Review of Research ISSN: X. Research Papers. Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable. Tourism

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism Review of Research ISSN: 2249-894X Vol: 1 Issue: 1 /October 2011 Research Pa...
Author: Chester Carr
5 downloads 2 Views 77KB Size
Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Review of Research

ISSN: 2249-894X

Vol: 1 Issue: 1 /October 2011

Research Papers

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Mrs. Kamani Perera And Mr. Dinesh Chandra

Librarian/Research Officer: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies 68/1, Sarasavi LaneColombo 8, SriLanka. E-mail:[email protected]. Contact No - +94112690913/4. Section Officer: Ministry of Defence New Delhi, India. [email protected]@gmail.com Contact No - +919811023332

1

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract: With the dawn of new communication technologies and World Wide Web (WWW), culturalheritage web sites have become more dynamic and popular among world communities whichresulted to receive many domestic and international visitors to the cultural heritage sites.Cultural and heritage tourism can be defined as travel directed toward experiencing the arts,heritage and activities that truly represent the stories and people of the past and present. Thishas taken much attention during the past decade.Cultural heritage is defined as the entire corpus of material signs - either artistic or symbolic -handed on by the past to each culture and, therefore, to the whole of humankind. As aconstituent part of the affirmation and enrichment of cultural identities, as a legacy belongingto all humankind, the cultural heritage gives each particular place its recognizable featuresand is the storehouse of human experience. The preservation and the presentation of thecultural heritage are therefore a corner-stone of any cultural policy (UNESCO, 25 C/4, 1989,p.57). World heritage sites have been selected by means of their outstanding universal value(OUV). It means cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcendnational boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations orallhumanity (UNESCO 2005).

Key words 1. Types of cultural heritage 2

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

2. Preservation 3. Use of ICT in cultural heritage 4. Heritage tourism Introduction It is our collective responsibility to protect world cultural heritage for future generation. Lessdeveloped countries who have the richest historical heritage need support from internationalcommunity in safeguarding their precious heritage. Cultural heritage tourism is one of the bestparts of the tourism industry which is more powerful economic development tool. Tourism + Culture + Heritage = Sustainable Economics Types of Cultural Heritage 1. Non-physical (intangible) 2. Physical (tangible)

Non-physical Cultural heritage - signs and symbols passed on by oral transmission - artistic and literary forms of expression - languages - ways of life - myths, beliefs and rituals 3

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

- value system - traditional knowledge - know-how

Causes of deterioration - Industrialization - Rapid urbanization - Air pollution - Climatic factors - Mass tourism - Disruption of economic structures - Rapid changes in life-styles (Jokielehto, 1990). To protect non-physical cultural heritage, priority has already been given for the recording of traditional cultural events and languages which are dying out. Preservation of non-physical cultural heritage Recording of traditional events and languages using up-to-date audiovisual media

4

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Creating websites to preserve traditional knowledge, know-how by way of video clips etc. Giving recognition, value to the dying cultural heritage Collection and dissemination of oral traditions Establishment of audio-visual libraries to protect rural languages Conduct seminars, workshops to educate rural communities on dying out nonphysical cultural heritages With the emergence of cyber-museology, public awareness of the value of the cultural heritage has dramatically increased. A significant number of people make visit to cultural heritage sites than past time. Hence, a considerable amount of cultural organizations,conservation institutes plunged every nook in the globe to protect the world heritage. An increased interest of non-physical heritage caused the new way of cultural development in therecent past. It eventually makes an effective contribution to the economic and social development of the world community.

