António dos Santos Queirós
Lisbon University, Portugal
Source Tittle: Analysis, Conservation, and Restoration of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Copyright: © 2019 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-6936-7
Copyright: © 2019 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-6936-7
INTRODUCTION: DEBATING
THE Concept of heritage
In the
framework of phenomenological conceptualization of tourism are predominant
linear or two-dimensional definitions. To familiarize the reader with another
type of definition, which we call circular or multidimensional in their
relational dialectic, we depart from the concept of heritage of Figure 1 drawn
up by engineer Vasco Costa, at the time Chief Executive Officer of DGEMN_ Direção
Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais ( General Direction of Buildings and
National Monuments) de Portugal.
Figure
1. Concept of heritage
Source: Adapted
by Author
Visually
put the accent on the idea, for us obviously, that this system, articulated as
a set of databases interoperable is constituted as the key piece for any action
and qualitative intervention in safeguarding and enhancement of heritage, in
compliance with the internationally accepted concepts and normative.
We
believe that the achievement of a global society, in economic terms and in lifestyle, will
lead to the improvement of cultural diversity. (Costa, 2008)
HERITAGE, From the
resource to the product
The
concept of tourism heritage as a cultural industry has led to search for local
resources - biological and geological, livestock and forestry, etc., monuments
and as their basic material. In fact the first are used and processed by other
industries, and in many cases require its conservation. And as for the second,
its consumption is shared between residents and travelers.
What
constitutes a tourism resource is a humanized “cultural landscape”, in urban
space or rural space. Reading and interpretation of the cultural landscape is
the basis for the creation of the tourism product and its first metamorphosis
of value.
It’s
the ecology of the landscape (material heritage) and its metaphysics
(immaterial heritage), which constitute the essence of tourism resource, but
only when their interpretation and reading gives it a new increase in cultural
and economic value.
The
landscape is not an open book, intelligible empirically. The transformation
into a tourism product goes through its readability, which gives it a used
value; it’s a metamorphosis that generates economy value, and it’s also a
process of cultural literacy, mediated by the construction of a language for
tourist communication; the result of this process changes the shape and the
essence of traditional concepts of resources and tourism products, and the
relationship between the Chains of Value of tourism economy and the economy of
heritage.
What
are the skills to transform a potential touristic resource into a product of cultural
tourism or tourism of nature or tourism in rural space?
The Natural
History, served by the Earth Sciences, Geology and Geomorphology in particular,
reveals the diversity of geological heritage and its natural monuments.
Life
sciences, especially biology and botany, teach us the size and value of
biodiversity, and also the value of new biotopes created by the humanization of
the landscape.
Social
History in its archaeological and artistic valences, and ethnography, allow us
to take advantage of the built heritage, works of art and literature, as well
as ethnographic objects.
Sciences
of Heritage and Museology build the organic structures of the cultural tourism,
Museums and Monuments. Cathedrals and churches, chapels and sanctuaries, are
too organic structures of the cultural tourism, a branch of tourism of nature,
religious tourism. Sciences of Architecture of Landscape and Agrarian Sciences
transform wilderness in cultural landscapes, they preserve cultural landscape
and wilderness creating Natural Parks and Reserves and their Centres of
Interpretation, which are the organic structures of the tourism of nature. And
we think that SPAs are also organic structures of the tourism of nature, a
branch of tourism of nature, health tourism. Agrarian Sciences and Sciences of
Heritage (architecture, art history, ethnography, restauration…) adapt farms
and village residences, rural hotels, to accept tourists and are the organic
structures of tourism in rural space.
And
when we discuss these, we can’t forget their immaterial dimension, esthetical
and ethical which can be found in the erudite and popular imagination and in
their creative expressions in literature, dance, music, philosophy... Immaterial heritage of landscape represents the domain
of aesthetic emotions and feelings, ethical principles and their cultural
representations.
Environmental Tourism, in our concept and in the synthesis of
Philosophy, is really the integration of nature and culture in the concept of
landscape, and their metamorphosis in Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature
(Ecotourism). Environmental Tourism includes material and immaterial patrimony,
physical an metaphysical values (aesthetical and ethical values).
However, this perspective of tourism as an economic phenomenon, but
also anthropological and socio-cultural, conduce to a third dimension, historic
and politic. In the national heritage and social consciousness of humanity and
in their collective unconscious, is recorded the journey of the early hominid
crossing the Mediterranean from Africa, passing the Bosporus and journeying to
America and the Arctic polar ice; the memory of the first hunter-gatherers who
followed the march of the rivers and valleys open by tectonics of Earth; lather
builders of “dolmen and menhirs”, which limited the journey to surrounding
agricultural and pasturing lands, in a eternal return; already in the modern
age, navigators and explorers from all corners of the planet, with the birth of
capitalism and those successive globalizations.
After be created political and social conditions, with the advent of
modern democracies and socialisms, the conquest of social leisure by new social
classes, and the containment of war, all the humanity continue his historic
walk and made global world the place of
trampling of human animal.
Involving the others three dimensions, we arrive to a fourth dimension
of human being, in the perspective of
the philosophy of nature and the environment philosophy: the human being
separate from Nature and distinct human
cultures by the anthropocentric and ethnocentric conceptions, has a common origin and belong to the same and
single Human family.
