Cultural Heritage Tourism
Tourism is one of the principal economic activities in the world and ‘Cultural Tourism’ is a rapidly expanding part of this industry. According to the OEA “Culture contributes considerably to the countries economies”, therefore many economies in different countries have been using this as a mechanism to increase their economies. Within the general tourism industry, many countries are seeing the benefits of using “Cultural Tourism” as a key area of attraction.
They achieve this by developing historical sites and activities that have formed part of their heritage. This can include buildings, communities, people, and notable traditions. The promotion of Cultural tourism is a way of retaining the economic characteristics of the heritage sites. It is also seen as an important factor for the development of the national and regional economies by generating social development in all its aspects (ICOMOS 12th General Assembly, 1999).
As well as being used to as a mechanism to develop regional economies by attracting tourists to heritage sites and the surrounding areas, Cultural Tourism is forms an important part of a countries national tourism economy. Its aim is to attract those tourists who have a deep inner necessity to get to know new places with history, by enabling them to feel part of the place they are visiting. The cultural heritage tourist wants to connect himself or herself with history and experience how the world developed in the particular area they are visiting (Cultural heritage tourism Guide, 2000).
Since cultural heritage tourism caught the eye of the economists a decade ago, there have been many economic studies developed to measure the impact that this activity has in the regions where the heritage tourism is practiced (Toselli, C. , 2006). Part of the reason for this is because the tourist who is engaged in historic and cultural tourist activities spends more time and money in the area visited, engaging in more activities than other kinds of tourist would (Travel Industry Association of America citation by Hargrove, M. , 2002), making this kind of tourism a profitable activity for the regions, communities and historical places.
As a result of these studies it can be assumes that with a greater concentration of cultural heritage tourism there would be the benefit of an increment of profitability for the cultural and tourism industry creating employment in the heritage communities, cities and countries. Within this study I will be concentrating my work on the “International and Festival “Misiones de Chiquitos. ” This is a prime example of various cultural activities in areas that are rich in culture.
The location of this festival is in the Jesuit Mission region in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. This region has 6 towns in which the six world’s famous Jesuit churches were built and which were designated World heritage sites by the UNESCO in 1990 (UNESCO, 2006). The festival was founded in 1996 and it is celebrated every other year in the towns of the Jesuit region (APAC , 2005). The festival is unique in the region because of the baroque American music that they offer to the tourist. This is part of a unique selection of original musical partitures from decades ago (see Appendix figure 1).
The venue for the performing of the music concerts are the 6 historical churches which were built between 1669 and 1760 which still maintain the glory from the past (La Gran Chiquitania, 2006). Aim The aim of this research is to review and analyze the future marketing strategy, which APAC is developing for the International American Renaissance and Baroque Music Festival “Misiones de Chiquitos” in order to promote the festival internationally. In particular, the intention is to assess how this relates to the way in which the success in marketing of previous festivals has been perceived by the hoteliers and Tour operators.
The purpose of this is to identify areas of concern to be addressed and to recommend ways in which the present marketing strategy can be optimized in order to increase the economic growth of the festival and the heritage sites. Objectives • Identify the type of tourist cultural heritage festivals attract and analyze their expectations. • Identify and analyze the logistic work that the festival has and how it could be improved. • Review the logistics of the Tour Operators and hoteliers; their capability to cater for tourist expectations, addressing ways those shortfalls can be eliminated or reduced.
• Determine the marketing strategy that the festival should use to attract tourist by identifying tourist demand segmentation of it. Literature Review With an increasing number of countries and regions seeking to capitalize on their heritage as a way of attracting growth in tourism and the economic benefit that this brings, it is important for the operators of historical sites and festivals to have a complete understanding of the consumer, the product they are offering and the ways that product should be marketed. The consumer in this instance is not an average holidaymaker.
There is a specific historical purpose to both the design and purpose of their holiday. This has been best described by Robert Stebbins (1996), when he observed that “Cultural tourism is a genre of special interest tourism based on the search for and participation in new and deep cultural experiences, whether aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, or psychological”(Robert Stebbins 1996). Today an increasing number of tourists are moving away from the concept of pre-packaged sun and leisure breaks. It is estimated that around twenty percent or tourists now put the arts, culture and history among their top five reasons from traveling.
