ABSTRACT
History, culture and religion constitute significant elements of tourism. Millions of tourists in any one year visit historic centres, temples and places of unique cultural value. Many of these major cultural attractions are located in close proximity to, or within, large urban centres. In general terms, this could be considered ‘mass tourism’, which reflects the high numbers of visitors to cultural and heritage sites; often for little more than a short stay or brief excursion. This pattern of visitation creates pressures that need to be managed effectively, taking into consideration the visitor experience and the capacity of local systems to support such pressures (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). These two areas are explored below. The constraints of space preclude detailed analysis of the varied forms of cultural tourism and associated sites; to an extent this is well illustrated by the cases encompassed within this text. The approach taken is to focus more on those generic aspects of operational management that may vary according to the type, or more appropriately perhaps, the site, of cultural attraction. In the process, the aim is to highlight key issues and potential management responses, which complement or are developed in the case studies that follow in this section.