And stay ecologically linked to the biological, geological and
cosmological environment, connect to all beings and things.
Contemporary Ethology do the demonstration that the ability to feel
pain and pleasure is not unique attribute of Man, and also the intelligence or even the ability
to work and the making of their tools, such as the social labor, are common to
other species. But the aesthetic feeling and taste, not only to artistic
creation but also to the relationship with the nature, seem to be exclusive
attributes of descendants of the homo sapiens sapiens. Maybe the tourist
of the working classes, in short holidays, or the financial speculator in
business trip, doesn't distinguish the” beautiful” from the “sublime”, two
categories of aesthetics fields, but none of these human beings can ignore the
presence of these values in the landscape, even their reaction could be the
silence, the human silence of those who contemplate the mystery or the
wonderful.
And we got four dimensions of the tourism concept.
From this perspective, that is beyond economic and traditional
definitions, we must to study and
research the phenomenology of tourism as a strange economy, a process of
socio-cultural anthropology and also in their historic-political conditions;
finally, in the new framework of
environmental philosophy and their environmental ethics ….
What are, after all, cultural tourism and tourism of
nature? Organization and products
We
propose the following definition, about Cultural Tourism: An organic and
productive branch of tourism, incorporating levels of design, organization and
promotion, contents and materials from the domain of culture and scientific
culture. Particularly in the essence of cultural tourism, are Museology and
Heritage Sciences.
The
scientific core of the Tourism of Nature are Environmental Sciences. The
organic structures of Tourism of Nature are the Centers of Interpretation of
Nature, localized in protect areas.
The
organic structures of Rural Tourism (Tourism in Rural Space), are rural houses,
rural hotels, farms, offering the visit of cultural landscape, organic
products, and participation in the activities of production.
However,
museums or centers of interpretation of nature may be adjusted to the dynamics
and the objectives of the tourism economy, in the framework of the management
of their Value Chains.
We can distinguish clearly types or categories
of tourism looking into their different organic structures and products:
Cultural
tourism: organization and management
Cultural
Tourism only exists if it’s present the network of museums, monuments and
archaeological and historical sites and centers, particularly those which are
classified by Unesco World Heritage, cultural festivals and celebrations.
Museums, in the largest definition of ICOM (International Council of Museum),
are the major organic structures of Cultural Tourism.
The
products offered by Cultural Tourism, are the collections display at museums
(permanent or temporary), from the Louvre to the Prado, monuments, and
archaeological and historical sites and centers (particularly those which are
Human Heritage), festivals and celebrations with a value of identity, local
matter, at regional, national or international levels, like the Holy Week
celebrations in Castilla or the Fátima Sanctuary celebrations, in Portugal.
Cultural
Tourism also offers the architectural value of heritage structures, like the
iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao or the monumental complex of Alhambra in Granada,
Spain.
All
these organic structures of Cultural Tourism (museums, monuments, science
centers...) are operating today as interpretation centers to their diverse
audience segments (the tourists surpass the segment of the public school) and
temporary events also require an organizational structure itself, even if
assembled for a limited period, which increasingly tends to set in partial but
permanent forms of memory and event promotion. This is the case with the
creation of museums of the Holy Week in Spain or of the apparitions in Fatima,
Portugal, or in Lourdes, France, which complement the Sanctuaries. And these
temples are evolving in the complexity of products and as a standing offer, in
addition to the dates of pilgrimages.
Therefore,
the concept of cultural tourism must naturally integrate religious tourism,
because that concept is larger than the second and the religious phenomenon is
one of humanity's cultural expressions.
That is
the case of industrial archaeology…and so on…
The
idea of Cultural tourism based on built heritage, views and lifestyle, as well
as events and happenings, gives us a rough overview of the diversity of
contexts and products of cultural tourism. It should be connected to the
specific function of tourism economy and, in this context, should lead us to
study how today it constitutes and can reproduce the tourism capital, based on
its relationship with the culture industry, and most of all to recognize the
extension of the cultural penetration into the tourism activity, which may have
led to profound changes in the traditional paradigm of tourism.
Tourism
of Nature: organization and management
The
major organic structures of Tourism of Nature are the Parks and Natural
Reserves, paleontological, and nature interpretation centers, and its cultural
landscape - humanized landscape (cultural landscape or “terroir”), with a
special focus on those was classified as World Heritage.
The
products offered by Tourism of Nature or Ecological Tourism, structured within
this network in the context of cultural and natural landscapes, offer the
discovery of nature diversity, observation of species, small and large
pedestrian routes, and the pleasure of a human re-approach to nature, with all
the sensations.
Including
Health Tourism to the above mentioned Tourism of Nature: Thermal and water
pleasures (SPA), the French thalassotherapy (sea station), mountain stations,
wellness, the functional (healthy) food tours and itineraries offered by
Circuits. And we also include Sports in Nature as part of the activities of
Tourism of Nature.
Sports
of Nature that mean Active Tourism: hiking, walking, climbing, canoeing, skiing
or motorized vehicles. These products are shared with Rural Tourism.
