Culture as an Instrument of Local Development

Cultural heritage tourism is presently one of the largest tourism niche markets. Indeed, cultural heritage is the basis for most of today’s travel supply and demand. As such, tourism developers, marketers and promoters are continually seeking different aspects of culture to commodify for profit. This chapter examines the use of culture as an instrument of local development. After discussing what constitutes cultural heritage and what aspects of culture are often utilized for tourist consumption, attention is turned to examining the problems with top-down approaches to cultural heritage tourism development. Then, ways in which cultural heritage tourism can enhance community wellbeing are discussed, before concluding.