In America alone, cultural tourism rose by 13% between 1996 and 2003, (TIA 2003). As Garrion Keillor (1995) commented, “They come for our culture: high culture, low culture, middle culture, right, left, real or imagined — they come here to see America. ” As a result of this increase in demand, partially fueled by the advent of Internet access and the increase in accessibility to global travel brought about by reductions in travel costs, more and more countries are converting their historical sites and festivals into tourist centers.
With more competition comes the need for effective marketing. In terms of the travel industry this is defined as “The process of identifying and reaching specific segments of a population for the purposes of selling them a product or service. ” (Home Travel Agency 2006) There has been a number of studies regarding the marketing of Cultural Heritage in general and of more relevance to this paper, the marketing of historical music festivals and their destinations in particular.
The marketing of Cultural Heritage sites is a subject that has to be dealt with in a sensitive manner, as many writers have acknowledged. Rowan Yorke and Uzi Baram (2004) have compiled a number of studies relating to popular cultural sites worldwide, which deal with the interrelationship that exists between the commercial and political aspect of historical sites, including balancing the importance of archaeology against profit. However, careful marketing can, if properly constructed and programmed, successfully promote the site.
It is vitally important when designing a marketing program to advance the qualities and attractions of the site in a way that will bring it to the forefront of the travelers mind, making it more relevant and notable to them than sites of a similar nature. To achieve this, one must use the particular qualities of its historical value to target the appropriate market. This is particularly relevant in terms of the festival subject being studied within this paper. Most researchers feel that Festivals take on a special significance.
In her book on the subject of cultural destination, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1998) says, “Festivals are cultural performances par excellence. Their boundaries discernible in time and space” There are numerous musical and other festivals being held throughout the world, from the historical to the modern day; from popular to classic; from era to religious based. With such intensity of competition, the importance of marketing festivals nationally and internationally becomes paramount.
In the case of the “International American Renaissance and Baroque Music Festival “Misiones de Chiquitos. ” Marketing would need to be aware of two levels, marketing of the destination and marketing of the festival itself. Nigel Morgan et al (2001) suggest that destination branding gives marketers the ability to address one of the most important aspect of the special event, namely how appropriate is the destination itself. As we have seen festivals that are correctly portrayed which means dealing with the political, cultural and social side successfully can bring economic benefits.
To successfully market a musical festival one has to first evaluate what genre the music fits into together with its historical and geographical position, then look to the target audience, in order to give an organized structure to the marketing program. (Johnny Allen (2001) As a result of this review it can be seen that we need to look at the type of cultural tourist, their musical tastes together with the historical and religious background, musically and destination based, of the festival itself. References Allen, Johnny (2005) Festival and Special Event Management. John Wiley & Sons Douglas, Norman (2001). Special Interest Tourism.
John Wiley & Sons (Australia) Ltd. Factsheet. (2005) Welcome to APAC Festivals. Retrieved 14 July 2006 from http://www. festivalesapac. com/site/index. php? module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=27&newlang=eng Fleming, Ronald Lee. (1989). If walls could talk: Telling the story of a historic building to create a market edge. National Trust for Historic Preservation Home Travel Agency (2006) Define marketing. Retrieved 15 July 2006 from http://www. hometravelagency. com/dictionary/marketing. html Keillor, Garrison. (1995) Address to White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. Retrieved from http://www. nasaa-arts.
org/artworks/cultour. shtml#travmar Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. (1998). Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage. University of California Press Morgan, Nigel. Pritchard, Annette. And Pride Rogers. (2001) Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition. Butterworth-Heinemann Rowan, Yorke and Baram, Uzi eds. (2004) Marketing Heritage: Archaeology and the consumption of the past. AltaMira Press Stebbins, Robert. (1996). Cultural Tourism as Serious Leisure. Annals of Tourism Research. Vol. 23, October, p. 948-950. The Charter Ethos. (1999) Managing tourism at places of heritage significance.
International Tourism Charter 12th General Assembly. Travel Industry Association of America Travelscope survey (2003). TheHistoric/Cultural Traveler, 2003 edition. TIA and Smithsonian Magazine Unesco. (2006) World Heritage List. Retrieved 14 July 2006 from http://www. thesalmons. org/lynn/world. heritage. html Appendix Figure 1 Part of an original 17th century paper sheet of music used in the Missions of Chiquitos. The work by Domenico Zipoli from Prato, close to Florence is part of an extensive collection preserved by Bolivian specialists. This fragment is from Ave Maria Stella a Vespers hymn sung on Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