Active
tourism is not a type or category of Tourism bur a quality of several types or
categories of tourism.
Integrating
the Health Tourism in the type or category of Tourism of Nature becomes an obvious choice when we realize
that the network of Thermal Baths occurs in zones of geological faults and
dating back to at least the Romanization period of the Iberian Peninsula and
Europe. And even more when we adopt the current formula of the World Health
Organization (WHO) to establish its content:
The WHO
defines health as "a State of complete physical, mental and social
well-being, which is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". This
approach amplifies the biological concept of health, because it includes the
psychological and social components of the human being and an ethical
dimension.
The
functional food and the conditions surrounding the conservation of nature are
now inextricably linked to the modern Spas, just as they already were connected
to the Baths of classical civilizations.
The
products offered by Tourism in Rural Area include accommodation in traditional
homes as well as the discovery of humanized landscapes (cultural landscapes,
the French "terroir" concept) and/or participating in the agriculture
work cycles, associated to Active Tourism: road trips, hikes, TT, horseback
riding, hunting and fishing, and Golf Tourism.
Usually
this typological framework does not apply to golf, but, golf normally implies
the creation of a cultural landscape in the rural space not in urban or virgin
landscapes, which adapt traditional landscapes to new functions while keeping
the landscape setting.
Golf,
like tennis, will be gradually democratized and accessible to the middle class.
Their social value, can attract a younger crowd and promote fitness and an
active ageing. The current breakdown between Golf and Rural Tourism, is the
issue of deficient integration of tourist products in the same destination.
Other
activities that relay rural tourism to Health tourism include outdoor hiking, a
demand for air and water in pollution free woods and springs, and traditional,
biological and healthy food.
The
joint offering of Cultural Tourism and Nature Tourism, which may include the
products of Tourism in Rural Areas, can be called Environmental Tourism.
A conceptual approach to the typology or categories of
tourism
1.
Cultural Tourism, organized by the organic structures of museums and monuments and its material and
immaterial heritage and offer products (collections, visits), animation and
events. Includes tourism of religion. Archaeology of industry...
The
collections and exhibitions of museums, from the Louvre to the Prado, monuments
and archaeological and historical sites, particularly those which are Human
Heritage, festivals and celebrations with a value of identity, in the local,
regional, national or international level, as the Theatre Classic Festival in
Spain roman heritage, the celebration of Holy Week in Castilla or religious
celebrations at Portuguese Fatima sanctuary. But also the architectural value
of these structures and cultural landscapes, for instance, the Côa Valley
Museum and Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde, the
iconic attraction capacity of the architecture of Guggenheim Bilbao Museum or
the monumental complex of the Alhambra in Granada.
2.
Tourism of Nature, or Ecotourism, structured with the organic structures of
parks and reserves, paleontological and nature interpretation Centers, in the
context of cultural and “wild” landscapes, especially those who are classified
by UNESCO as Word Heritage, discovering geodiversity and biodiversity, and
cultural landscape diversity, offering products as observation of the birds and
protects species...
Including
“Health Tourism” with Health Spa and some sports of nature, like walking,
climbing, canoeing, caving…skiing and rackets… motorized journeys ... shared
with Rural Tourism.
3.
Tourism in Rural Areas, organized from the organic structures of farmers,
villages and rural hotels, using the products of terroir, eating, chasing,
fishing… offering several “sports of nature”, like golf or rafting… equestrian
activities or hang gliding… landscape promenades… and enjoying “functional
food” (healthy food).
The
accommodation at traditional home but also the discovery of humanized
landscapes (cultural landscapes, the French “terroir” concept) and/or
participation in the agriculture work cycles, associated with the “active
tourism”: car rides, hikes, TT, horseback riding, hunting and fishing, and Golf
Tourism...
Unusually
this typology is not applied to Golf, but, golf practice implies, as a rule, to
create a cultural landscape in the rural space not in urban or virgins
landscapes, who modify traditional landscape to news leisure functions. Golf,
like tennis, will be gradually democratized and accessible to the middle class,
for the reason of their social value, which attracts youth and promote fitness
healthy and active ageing.
The
current breakdown among Golf and Rural Tourism is a problem of deficient
integration of tourism products in the same destination.
Tourism
in Rural Areas share products related with “Health Tourism”, sharing fresh air
activities and clean waters, woods and springs without pollution, the
traditional and organic food, but their products are very different from the
Tourism of Nature: we observe the birds on the Tourism of Nature activities and
we hunt them on the Rural Tourism.
4.
Tourism of Idiom, based in the organic structures of school exchanges heading
for the promotion of knowledge of the language and culture among foreigners,
their holiday’s camps and programs.
5.
Tourism of Congresses and Business, realized in the organics structures like
the conference centers, with meetings in the form of seminars, symposia,
conferences, workshops and those social programs. International fairs and
exhibitions.
6.
Tourism of Gastronomy and Oenology, offer in the organic structures like
restaurants, shops, wineries and vineyards and cellars, linked to the concept
of “terroir”. Wine and gastronomy, with particular emphasis on degustation of
wine, sausage, cheese and gastronomic icons menus and restaurants, as the
Spanish El Bulli or the Portuguese, Port Wine (Vinho do Porto).
