ABSTRACT
I begin with a confession. As a professional archaeologist with applied and academic experience, cultural or heritage tourism has never been more than a secondary research outcome for me. This is in spite of directing projects where heritage tourism was a proximate goal and sometimes the ultimate outcome. I do not think that I am alone in this assessment. The generally subordinate status of cultural tourism in archaeological research may indicate that few archaeologists have cultural tourism training despite its role in furthering public heritage education. It also reflects general discomfort about how archaeological and other cultural heritage information has been used for tourism. Given that archaeological deposits are finite and non-renewable, one must also ask whether excavation to support tourism is a sufficient rationale for consumption of archaeological deposits.
