Heritage and Community Engagement

Advocating community integrated destination marketing planning in heritage destinations: the case of York

“…Considerable academic interest in place marketing (Gertner, 2011;Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2008;Niedomysl and Jonasson, 2012) and heritage tourism has recently developed (Hall & Coles, 2008;Howard, 2003;Hung, Sirakaya-Turk and Ingram, 2011;McCamley and Gilmore, 2016;Smith, 2006;Waterton & Watson, 2011), with heritage described as a 'contemporary epidemic' (Urry, 2002, p.5). Heritage has become unprecedentedly popular with an increasing number of tourists seeking a meaningful experience and a relationship with the past (Watson and Waterton, 2011).…”

“…As such, many residents do not participate in the activities deemed for tourists, with one respondent, a York tour guide stating that "when I speak to residents about the tours of the city they just dismiss that they could involve themselves". This is a particular issue of contention as local people involving themselves in tourism activities can be very beneficial for destinations (Watson and Waterton, 2011).…”

“…Although partnerships in a broad sense are recognised as an effective collaborative method of involving a range of stakeholders in destination management (Carley, 2000;Greer, 2001), there can be difficulties in accommodating a wide variety of interests, potentially leading to or further cultivating conflict and power imbalances between stakeholder groups (Bornhorst, Ritchie and Sheehan, 2010;Greasley, Watson and Patel, 2008;Mordue, 2007;Provan and Kenis, 2007;Svensson, Nordin and Flagestad, 2005). These challenges are further exacerbated within the context of heritage destinations due to the multifaceted and complex nature of heritage places and spaces (Smith, 2006;Waterton, 2005;Watson and Waterton, 2011).…”

“…It would appear then that the structures and approaches to the engagement of stakeholders in destination planning appear to be crucial in enabling a balanced representative perspective of the destination community (Dredge, 2001;Watson & Waterton, 2011). Therefore, in order to improve the nature of community participation in heritage tourism an examination of the mechanisms used to engage stakeholders in strategy development is required (Kimbu and Ngoasong, 2013).…”

Heritage and participatory governance: An analysis of political strategies and social fractures in Spain

“…Participatory governance models consider the active involvement of civil society in decision-making as paramount to achieving an effective and equitable designation and management of heritage. This is a distinctive feature of a number of new governance initiatives in the heritage field, such as 'public or community-based archaeology' (Barreiro 2006;Merriman 2004), 'participatory research projects' (Nitzky 2013;Norman 2007) and 'citizen engagement in heritage' (Dries et al 2015;Watson & Waterton 2010). Such an emphasis on the role of civil actors coincides with a 'democratic' turn in cultural governance in general, which extends to heritage use, access, and management (Alguacil Gómez 2005;Schmitt 2011).…”