Those
are the structures of gastronomic and oenological tourism, but we must include
fairs and specialty museums, festivals and related events and a new multimedia
literature that won important role in the promotion and the optimization of
their market.
7.
Tourism of Sea and River, based on ocean beaches and river beaches, with their
leisure activities and characteristic sports, especially water sports, sailing
and diving, beaches inland waterways, providing the sport fishing and
boating...
The
coastline also offers a wide range of products typically associated with
ordinary concept of touring; walking and boating, enjoying the sun and the
sand, geological and biological diversity and the aesthetics of landscape, the
waterfront (and river) “promenades” , a tradition that came back from the
beginnings of tourism use, in the 19th century reserved to the high class.
8. Long
Term Residential Tourism, new principal residences for foreign, which are
expanded from the coast into the interior, involving mainly senior tourists
with its old members, but also young couples with great mobility.
9. Itinerant Tourism Auto-Caravan new
practices, which corresponds to the overcoming of a new class of users of
modern auto-caravan ( organic structures) , demanding and using the
infrastructures available for cultural tourism and tourism of nature, but also
a new type of parks, for refueling and waste treatment, endowed with regional
information, shop and supplementary housing.
10.
School and Scientific Tourism, from the organic structures that are basic
schools and high schools, which corresponds to the models of study visits or
finalists travels extend beyond a journey, but also associate to nature,
scientific and cultural expeditions, markedly increased by the emerging of
Museum and Science Centers of the 2rd an 3rd generation, thematic parks and the
museums of industrial archaeology.
11.
Sport Tourism and from Sport, new organic structures as national or Olympic
stadiums, sportive centers, considering
the first as being the displacement of the athletes and their teams and the
second the travel of supporters and spectators. That category includes Olympic
Games, world championship and others competitions, including professionals and
amateurs who perform regularly a sport activity.
It is
obvious that some sport activities are shared with the Tourism of Nature and
Rural Tourism offer, which is the case of Golf, or sea and river leisure. His
distinction type can be made through their main motivation and “taste”: enjoy
diversity of or the rural environment, or searching a particular sport: that is
the case of "snow tourism” to practice ski or the tourism groups affiliated
in golf clubs to practice this sport championship.
12.
Tourism of Gaming and Entertaining, organized from the organic structures of
casinos and thematic parks, with their own animation.
Those
categories have in common several activities, but preserve their own identity,
different organic structures and diverse products.
However,
it is not easy to measure their impact in the Tourism Satellite Account.
In the
domain of the economy, they are different productive segments of tourism
activities.
A strange behaviour of Cultural Tourism and Tourism of
Nature products, in the market
The new
tourist products, from Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature, as merchandise
that they are, have an added value and an exchange value, comparable to common
goods. However, the products of Cultural
Tourism and Tourism of Nature in the market competition have a strange behaviour.
This competition, for differentiation, generates complementary and cooperative
networks, without exclusion of the competitor.
Indeed,
the tourist consumer of Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature products tends
to visit all the museums and monuments, different protected areas and cultural
landscapes and not to settle unique a product, or icon or mark
If
municipality wants to become an attraction pole integrate in a new touristic
destination, must consider the cooperation with all the neighbours
municipalities to create scale in the competition with the consolidated tourism
destinations. They need to organize common Routes and Circuits justifying at
least a journey visit (a day and one night) and several journeys crossing the
territory unified, on the context of a Route of environmental tourism.
A
strange competition
The new
tourist products, from Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature, as merchandise
that they are, have an added value and an exchange value, comparable to common
goods. However, the products of Cultural
Tourism and Tourism of Nature in the market competition have a strange behaviour.
This competition, for differentiation, generates complementary and cooperative
networks, without exclusion of the competitor.
Indeed,
the tourist consumer of Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature products tends
to visit all the museums and monuments, different protected areas and cultural
landscapes and not to settle unique a product, or icon or mark.
But the
concentration of organic structures of Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature
at a specific location, for example Paris, focus 80% of international tourism
to the France capital. Louvre becomes a microcosm of the world tourism. The
same phenomena in Madrid or London…
From
the expansion of low-cost flights, all cultural destinations are competing
among themselves and if a city or municipality wants to become a pole of
attraction, must consider the cooperation with neighbours, cities and regions,
to create scale in the competition with the consolidated tourism destinations.
They need to organize common Routes and Circuits justifying at least a journey
visit (a day and one night) and several journeys crossing their territory.
From
that perspective, the notion of competitiveness in the field of tourism have a
new sense: the economic development of new forms of tourism creates a large
dynamics that determines the evolution of other economic areas upstream and
downstream, promoting an economy of
conservation of nature and rehabilitation of cultural heritage. In parallel,
environmental tourism encourages a sustainable agriculture and the reform of
the construction, sustainable architectural and urban sets rehabilitation. And
the spread of info-and cyber culture.
The
construction of a specific tourism speech. In terms of written and multimedia
language disclosure, the concepts of selective observation and meaningful
description of the cultural landscape, using different sciences and cultural
expressions, involve the construction of a specific tourism speech, distinct of
the scientific discourse. The most common mistakes in this matter are the
transcription of academics texts or the trivialization of information.