Physical Cultural Heritage Monuments Archaeological sites 5

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Movable heritage collections Historic urban areas Vernacular heritage Cultural landscapes

Preservation physical cultural heritage Promoting emergency preservation of archaeological sites Preventive conservation before they are destroyed Archaeological rescue operations

Use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Cultural Heritage

ICT is used for the social and economical development of the communities as well as to provide access to cultural events and digital culture heritage repositories. The tourist industry has also become efficient, economically viable as a result of adopting new technologies. ICT has a central role in the various businesses connected to tourism and travel. Hence it is no wonder that e-commerce as well as mobile commerce have been widely utilized in the tourist industry already at an early stage (Anckar 2002; Buhalis 2003). Anckar and Buhalis stated that 6

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

ICT is playing a major role in tourism industry. They have clearly indicated by providing facts such as utilization of e-commerce and mobile commerce in tourism. In this electronic era, museums, archives and cultural heritage institutions widely used digital media to preserve and disseminate cultural knowledge and heritage among wider community. It helps to develop sustainable cultural heritage tourism. People who are have visited cultural heritage websites; make physical visits to historical places. In addition to that, ICT helps to build networks among museums, cultural institutions to create more dynamic connection to educate more and more people. Heritage Tourism Heritage tourism is that form of tourism whose objective is, among other aims, the discovery of monuments and sites. It has become more popular tourist activity to make visits to historical cultural heritage sites, in this electronic era. Culture, heritage, environment and tourism are interconnected and taking significant attention in the globe. Heritage tourism is categorized into three groups – Natural o landforms o rural scenery o flora and fauna Cultural o festivals 7

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

o arts/crafts o traditional practices/products Built o historical building o monuments o industrial sites (Jun; Nicholls; Vogt, 2004) As Jun et al described, tourist get attracted natural heritage, cultural heritage as well as built heritage. Therefore it is very important to protect all these heritages to present and future use. It helps for the sustainable tourism of any country. .They have further described, types of heritage tourism as follows – Literary tourism – travel to literary places such as writer’s birth place Legacy tourism – search for ancestors Historaunts - restaurants Dark tourism – death, disaster Industrial heritage tourism – unused industrial sites

Disaster Risk Reduction

8

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes etc can be predicted early but fire and other destructive disasters can not be predicted. Fire disasters can be manmade or due to public negligence. Fire causes severe damage to cultural heritage and human lives. Main types of damage that caused by fire are – Full or partial destruction of historical building, archaeological sites etc. Interior invaluable objects destroy due to heat smoke and water damage which resulted from fire fighting Destruction of natural habitat At this juncture, disaster management team can take following precautions to reduce the damage to the human lives and cultural heritage. electrical installations made to meet appropriate regulations and standards; Issuing of public notices on the basic risks of fire; Keeping surrounding areas clean and free from flammable materials; providing training in fire-fighting with the assistance of the local Fire Department; Ensuring that everyone is aware of the primary response in the event of fire, that being to inform the Fire Department; Installing fireproof (Methub) cabinets to protect valuable artefacts, e.g.In monasteries and temples (Dargy). 9

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Disaster Management Methods –

Priority is being given to conserve cultural heritage before the predicted disasters. Early warning systems for weather related hazards, riverside floods, landslides,coastal flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis etc. Trainings are being conducted among conservators, curators, archivists and general public. Introducing disaster management courses/diploma within school curriculum and university degree programs. Establishing national/international networks and maintain them actively to attract more audience and for publicity, education. Maintaining contacts with emergency services (fire brigade, ambulance, emergency police) Continuous updating of emergency preparedness plan. Early warning dissemination methods are alarms, sirens, local or public announcements,traditional communication methods such as ringing bells at religious places, beating drums etc. A significant number of human lives lost during the 2004 December 26th tsunami due to unavailability of effective early warning dissemination system in Sri Lanka. Now Sri 10

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Lanka government has taken preventive measures to minimize the damages created by natural disasters. Human actions are causing greater change in climate and that will have a significant adverse impact on the cultural heritage. Many historic cultural sites are likely at risk from direct impact of human actions. A few of those are armed conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq. There also have been incidents like blasting of the Bamiyan buddhas, the destruction of Heart and Kabul museums, Baghdad museum of Iraq, sacred Tooth Relic Temple (Dalada Maligawa) of Kandy, Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is prudent to take sound action to protect world heritage from natural or man–made causes, as it destroys both cultural property and the people. It is our collective responsibility to protect our heritage for present and future generations.

