Sociology Plus
Cultural Tourism Definition
Cultural tourism is defined as travel motivated primarily by an interest in cultural attractions and activities. It functions as an umbrella term encompassing a diverse range of tourism typologies that focus on cultural engagement, extending beyond the passive consumption of historical artefacts to include contemporary culture, lifestyles, and the way of life of specific people or regions. This form of travel involves seeking knowledge, self-improvement, and authentic interaction with local communities, often positioning the tourist as an explorer or adventurer.
Conceptual Framework and Scope
Cultural tourism moves beyond being a niche sector to become a broad category encompassing various cultural experiences. It involves engaging with the artistic and intellectual activities of a society, visiting heritage sites (both tangible and intangible), experiencing festivals, and interacting directly with local populations. While it can involve passive consumption, it increasingly incorporates creative pursuits such as painting or photography, positioning creative tourism as an emerging subset within the broader field.
Typologies of Cultural Tourism
To facilitate research and product development, cultural tourism can be subdivided into several distinct forms:
Heritage Tourism
This focus centres on tangible cultural assets, including historical monuments, archaeological sites, religious locations, and museums, such as World Heritage Sites. It also encompasses intangible heritage, which includes the traditions, lifestyles, arts, and crafts of local populations. A key concern for this sector is visitor management and conservation due to the high volume of visitation at many heritage sites.
Arts Tourism
Arts tourism concentrates on visual arts (e.g., galleries) and performance arts (e.g., festivals and theatre). A challenge in this area is ensuring that tourism does not trivialize or dilute various ethnic and indigenous art forms, which are increasingly popular globally.
Creative Tourism
This involves tourists actively participating in creative activities, such as painting, pottery, weaving, or photography, often under local guidance. While sometimes subsidiary to the main travel motivation, it is growing as tour operators offer specialised cultural experiences focused on these hands-on activities.
Urban Cultural Tourism
This form focuses on city experiences, encompassing heritage or arts tourism within urban settings. It involves visiting historic cities alongside contemporary regeneration projects, where tourists may engage with flagship museums, cultural quarters, or revitalised waterfronts.
Rural Cultural Tourism
Rural tourism often integrates elements of indigenous or ethnic travel and creative activities. This can involve purpose-built attractions like ecomuseums or the regeneration of former industrial sites (e.g., coal mines) into tourist destinations. Spinoffs from agricultural tourism, such as gastronomic or wine tourism, are also common in this context.
Indigenous Cultural Tourism
This type involves tourists visiting indigenous peoples within their native habitats. While it can foster cultural pride and support the renewal of traditions, it raises significant environmental and sociocultural concerns, particularly where land rights have been contested or where groups face assimilation pressures.
Popular Cultural Tourism
This category focuses on more accessible forms of culture, such as attending sporting events, pop concerts, visiting theme parks, or film locations. These experiences often combine with traditional cultural elements in regenerated industrial cities.
Contemporary Issues
The boundaries of cultural tourism are continually expanding towards global and contemporary cultural forms. However, the postmodern tendency to de-differentiate concepts like tourism, culture, and leisure makes establishing fixed definitional boundaries a challenging task.