We must
emphasize here that tourism writing is a specific art, very complex, because
must associate and make accessible scientific and philosophical contents and
communicational concepts, at the same time rigorous and accessible and that
needs to be validated by the various segments of their audiences.
Its
reference boundary can be what, in every historical period and cultural
context, represents the general level of education and culture of the middle
class. This means that the tourism narrative raises the knowledge of large
masses of travellers and enlarge information of elites, which, as a rule, have
a scholarly knowledge but only in a single scientific domain.
For
many years’ hotels was the main from tourism attraction. What's changed since
then? Taken a as the variable of the accommodation, as a representation
of the seventh Chains of Value of tourism economy and h the variable
which represents the heritage (cultural heritage and natural heritage). In the
past h= f (a)… Currently a = f (h).
The Environmental
Philosophy
Critique
of ethnocentrism and critique of anthropocentrism
Remember now the Stockholm
Proclamation:
Man is at same time the product and
craftsmanship of the surrounding environment…The two elements, natural and
human, which he himself created, are essential to human well-being and the full
enjoyment of their fundamental rights, including the right to life itself. (United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 1972)
The work of Barbara Ward and
Rene Dubos, which formed the basis of the “Report On The Human Environment”
analyzed at that Conference, remains insufficiently spread, even to the
specialists in this area. The nature of this essay does not allow us to analyze
in detail the guidelines adopted by the “The Human Environment Report”. It
contains 26 political guidelines designated by Principles, trying to respond to
the dangers and threats of the global environmental crisis. We will only bring
up those that seem to have more directly influenced the drafting of the Code of
Ethics of Tourism.
The financing of this Report
was guaranteed by the World Bank, the Ford Foundation and the University of
Columbia, which make clear the importance of the environmental issue for all
sectors of society. They present an account of the various controversies about
the severity of environmental problems and priority measures, and establish the
principle that …
… the man has two homelands, it's own
and the planet Earth. (United Nations Conference on
the Human Environment, 1972)
This principle builds a
demarcation with ethnocentrism and their political perspective.
The critical perspective of
environmental philosophy toward the ethnocentrism, postulate:
Ethnocentrism is an emotionally approach
that considers and judges other societies by their own culture’s criteria. It
is easy to see that this attitude leads to contempt and hate of all ways of
life that are different from that of the observer. (Dias, 1961)
The critique of ethnocentrism
not only justifies the respect for all national cultures and all forms of
classical and popular cultural expression, but also rejects each notion of
superiority of a society model, race or ethnicity. In this sense, it enlarges
the concept of cultural tourism products far beyond the great museums, “master
oeuvres “and classic heritage.
Critique of the anthropocentrism:
enlarging the concept of community!
Concerning the tremendous
influence of the modern technique the nature, Hans Jonas, a German Jew that
immigrated to Canada and the USA, in “The Imperative of Responsibility In
Search of an Ethic for the Technological Age” (1979), formulates a new
categorical imperative for human action, beyond the Kantian imperative ethic of
the conformation of individual acts with the principle of a universal law
(Kant, 1789).
He designs a new ethical framework, which is a
result of the need to configure the human conduct within the limits that
safeguard the continuity of life and its diversity:
Act so that the effects of your action are
compatible with the permanence of genuine human life. (Jonas, 1979)
Amongst this ethical principle
we are at the border of the humanism, but still remain at the frontier of
anthropocentrism.
The pioneer work of “Land ethics”, belonging to Aldo Leopold
(after Walt Whitman and David Thoreau and the transcendentalism of Waldo
Emerson, John Muir and G. Pinchot, pioneers of rational management of forest
and environment and George Perkins Marsh), which came from the studies of
Darwin and the scientific advances of ecology.
The feeling of help and
defense, developed throughout the process of natural selection, generate the
concept of the Community, basis of the ethics. But now it is a new concept of
nature that emerges, Community is enlarged to plants, animals, minerals, fluids
and gases, closely linked and interdependent.
All ethics are based on a premise: that the
individual is a member of an interdependent community …The land ethics simply
enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, water, plants, and
animals, or, collectively: the land. (Leopold, 1947)
But the recognition of the
economic value of using biodiversity is still a way to refuse the autonomous
land Ethic values.
The land-relation is still strictly
economic, entailing privileges but not obligations. (Leopold, 1947)
It usually leads to confining
nature conservation to the parks and reserves, and the species potentially
useful to humans, and reduce conservation to the action of the State, giving
complete freedom to private businesses. This vision is supported by the
premise, scientifically false, that the elements with economic value of the
biotope can exist in nature without the presence of other elements.
The image commonly employed in conservation
education is «the balance of nature»... This figure of speech fails to describe
accurately what little we know about the land mechanism. A much true image is
the one employed in ecology: the biotic pyramid. (Leopold,
1947)
Today, we must consider a
dynamic balance of this pyramid.
Conservation
is a state of harmony between men and land… , says Leopold: That is the
scientific base of ecological consciousness that recognizes the “duties towards
nature.
A land ethic then reflects an
existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction
of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity
of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and
preserve the capacity. (Leopold, 1947).