Sri Lanka and India UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Sri Lanka - Ancient city of Polonnaruwa - Ancient city of Sigiriya - Sacred city of Anuradhapura - Old town of Galle and its Fortifications - Sacred city of Kandy - Sinharaja Forest Reserve 11

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

- Golden Temple of Dambulla

India - Agra fort - Ajantha Caves - Ellora caves - Taj Mahal - Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram. (http://www.worldgreatsites.com/unesco-world-heritage-sites.htm/)Sri Lanka (former Ceylon) and India are rich in culture and heritage places, rooted in the history. People paid more attention to visit places where there is significant cultural value in these two countries such as Sigiriya frescoes, Polonnaruwa ruins, Sacred Tooth Relic Temple of Lord Buddha’s in Kandy, Sri Lanka and Taj Mahal in Agra, monuments of Prithviraj Chauhan, the Lodi Tombs, the Siri Fort of Allauddin Khilji, The Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Humayun's Tomb from Mughal times and Rashtrapati Bhawan and Parliament House built in British times are all monuents in Delhi, India. India is neighboring country of Sri Lanka, one of the greatest civilizations in ancient world. It is evident that there are some similarities between these two countries cultures. But there are some distinctive characteristics of their own culture. Ex. The rituals related with burial practices. Indo-Aryan cultural routes brought to SriLanka, tangible heritage such as art, architecture, city planning and their intangible components of concepts, theories and principles in the 12

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

form of rituals, beliefs and customs.Due to the immigrant cultures many forms of tangible and intangible heritage such as Aryan migrants and Indo-Dravidian migrants introduced in Sri Lanka e.g. - after Hinduism introduced to Sri Lanka, Hindu architecture and also their ritual, beliefs, customs are seen in the country.These cultural roots made significant change in tourism industry in the both countries. It is therefore the responsibility of museums, heritage organizations to preserve these cultural heritages in their original form to develop tourism industry. It is noted that international visitors are more interested than domestic visitors on world heritage sites. Taj Mahal in Agra, India and Sigirya in Dambulla, Sri Lanka are more popular heritage sites in India and Sri Lanka. A significant number of tourists visit these 2 places in each year. Conclusion Cultural institutions in general and museums in particular play – and are expected to play – an increasing number of roles in contemporary society, and their specifically cultural roles have been joined by, and are sometimes overshadowed by, new, more instrumental roles as agents of economic development, tourism and social cohesion (Ellis, 2002). In fact, they can attract more tourists by way of using modern technologies to exhibit cultural heritage.It has been revealed that museums are now playing major role not only in the wider sphere of arts, but also within tourism and leisure. Museums cannot no longer sit back and expect that people will start queuing up. Their roles have changed to attract more audiences. Barry Lord defines cultural tourism as visits by persons from outside the host community motivated wholly or in part by interest in the historical, artistic, scientific or lifestyle/heritage offerings of a community, region, group or institution. When compare with other 13

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

tourism activities such as eco-tourism, heritage-tourism, edu-tourism, adventure-tourism, agro-tourism that cultural tourism offers authentic resources to the community. Authentic resources can be defined as sites, services, or events which reflect local, regional or national heritage (Lord, 2002).

References

1. Dargye, Yonten A Brief Overview of Fire Disaster Management in Bhutan. http://icom.museum/disaster_preparedness_book/country/dargye.pdf 2. Draft Medium Term Plan 1990-1995 (UNESCO, 25 C/4, 1989, p.57). 3. Ellis, A. (2002). Planning in a Gold Climate. Lecture at the Getty Leadership Institute, July. Los Angeles: The Getty Center. 4. Jokilehto J. (2006), Considerations on authenticity and integrity in world heritage context. City & Time 2 (1): 1. http://www.ct.ceci-br.org 5. Jun, Soo Hyun; Nicholls, Sarah; Vogt, Christine (2004). “Heeding the call for heritage tourism: more visitors want an "experience" in their vacations-something a historical 14

Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

park can provide”, 9/1/2004, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1122660738.html. 6. Lord, Barry (2002). Cultural Tourism and Museums. http://www.lord.ca/Media/Artcl_cltTourismMSeoulKorea_2002.pdf 7. UNESCO, (2005). Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, World Heritage Committee and World Heritage Centre. http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide05-en.pdf

15

Suggest Documents