ABSTRACT
The experience of tourism has been explored and discussed theoretically by Cohen (1979a), Uriely (2005) and Wang (1999). In places of heritage more specifically, the tourism experience has been discussed by Beeho and Prentice (1995, 1997), Chronis (2005), McIntosh and Prentice (1999), Nuryanti (1996) and Prentice et al. (1998). The focus of this chapter is on industrial heritage sites and, in particular, how meaningful experiences are encountered at these sites. In some accounts of tourism research, explicit links have been made between post-industrial mining sites and heritage tourism (for example, Cole 2004; Edwards and Llurdés i Coit 1996; Light and Prentice 1994; Prentice et al. 1998; Pretes 2002; Rudd and Davis 1998; Wanhill 2000). However, the majority of these accounts are concerned primarily with the feasibility of transitioning former industrial sites into places of tourism rather than their consumption by visitors. Thus, how and why industrial sites allow for meaningful experiences of tourism remains under-researched.