After two thousand years, a
new ethical perspective emerges in the Western culture: The Ecocentrism from
Aldo Leopold is focused on our duty towards biotic community, which we are a
part of. The Biocentrism (Earth first, Greenpeace, Wilderness Society (...)
assigns an intrinsic value to any living entity.
The moral question is not
applied to new objects, such as the nature, pre-existing anthropocentric moral
theories. Nature shall be included in our field of moral reflection, our
duties, before limited to human beings; it shall be extended to other natural
beings… Obligations of stakeholders in tourism development must include those
issues. If they want that Tourism, will be a factor of sustainable development
and not a trouble.
However the risk of potential
conflict between the environmental philosophy and the Global Code of Ethics for
Tourism became bigger with the emergence of a new trend: “Animal ethics”! That
puts the problem of animals being treated as subjects of "right".
Is time to conclude that the
Code perspectives, based in the Aristotelian paradigm of virtue ethics,
eudaimonia; the Kantian paradigm of the categorical imperative respect for
the person and the paradigm of the utilitarian ethics considering the greatest
good (Jamal and Menzel, 2011), don’t have the same view as the environmental
philosophy and their environmental ethics. The environmental ethics perspective
is systemic; the Human being doesn’t remain at the center of their concept of
value, as an absolute and discretionary master of nature. According to
environmental ethics perspective, every human activity, including the tourism
activities, must subordinate itself to the respect and conservation of the
biotic community and non-biotic community. The principles of Land Ethics and
Animal Ethics with their own values, in the philosophical, ethical and
aesthetic sense, must be considered in the moral conduct of the human societies
and tourism activities.
Environmental
Tourism: the changing of the paradigm
The debate among environmental
tourism and its critics (Butcher, 2011), has initially been focused on opposing
mass tourism to environmental tourism (ecotourism/tourism of nature and
cultural tourism), identifying a small niche of customers, with limited
financial size and market needs. On the side of the masses and large scale
development, they give the Spanish example of Torremolinos, a poor fishing
community transformed into a prosperous resort and the impact of tourism
revenues from the 1960s in Spain’s economic modernization, for instance.
Ecotourism’s
philosophy is accused of being
…anti-modern, and
likely to take sides against any desire for substantial development, even in
economically poor societies.” (Butcher, 2011)
The same author
advocates ethical tourism with the adjectives small, local and participatory
and mostly associated with sustainability. And concludes:
This serves to
accentuate the limiting philosophy of “small is beautiful” and denies the many
benefits of large scale development. (Butcher,
2011)
That is the economic
dimension of the controversy. Another argument, in moral and political
dimensions, is the choice that local people must have, not per se for the
artisan and natural side, but to choose freely new productive technologies,
infrastructures, jobs and commodities…
Nowadays this
opposition has lost real sense, due to the new tourist paradigm emerging in the
international market and the crises of the ’Sun and Sea’ model.
The democratization
and socialization of education and culture, as well as the evolution of big
markets around the world solved some of the opposing issues: Cultural Tourism
has become a mass tourism, such as Nature Tourism, in America, Europe and Asia.
This new reality becomes clear when researching the motivations for leisure
travelling is completed with the research of the real activities carried out by
tourists, the taste of middle class that have two dimensions, aesthetical and
ethical. Spanish tourism data, in the top two of tourism ranking during the
last decades, gives a complete statistical evaluation about tourists’
activities, which clearly explains this evolution.
Cultural activities
occupy more than half of the total of international tourists in Spain.
The French Louvre
can be considered a great cosmological observatory of tourists and their
metamorphosis market: Firstly, the growth of visitants, from 8,413 to 8,888
million (2010-2011). Secondly, in their origin: France (33%), USA (16%), Brazil
(7%), Australia (7%), Italy (6%), China (6%), Spain (5%), Germany (5%), UK (4%)
and Russia (4%). And finally in the age: <18 years old (19%), 18-25 (20%),
26-30 (11%), 31-45 ( 22%), 46-59 (16%) and >60 years old (12%).
The growth of
visitors is continuous: 8. 413 in 2011 to 9.330.000 at 2013 ( and 2014). 70%
are international tourists. 68% pay their ticket entrance.
The global origin:
30% France, 70% from other countries: USA, 13%. Italy 5% and China 5% (China
grow to 6% and takes the second place in 2014). Spain 5% and Germany 4%, Brazil
4%, UK 4% and Russian 4%...Australia 3%...
Age: 50% young
people under 30 old.
Over 14.000.000 on
Louvre web site. Loading 480.000 audio
guide and 103.000 mobile application charged. ( Source, Louvre, 2015)
The rise of a new
middle class from Brazil, China and Russia is clear. India will come very soon.
The uncultured young people prejudges vanished face the reality.
The increasing offer
in museums in various countries and the development of the museum concept can
also help to explain this change in the demand of the middle class: A museum
is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its
development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches,
communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and
its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. (ICOM
Statutes 2007)
The above definition
of a museum shall be applied without any limitation arising from the nature of
the governing body, the territorial character, the functional structure or the
orientation of the collections of the institution concerned. The scientific and
technical revolution creates a dynamic of innovation in this sector with the
development of the museums and science centres of 2nd and 3rd generation,
designed for a participative and interactive audience. The new museums and the
use of modern technologies of restoration, conservation, information and communication,
allowed to reduce the negative impacts of mass tourism.
