Summer 2006
Tourism News
Civic Tourism
Preserve America Summit Announced
Mission
Partners in Tourism: Culture and Commerce is a coalition of cultural service organizations, the travel industry, and federal agencies that provides a forum for collaborative research, education, promotion and advocacy with the common goal of advancing the role of culture and heritage in the travel and tourism industry.
National Partners
>Alliance of National
Heritage Areas
>American Association
of Museums*
>Americans for the
Arts*
>Cultural & Heritage
Tourism Alliance
>Federation of State
Humanities Councils*
>National Assembly of
State Arts Agencies*
>National Conference
of State Historic
Preservation Officers*
>National Geographic
Society
-Sustainable Tourism
Resource Center
>National Trust for
Historic Preservation*
- Heritage Tourism
Program
>Travel Industry
Association of America
- Tourism Works for
America
Federal Corresponding Partners
>Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation
- Heritage Tourism
- Preserve America
>National Endowment
for the Arts*
>National Endowment
for the Humanities*
>Institute of Museum
and Library Services*
>President’s Committee
on the Arts and
Humanities*
>U.S. Department of
Agriculture
- Forest Service
- Natural Resources
Conservation
Service
>U.S. Department of
the Interior
- Bureau of Land
Management
- National Park
Service
-Heritage Areas
>U.S. Department of
Transportation
- Federal Highway
Administration
- National Scenic
Byways Program
* Founding Member
8th Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance Conference
November 8-11, 2006
Culture is the Spark is the theme of the 8th Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance Conference set for November 8-11 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Click Here for more information.
Cultural Heritage Tourism News
is published by:
© 2005 Partners in Tourism: Culture and Commerce
Editor:
Carolyn Brackett
Assistant Editors:
Kimber Craine, Verna
Romero & Amy Webb
GOT NEWS? Send program updates, new initiatives and case studies to cht@nthp.org |
Civic Tourism: The Poetry and Politics of Place By Dan Shilling
Civic Tourism Project Director
Curator of Humanities, Sharlot Hall Museum
Civic Tourism is an extension of, supplement to, and tool for ecotourism, cultural tourism, heritage tourism, geotourism and other place-based activities that have proliferated over the last two decades. People have always traveled to experience nature and culture, but it has only been since 1983, when ecotourism was coined, that alternative travel has earned any meaningful degree of legitimization from the industry. It is important to remember how recent these developments are – the point being, there is still much to learn.
Ecotourism, heritage tourism and other alternative approaches are generally distinguished by their product (“poetry” of place): stories, buildings, cultures, natures. Civic Tourism is equally concerned with process (“politics” of place): How is place interpreted? Who does the articulating? And, at the core of everything, what is served by uniting place and tourism? What is made better, not just bigger?
Phrases like “sense of place” frequently appear in today’s economic development literature, as in Richard Florida’s best-selling Creative Class hypothesis. Related schools, such as Corporate Social Responsibility, Natural Capitalism, Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development, honor place as well. They also subscribe to “Triple Bottom Line” accounting, believing that, in addition to the financial ledger, today’s businesses must also factor in social and environmental costs. Few 21st-century industries will thrive in a fiscal vacuum. In partnership with museums, preservation agencies, parks and other stewards of place, the travel industry is uniquely suited to benefit from these fresh economic designs and make a worthy contribution to our communities. As evidenced at the Civic Tourism conference held in March in Prescott, Arizona, we are beginning to hear inspiring voices above the Industrial Age din that still clogs too many policy discussions. To encourage others to talk about tourism as an important and effective means, not an end in itself, the conference focused on four principles:
1. Integrate the Story. Florida writes, “Place is becoming the central organizing unit of our economy and society.” That is certainly true of tourism, whose “attractions” increasingly are the ingredients of place – natural, built, cultural. In its fullest sense, place is more than a series of projects. It is all of it, happily together, creating coherent stories, meaningful experiences and rewarding social webs. In Prescott we learned about place-making strategies that are breaking down the silo’s walls – understanding buildings, for example, as reflections of local values, or interpreting nature within history (and vice versa). Aldo Leopold asked us to “think like a mountain.” We would offer: “Think like Aldo Leopold thinking about your town.” 2. Invest in Product. Most tourism organizations market. Chambers of commerce and state travel offices allocate most of their time and budget to researching and implementing ad campaigns. That’s okay, that’s their mission; but where is the reciprocal investment in the thing marketed? Beyond money, it is conceptual: R&D for touristic place-making. Today, technical assistance and development dollars are scattered across local, state, federal and private sectors. Well-meaning and needed as they are, these services seldom relate to tourism, and their bureaucracies can perpetuate silo thinking. In Prescott we heard that product development is on the industry’s radar screen. Beyond that welcome news, Civic Tourism encourages states and regions to establish programs parallel to, and in partnership with, their advertising bureaus – programs that work with communities to identify, preserve and enhance place-based products in a concerted, comprehensive, tourism-specific fashion. Given that tourism is the largest industry in many of our towns, with tremendous potential to change the look and feel of communities, we can channel that influence into smarter product design.
3. Think Beyond Economics. Tourism proponents routinely use economic development as the reason city councils and legislatures should underwrite their activities. No doubt this argument will always remain a weapon in the industry’s advocacy arsenal, but relying solely on it is incomplete and short-sighted. GDP-driven schemes only measure market activity, not the social or environmental costs of transactions. Tourism, more than most industries, profits from a vibrant cultural scene, tasteful streetscape, and unspoiled natural setting (and is correspondingly disadvantaged). The industry’s entire wagon shouldn’t be hitched to the growth machine, which is often at odds with the Triple Bottom Line. In addition to generating commerce, tourism can and should make the case that it protects the environment, celebrates cultures and preserves history. Reframing tourism as an enabler of place – working with others to create a healthy quality of life for residents – will ultimately build stronger ties with elected officials and citizens. And it will attract visitors who stay and spend, not just more drive-by tourists who snapshot and drive on. 4. Connect to the Public. The three principles above probably can’t be realized unless tourism reaches out to its communities. Historically, travel and hospitality discussions have been fairly narrow and impenetrable – a chamber of commerce or city department, for example. When movements like heritage tourism emerged, representatives from nontraditional sectors joined the policy-making conversations. Still largely absent, however, is the group most affected by the industry’s decisions: the public. Certainly, other alternative approaches stress civic engagement, and I haven’t read a tourism book in years that doesn’t recommend listening to locals. Often left unsaid, though, is how engagement happens. Here tourism can benefit from a half century of research on public participation. For communities to reconstruct tourism as the agent of prosperity, wellbeing, and sustainability they are going to need transparent policy designs that encourage the industry, in partnership with residents, to imagine outside the tired “either/or” debate frame. We should champion “both/and” and make it work.
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