Abstract
This chapter is designed to portray how sustainability for cultural heritage tourism management can be ensured through recognition of the tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Creating a bridge among people, the recognition of the intangible and tangible cultural heritages brings their revaluation for more sustainable tourism and opens the way to their acknowledgement in tourism industry practices. The chapter gives an overall idea of the tangible, intangible, and mixed cultural heritages in Turkey, representing one of the most prominent destinations in the world for the richness of its cultural heritage. Academic studies and the reports related to cultural heritage recognition practices in Turkey and the world are revised to bring recommendations and to develop a base for the discussion of practical implications for sustainable cultural heritage tourism management in Turkey. The study aims to be inspirational for both theoreticians and practitioners to create brighter cooperative projects.
TopIntroduction
This chapter aims to reflect the dynamics of national and international recognition of cultural heritage resulting in a positive basis for the sustainability of tourism in Turkey. The question asked to reach this objective is as follows: How can cultural heritage management tourism be sustainable through the national and international recognition of cultural heritages in Turkey? The study searched for and analysed academic literature in Turkey and in the world to unearth the trends in cultural heritage management and their relationship with sustainability and tourism. In addition, document analysis is used. The data selected through the official online documents of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and videos on its official website, WTO’s and UNESCO’s official documents and official web sites are reviewed and analysed to provide information concerning the national and international recognition efforts of cultural heritage and its impacts on the sustainable cultural heritage management. Additionally, reliable news data on the web is also used to support the analysis used for the methodological basis of this chapter. Finally, the chapter has not only provided some recommendations for a more sustainable cultural heritage tourism management in Turkey, but it has also highlighted the need for more multidisciplinary researches for a more sustainable cultural heritage tourism management in different locations of the world.
Cultural heritage tourism is a selected area of differentiation of tourism products in Turkey and the World. To avoid the negative impacts of mass tourism, which is based on the “sun-sea-sand” triangle, and to make tourism more sustainable, cultural heritage has been an inevitable target of strategy for sustainable tourism in Turkey. Turkey is a country situated on the Anatolian Peninsula on the Commercial Routes of Silk, Spice and Royal Roads and located on land that has been inhabited uninterruptedly during the historical periods by many civilizations such as Hittites, Lydians, Phrygians, Ionians, Seljuks, Byzantines, Ottomans who left behind universally invaluable tangible and intangible heritages.
Cultural heritage tourism is mentioned besides cultural tourism and is often considered as a subset of cultural tourism (Kaminski et al., 2014). In UNWTO General Assembly in China, cultural tourism is defined as “a type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination. These attractions/products relate to a set of distinctive material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries and the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.” (World Tourism Organization, 2018, p. 11).
Cultural tourism is estimated to generate 40% of world tourism revenues (UNESCO, 2020). Cultural tourism gained momentum in the 1990s with the emergence of sub-sectors such as heritage tourism, arts tourism, gastronomic tourism, film tourism and creative tourism (UNESCO, 2020). Nearly all these sub-sectors are included or conceptualised in the intangible or tangible heritages. Additionally, it would not be wrong if cultural heritage tourism were mentioned very synonymously to cultural tourism.
Since antiquity, people have visited shrines, monuments, and historical places for many different motivations. Discovering other cultures and interacting with them has reawakened and appears as a rapidly increasing trend today. The motivations of the domestic tourists may be to learn their roots and pride, while international motivations may result in higher tolerance and understanding among different cultures (UNESCO, 2020).
The craftsmanship of various arts (Pelit & Türkoğlu, 2019, Alagöz et al., 2018), visiting of war places and war monuments (Akbulut & Ekin, 2018), literature and literary heritage (Aliağaoğlu & Narlı, 2012), gastronomy museums (Ağcakaya & Can, 2019) are mentioned as diversified products that appear in cultural heritage tourism market. Today’s existing cultures and folkways are included in cultural heritage tourism too, as they are becoming inheritances from the past (Timothy & Nyaupane, 2009, World Tourism Organization, 2018).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cultural Heritage: The tangible and intangible assets and common values that create a nation with customs and traditions dating back to history, continuing with current rituals, ceremonies, festivities artistic creations, handicrafts, gastronomy and carrying to the future by transmission from generation to generation.
Mixed (Cultural+Natural) Heritage: Heritage with values of both cultural assets and natural assets around the same area such as Pamukkale or Cappadocia in Turkey. In Pamukkale, travertines are natural pools and there is an archaeological site just beside to visit. Similarly, Cappadocia has “Peribacalari”, the natural scenery created by the natural formation of volcanic rocks, and at the same time an important historical background and places to visit for Christianity.
Living Human Treasures: The people, the artists or craftsmen, specifically practitioners that contribute to the creation of cultural heritages by for example making handicrafts, musical instruments and playing at the same time and singing local songs or who create intangible heritages with artistic value. The UNESCO Living Human Treasures program is created to archive information about and short videos of these people while practising when they are still alive.
Intangible Cultural Heritage: The cultural heritage related to the human creation of a nation and having artistic or traditional values such as spring festivals, rituals, ceremonies, folkloric dances, musical instruments and songs played by them, traditional storytelling, handicrafts, gastronomic arts, and traditional recipes and other folkloric elements.
Sustainable Cultural Heritage Tourism: Cultural heritage tourism realised according to the sustainability rules, that is, prioritizing the protection and preservation of the natural and cultural heritage assets, the local economy, the participation of the stakeholders and adopting multidisciplinary, inclusionary, and holistic management and decision-making perspectives.
Tangible Cultural Heritage: The cultural heritages belonging to one land and civilization and having universal value and that have a tangible asset such as archaeological sites, buildings of historical or traditional value, monuments, artistic creations such as sculptures and other tangible resources.
Cultural Heritage Tourism: The thematic area of tourism that benefits as a resource from tangible, intangible, and mixed cultural heritage resources at a destination.