There are no clear
and accurate statistics concerning tourism of nature/ecotourism, but we can
establish their relevance, for example, by taking into consideration the number
of visitors of national parks, which represent only a fraction of the tourists
who seek all the parks, reserves and the cultural landscapes of Spain:
10,618,284, in 2007! And more of 12.252.000 in 2010!
In the 2009
Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference, sponsored by the International
Ecotourism Society, most of the discussions at the conference focused on how to
define environmental tourism practices and how to create appropriate guidelines
and implementation strategies, especially when the practices are motivated by
the interests of tourists and tourism operators from outside those communities.
The challenge is how
to see a new mass tourism in an ethical perspective: cultural tourism and
tourism of nature. We need to reach a consensus about these concepts: Cultural
tourism (tourism with the cultural structures, namely museums and monuments);
Natural tourism (in nature - wilderness and mixed wilderness/cultural
landscapes) and distinguishing them from Rural Tourism (in the humanized
landscape, landscape in the sense of the Greek oikoumenê gê, the French terroir
and the “cultural landscape”). Figure 2
make a synthesis of the new paradigm of tourism.
Figure 2. The new
paradigm. Environmental tourism
Source: Author
The research pathway
If emerges
and rising a new paradigm_ Environmental Tourism, coexisting with the old “Sun
and Sand”, we must study the evolution of the “social taste “(with an
esthetical and a moral dimensions), particularly of the middle classes around
the world.
What will
put in question same principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
(GCET), conceptualized from an anthropocentric philosophical perspective!
And
comprises the application in the cultural landscape the esthetical categories
and values, discovering the specific esthetical categories and values that
existed in the countryside and urban landscapes and are useful to design
tourism offer.
Throughout
the research process, studying competitiveness, productivity and
sustainability, we set focal point on the
future directions of research around the concepts of Cultural Tourism
and Tourism of Nature (Ecotourism),
their Routes and Circuits, the "Rosetta Stone" of the
question.
Freeing
those concepts from the arbitrarily and subjectivity, constitute, the key to
build and sustain the tourist destinations, and the element aggregator of a new
economy of tourism, with multiple strange phenomena.
In this
context, we must create the methodological skills to find the real income of
environmental tourism (the economy of cultural and natural heritage) generate
by the attraction of the organic structures of
cultural tourism and tourism of nature (externalities) along the 7 Chains of Value of tourism economy: Accommodation (hotels),
restaurants, merchandising, transport, animation, guides, travel agencies…
Finally,
we arrive to the crucial question: Is time to create an autonomous branch of
science, the Scientific Corpus of Sciences of Tourism? With a strange economy,
a new philosophy and ethics of tourism_ applying to the tourism activities the
principles of environmental philosophy and their ethics but also the
operative concepts of philosophy of landscape; and considering that
the phenomenology of tourism involve a dimension anthropological
and socio-cultural, conducing to a four dimension, historical and political.
CONCLUSIONS
Concerning the values and products to be incorporated in relation to the
cultural heritage, In our perspective and in the viewpoint of Philosophy, the
core of the new paradigm, Environmental Tourism, is the integration of the
diversity of nature and culture, shaped on the cultural landscape and their
metamorphosis in Cultural Tourism and Tourism of Nature (Ecological), linked to
the others branches of tourism activities
( see 12 categories or types of
tourism, in the text ).
The more relevant changing proposed they are inside the category of
cultural tourism, integrating the offer of museum and monuments, but also the
products of tourism of religion and industrial archaeology, considering
material and immaterial heritage. In the category of tourism of nature,
integrating heath tourism products in that category. In the category of tourism
in rural space, integrating the golf tourism; in the category or tourism in
rural space, integrating the participation in the labour of the farmers; in the
category of sea and river, integrating the travels along the coastlines and
riverbanks…
This perspective considers that the new paradigm of tourism have a
singular economic, a second dimension anthropological and socio-cultural, conducing
to a third dimension, historical and political. And is determinate by a four
dimension, the reintegration of the human being in Nature without any
privilege, providential destiny and supremacy, the critical worldview from the environment philosophy and environmental
ethics ( with aesthetic values).
Along this chapter was analysed, with particular emphasis, the paradox
of the new economy of heritage, in the framework of tourism activities:
_ Externalities of tourism economy
The new functional relationship a
= f (h), accommodation ( and Chains of Value) is a mathematic function depending from heritage, establish that are Routes and Circuits, integrating all the heritage products,
which attract tourists from middle and
upper class, generating the main values of tourism activities.
However they're not the structures that organize these Routes and
Circuits, the museums, monuments and parks, which collect the highest values;
the tourism income is collected outside the structures of Cultural Tourism and
Tourism of Nature on the aforementioned value chains: accommodation, catering,
shopping and merchandising, animation, transport, freight forwarding and
animation. It is the phenomenon of positive externalities.
The misunderstanding of this economic paradox is the cause of the
historical conflict between tourism and development, but is also at the same
time the key to overcome it.
_ Competitiveness
and Productivity
We
must built new economic tools to enquire the real economic impact of Cultural
Tourism and Tourism of Nature.
