Tourism product and heritage

1. Tourism Product
Tourism products are the product of tourism sector which is a necessity for the tourist during
their travel activity. it is an amalgamation of services of different type. Example: package
tour, accommodation service, transportation service, guiding and shopping etc.
Concept and Meaning Of Tourism Product
In order to understand tourism product we need to look at it from the perspective of the
suppliers(sellers) and the consumers(tourist), as consumers or tourist generally have a diffrent
view from the
Tourism is a single industry but it is made of different industries such as hotel, airlines, travel
agency, trekking agency etc. Each one of them provides individual product or they combine
together to provide travel experience. Any visit to a tourism destination comprises a mix of
several components of different organizations. A traveller may buy all the travel components
from a commercial supplier, for example, travel agency as a single product or may buy travel
components individually from different suppliers.
Tourism product is a group of components or elements brought together in a 'bundle' to
satisfy the consumer's need. A tourism product is anything that can be offered for attraction,
acquisition or consumption. It includes physical objects, services, personalities, places,
organizations and ideas. Generally, tourism product is designed as an augmented product,
which is the totality of benefits that a traveller receives or experiences in obtaining the formal
product. People do not buy products, they buy expectation of benefits. Therefore, tourism
product is an amalgam of what a traveler does and experience during a tour. The service used
and the products purchased during the trip are products.
Tourism product is the total experience of the visitors. It includes everything and every
person they come into contact with during their stay. The tourism product is more than simple
attraction or accommodation. Tourism product is primarily an experience not a good. It is the
total of travel experience not a good. From a consumer's view, tourism product is a bundle of
benefits and choose those which give them the best bundle. Tourism product includes all the
necessary elements of product plus luxury and status.
So, tourism product is and experience of place ( Location and people) at a particular time.
The basics of tourism product formulation are selling experience, which they cannot get at
home. They buy experience, which is different from everyday's job.
Before marketing any product marketers study the product concept to give the best product to
the customer. It says that consumers will prefer a product which is high on quality,
performance and features against a normal product.
Innovation helps to get new product concepts

2. Total Product concept:
List of categories of tourism characteristic consumption products and activities
Activities Products
Accommodation for visitors Accommodation services for visitors
Food and beverage serving activities Food and beverage serving services
Railway passenger transport Railway passenger transport services
Road passenger transport Road passenger transport services
Water passenger transport Water passenger transport services
Air passenger transport 6 Air passenger transport services
Transport equipment rental Transport equipment rental services
Travel agencies and other reservation
services activities
Travel agencies and other reservation
services
Cultural activities Cultural services
Sports and recreational activities Sports and recreational services
Retail trade of country-specific tourism
characteristic goods
Country-specific tourism characteristic
goods
Country-specific tourism characteristic
activities
Country-specific tourism characteristic
services

3. What is Heritage?
Heritage can refer to practices or characteristics that are passed down through the years, from
one generation to the next.
Types of heritage
Cultural property
Intangible culture
Natural heritage
Cultural property includes the physical, or "tangible" cultural heritage, such as works of art.
These are generally split into two groups of moveable and immoveable heritage. Immoveable
heritage includes buildings (which themselves may include installed art such as organs,
stained-glass windows, and frescoes), large industrial installations or other historic places and
monuments. Moveable heritage includes books, documents, moveable artworks, machines,
clothing, and other artifacts, that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These
include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a
specific culture.
Aspects and disciplines of the preservation and conservation of tangible culture include:
 Museology
 Archival science
 Conservation-restoration
 Art conservation
 Architectural conservation
 Film preservation
 Phonograph record preservation
 Digital preservation
Intangible culture
"Intangible cultural heritage" consists of non-physical aspects of a particular culture, often
maintained by social customs during a specific period in history. The ways and means of
behavior in a society, and the often formal rules for operating in a particular cultural climate.
These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual
beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity. The significance of
physical artifacts can be interpreted against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic,
religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Naturally, intangible
cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than physical objects.
Aspects of the preservation and conservation of cultural intangibles include:
 Folklore
 Oral history

