Author:

Publication Year:

Media Type: Report

Summary:

This guide represents Partners for Livable Communities culmination of the experience and knowledge on an issue that has such a great potential for community development. The report demonstrates how cultural heritage is not just something to preserve for future generations, but is in fact an asset that can be leveraged to bring real economic benefits to the community.

Abstract:

On our 35th year as an organization helping to empower communities with the tools to put them on the map as leaders in livability, Partners for Livable Communities is pleased to present this updated publication on cultural heritage tourism.

As the tourism industry has boomed in the decades since Partners for Livable Communities began its cultural heritage tourism initiatives, communities have become increasingly eager to find ways attract tourists and capture the dollars they bring with them. However, when hard times come, it can be a challenge to persuade those among us of the benefits of preserving culture, heritage, and their artifacts from the past.

This guide represents the culmination of our experience and knowledge on an issue that has such a great potential for community development. More than three decades ago, some of the first initiatives in which Partners engaged focused on identifying and leveraging local cultural assets as tourism drivers. Our keystone program dating to the late 1970’s called Culture Builds Communities, a collaborative effort with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National League of Cities, the US Conference of Mayors and other groups, is an example of such an initiative. Partners continued to outline its approach to small-scale tourism development oriented around unique cultural and natural assets in a 1990 article I wrote in the Journal of Tourism Management. The article laid forth Partners’ belief that small-scale tourism is often far more beneficial to local economies than the rapid expansion of massive resort enclaves that dominate many tourism-dependent regions.

With this publication, our hope is to demonstrate how cultural heritage is not just something to preserve for future generations, but is in fact an asset that can be leveraged to bring real economic benefits to the community. [Foreward by Bob McNulty]

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Tourism, Heritage & Preservation, Economic Impact, Cultural Planning, Cultural Facilities, Cultural Districts, Cultural Diplomacy and Exchange