1) Tourism is shifting from passive viewing of cultural artifacts and events to active involvement in local culture and heritage through experiences like learning, storytelling, and aesthetic appreciation. 2) Preserving intangible cultural heritage, like stories, practices, music, and food, through tourism can encourage involvement while providing money and support to local communities. 3) However, commercializing intangible cultural heritage for tourism risks impacting its authenticity. Successful management requires considering a destination's tourist carrying capacity, community resilience, and adapting experiences to respect local culture and environments.

1. Preserving intangible heritage
and culture through tourism: a
review of issues
Professor Eric Laws
James Cook University, Australia
Assoc. Prof. Noel Scott
School of Tourism, The University of Queensland

2. Tourism market is changing
FROM Passive viewing
• artefacts
• cultural dances
• events
• visiting heritage sights
TO Active involvement and interactive experiences
• Active involvement,
• Learning,
• Aesthetic appreciation and meaning
• Entertaining stories

3. Popping the ‘tourist bubble’
Engaging with culture-heritage resources rather than gazing at
them from within a “tourist bubble

4. Intangible cultural heritage
Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) offers a way of addressing
• the stories,
• cultural practices,
• music,
• food preparation methods
• lives of ethnic groups
Because it is active and can be used to encourage involvement,
learning etc.

5. Tourism helps preserve intangible cultural heritage
Tourism offers an opportunity to help preserve ICH resources by
providing money and support to those communities and people
who “own” and “maintain” ICH

6. Can we “commercialise” ICH while at the same time
maintaining their authenticity and also benefiting local
people.
Tourist carrying capacity of the destination community.
Resilience of the local community and its capacity to withstand the
pressure of “alien” behaviour.
Resilience of the local culture and its capacity to withstand the
pressure of market-led promotion and demand for packaged
and commoditized culture.
Types of tourists.
Adaptability of the visitors.
Introduction of suitable management strategies, which may include
spatial segregation into dedicated host and guest precincts,
and strategies to distract visitors from communities, sites and
settings that may be particularly vulnerable to any level of
visitation.

7. Lessons from Leeds Castle, Kent and
visitor management initiatives in Canterbury
• A shift from increasing demand to altering its character and
managing its flow
* Providing meaning and fulfilment rather than emphasising
facilities and services
* Shifting from standardised tourism to distinctive experiences
* Respecting rather than exploiting the environment
* Adaptation rather than general solutions
* A long term view
* An optimisation approach in place of maximisation.
* Viewing employees as hosts rather than an hierarchical
approach

8. Questions
Eric Laws e.laws@runbox.com
Noel Scott noel.scott@uq.edu.au