4. Language preservation
"Natural heritage" is also an important part of a society's heritage, encompassing the
countryside and natural environment, including flora and fauna, scientifically known as
biodiversity, as well as geological elements (including mineralogical, geomorphological,
paleontological, etc.), scientifically known as geodiversity. These kind of heritage sites often
serve as an important component in a country's tourist industry, attracting many visitors from
abroad as well as locally. Heritage can also include cultural landscapes (natural features that
may have cultural attributes).
Aspects of the preservation and conservation of natural heritage include:
Ethnobotany
Rare breeds conservation
Heirloom plants
What is Cultural Heritage?
Cultural Heritage is an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and
passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic
expressions and values. Cultural Heritage is often expressed as either Intangible or Tangible
Cultural Heritage (ICOMOS, 2002).
As part of human activity Cultural Heritage produces tangible representations of the value
systems, beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. As an essential part of culture as a whole, Cultural
Heritage, contains these visible and tangible traces form antiquity to the recent past.
Cultural Heritage is a wide concept. We prefer to concentrate on the similarities between the
various heritage sectors, instead of on their differences.
What is Cultural Heritage Tourism (Heritage Tourism or Diaspora tourism)?
Heritage tourism - also known as cultural heritage tourism - is a branch of tourism that
involves visiting historical or industrial sites and which is oriented towards the cultural
heritage of the location where tourism is occurring. Heritage tourism helps make historic
preservation economically viable by using historic structures and landscapes to attract and
serve travellers.
Cultural Heritage types
Cultural Heritage can be distinguished in:
 Built Environment (Buildings, Townscapes, Archaeological remains)
 Natural Environment (Rural landscapes, Coasts and shorelines, Agricultural heritage)
 Artefacts (Books & Documents, Objects, Pictures)

5. Driving force behind all definitions of Cultural Heritage is:
it is a human creation intended to inform (John Feather, 2006).
Tangible & Intangable Heritage
Having at one time referred exclusively to the monumental remains of cultures, cultural
heritage as a concept has gradually come to include new categories. Today, we find that
heritage is not only manifested through tangible forms such as artefacts, buildings or
landscapes but also through intangible forms. Intangible heritage includes voices, values,
traditions, oral history. Popularly this is perceived through cuisine, clothing, forms of shelter,
traditional skills and technologies, religious ceremonies, performing arts, storytelling. Today,
we consider the tangible heritage inextricably bound up with the intangible heritage. In
conservation projects we aim to preserve both the tangible as well as the intangible heritage.
Heritage Cycle
The Heritage Cycle diagram gives us an idea how we can make the past part of our future
(Simon Thurley, 2005). In a clockwise direction the wedges and arrows read:
 By understanding (cultural heritage)
o people value it
 By valuing it
o people want to care for it
 By caring for it
o it will help people enjoy it
 From enjoying it

6. o comes a thirst to understand
 By understanding it………..etc
UNESCO
1945, UNESCO was created in order to respond to the firm belief of nations, forged by two
world wars in less than a generation, that political and economic agreements are not enough
to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral and
intellectual solidarity.
UNESCO strives to build networks among nations that enable this kind of solidarity, by:
Mobilizing for education: so that every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a
fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development.
Building intercultural understanding: through protection of heritage and support for cultural
diversity. UNESCO created the idea of World Heritage to protect sites of outstanding
universal value.
Pursuing scientific cooperation: such as early warning systems for tsunamis or trans-
boundary water management agreements, to strengthen ties between nations and societies.
Protecting freedom of expression: an essential condition for democracy, development and
human dignity. UNESCO is known as the "intellectual" agency of the United Nations. At a
time when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable development,
people must rely on the power of intelligence to innovate, expand their horizons and sustain
the hope of a new humanism. UNESCO exists to bring this creative intelligence to life; for it
is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace and the conditions for
sustainable development must be built.

7. - See more at: http://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco#sthash.52tOEjem.dpuf
The Archaeological Survey of India
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier
organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the
nation. Maintenance of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national
importance is the prime concern of the ASI. Besides it regulate all archaeological activities in
the country as per the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and
Remains Act, 1958. It also regulates Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972.
For the maintenance of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national
importance the entire country is divided into 24 Circles. The organization has a large work
force of trained archaeologists, conservators, epigraphist, architects and scientists for
conducting archaeological research projects through its Circles, Museums, Excavation
Branches, Prehistory Branch, Epigraphy Branches, Science Branch, Horticulture Branch,
Building Survey Project, Temple Survey Projects and Underwater Archaeology Wing.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) (French: Conseil international
des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and
protection of cultural heritage places around the world. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in
Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World
Heritage Sites. ICOMOS is composed of its National Committees (NCs), to which
individuals and institutions apply for membership.
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a Non-Profit NGO
registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. In 2007, the United Nations awarded
INTACH a special consultative status with United Nations Economic and Social Council.
INTACH was founded in 1984 in New Delhi with the vision to create a membership
organization to stimulate and spearhead heritage awareness and conservation in India.
Since 1984, INTACH has pioneered the conservation and protection of India's natural and
cultural heritage and is today the largest membership organization in the country dedicated to
conservation.