Culture and heritage tourism plays a critical role in building the visitor economy and goes even beyond that. A recent survey showed that over 50% of respondents polled agreed that history and culture are strong influences on their choice of holiday destination. Culture and heritage tourism is a fast-growing and high-yielding sector Statistics also indicate that culture and heritage tourism continues to grow rapidly, especially in OECD and APEC regions. We estimate the direct global value of culture and heritage tourism to be well over … [Read more...]
Paris Syndrome vs. Nashville Syndrome in tourism
Paris Syndrome: Sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for When I conducted a long-term brand tracking studies in both the airline industry and for destinations and destination marketing, I noticed that the Japanese consistently rated everything to do with France very positively. For many Japanese people France, and particularly Paris, form an ideal of a destination – representing civilisation, beauty and culture. But when Japanese people visit Paris, some suffer a severe disappointment. Real life Paris is grittier and … [Read more...]
Developing and managing dark tourism
Late last year I spent a few days in Medellin (Colombia). For many people, the name Medellin will be associated with the ultra-violent rule of the cocaine cartel chief Pablo Escobar. In fact, over the last 20 years, Medellin has undergone a remarkable and heartwarming transformation. But that link to Escobar remains through the emergence of tours to key sites associated with him - dark tourism. What is Dark Tourism? The tour is one of a growing body of experiences. Dark tourism is defined as any travel associated with death, suffering, … [Read more...]
Like plaiting fog? Defining cultural and heritage tourism
In our previous blog on the benefits of culture and heritage tourism, we noted the value of cultural tourism to the visitor economy. But just like tourism (the visitor economy anyone?), cultural tourism is an often confusing and complex industry that is quite difficult to describe. There is little agreement as to what constitutes cultural tourism. Moreover, because culture and heritage are inherently linked, it’s hard to separate “culture” and “heritage” in the mind of the consumer. So we thought it might be useful to summarise some of the … [Read more...]
How Indian Tourism Can Be Increasingly Incredible
No longer a slumbering giant, Incredible India is thoughtfully attracting varied tourism markets with an increasingly sophisticated marketing strategy. But there’s always room for more ‘incredibleness’ What are the drivers of increasing tourism to India? I’m feeling guilty. Since returning from Australia Business Week in India in mid-January I've written a lot about how Australia can profit from the source market opportunity that India represents. But I didn’t join the trade mission for that reason. Our purpose was to extend the … [Read more...]