Then, the growth of competitiveness of the tourism economy destination
will result mainly from the ability to organize their Routes and Circuits,
which gradually enlarge the current urban attraction poles, giving a dynamic of
visit regional, inter-regional and even cross-border.
Routes and circuits promotes the passage of the economic status of
excursionist into tourist, growing time of permanence and the desire/need to
return, surpassing the seasonality and encourages the consumption of quality,
increasing productivity.
In this new context is imperative planning and organizing tourism to
transform the excursionist in tourist, taking into account the concepts here
synthesized as Externalities, Chains Values of tourism needs to incorporate
permanently new products and even other values and what its historical
relationship with the heritage (s).
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KEY
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Chains of Value of Tourism Economy
Accommodation
(Hotels and similar), Restaurants, Merchandising, Guides, Animation, Transport,
Travel Agencies
Jonas
Hans
Jonas (1903 – 1993): German Jew who immigrated to Canada and USA. In “The
Imperative of Responsibility. In Search of an Ethics for the Technological
Age”, he formulates a new categorical imperative for human action, to configure
the human conduct within the limits that safeguard the continuity of life and
their diversity.
Landscape
The
concept of landscape has had to be stretched in many directions: from an object
to an area, from a visual experience to a multi-sensory one, from natural
scenery to the whole range of human-made transformations of nature. This
expansion of the idea of landscape is further complicated by the fact that
landscapes are never stationary but are constantly in transition.” (Berleant,
2011)
Landscape ecology
Natural
landscape humanized by the man’s work. In my own definition it represents a
structural and systemic view that encompasses the large natural landscape,
characterized and differentiated not only by the various fields of science
(environmental sciences and exact sciences), but also because it was created
with the help of Man in his daily effort as a farmer, a shepherd and a
landscape architect.
This
new vision of the landscape, multi and interdisciplinary, which is at the same
time an instrument operating its hermeneutics and a category in the field of
Environmental Philosophy, is entitled:
Leopold
Aldo
Leopold (1887–1948): American forester, conservationist, environmentalist and
professor. In his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), he explains the concept of
community and moral duties enlarged to all natural beings.
Paradigm
The general definition of paradigm comprises "a disciplinary
matrix", a constellation of beliefs, values and techniques shared by a
Community.
Metaphysics of landscape.
However
the knowledge of the landscape humanization, from the perspective of the
philosophy of nature and the environmental philosophy, would be incomplete
without the use of another category of elements, which myself define as:
The
representation of the domain of the "spirituality", "soul"
of things, the categories of aesthetic emotions and feelings,
"beauty" and "beautiful", the "sublime",
"wonderful" and "mysterious", “monumental”,
"epic" and "tragic."
All
this categories can be linked with wilderness but also with the human labour in
the land. Including the negative categories: the disgusting, the ugly, the repulsive,
the abhorrent...
Tourism Route
An
organized set of Circuits to discover and enjoy all heritages, with a specific
identity, based on ecology of landscape metaphysic of landscape, accessible to
all audiences but with different products according their segments, organized
to serve the development of tourism activity and its Chains of Value.
Tourism Circuit
A
road integrating all heritage products, short-lived (should not exceed one
day/night), accessible to all audiences but segmented in an autonomous and
distinctive identity, organized in the context of discovery and enjoyment of
the landscape ecology (in the sense of interdisciplinary contribution to read
landscape) and the metaphysics of landscape (immaterial heritage, imaginary
erudite and popular), and using the communication/emotional principle of
"montage of attractions", created to sustain and develop Chains of
Value of tourism activity.
This
new concept is built upon the conceptual contributions of geography, selective
observation and significant description of the cultural landscape - its
historical, natural, ethnographic heritage; the philosophy of nature and the
philosophy of the environment, “ecology of landscape and metaphysics of
landscape"; communication sciences, involving the psychology of affection
and the cinema (the montage of attractions is a concept from Eisenstein);
economy, “Chains of Value”. And its methodological construction consists in
recycle traditionally concepts used in another scientific fields and reprocess
them to a new subject of study.
A specific tourism speech
In
terms of written and multimedia language disclosure, the concepts of selective
observation and meaningful description of the cultural landscape, using
different sciences and cultural expressions, involve the construction of a
specific tourism speech, distinct of the scientific discourse. The most common
mistakes in this matter are the transcription of academics texts or the
trivialization of information.
It
must emphasize here that tourism writing is a specific art, very complex,
because must associate and make accessible scientific and philosophical
contents and communicational concepts, at the same time rigorous and accessible
and that needs to be validated by the various segments of their audiences.
Its
reference boundary can be what, in every historical period and cultural
context, represents the general level of education and culture of the middle
class. This means that the tourism narrative raises the knowledge of large
masses of travelers and enlarge information of elites, which, as a rule, have
a scholarly knowledge but only in a single scientific domain.
Queirós, A. D. (2019). Management and
Valorization of Cultural Heritage in the Framework of Environmental Ethics. In
C. Inglese, & A. Ippolito (Eds.), Analysis, Conservation, and Restoration
of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage (pp. 110-128). Hershey, PA: IGI
Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-6936-7.ch005
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