions that have witnessed decline in their traditional markets have sought to promote other forms of tourism, thus the attention being paid to the development of cultural tourism. This facet of tourism demand is also recognized as holding potential for tourism development in other hitherto less popular localities as a way of promoting tourism and realizing the associated economic benefits. In some ways such development has contributed to sustaining the cultural heritage of the area and of the community. However, to attract substantial demand, the cultural resource must be substantive in some way; for example, in scale or acclaim, such as the Seven Wonders of the World, or world renowned, as illustrated by the Taj Mahal or, in contemporary terms, distinctive, as in the Guggenheim Museum. On a smaller scale, an alternative approach for destinations is to create a thematic approach based on the related elements of an area's cultural heritage (McKercher and du Cros, 2002). In much the same way, we can identify the promotion of cities as cultural tourism destinations; witness the EC's ‘European Capital of Culture’ and the UK's recent ‘City Culture’ promotional campaign. Thus, cultural tourism encompasses the past and the present; a diversity well exemplified by Butcher (2001). However, in order to gain significant economic benefits from tourism there is a need for substantial demand and thus the requisite supporting superstructure and infrastructure. Whilst this is essential to facilitating access and meeting the needs of tourists it also brings additional pressures on the destination's environment and the cultural heritage itself.
