Cultural Tourism

Cultural effects of tourism and cultural tourism are not the same subject of anthropology of tourism. The former refers to changes in the elements of culture resulting from the presence and activities of tourism. Cultural tourism by definition is ‘a force for cultural preservation’. Smith (1989) defined cultural tourism as ‘the absorption by tourists of features resembling the vanishing lifestyles of past societies observed through such phenomena as house styles, crafts, farming equipment and dress’. Cultural aspects of tourism are considered to cover all those aspects of travel whereby people learn each other’s way of life and thought. 
 Personal International contacts have always been an important way of spreading ideas about other cultures. There is a wide consensus about art, music and history as media of cultural tourism; but in other areas such as religion, industrial heritage, gastronomy, events and festivals, architecture, and so on the definition of cultural tourism moves into a grey zoon (Prentice, 1993; in Jansen-Verbeke, 1997).

The concept of cultural tourism was emerged in 1970s. This form of tourism was recognized by UNESCO in 1976. A joint World Bank and UNESCO study in 1976 of the social and cultural impacts of tourism endorsed a gradualist approach to tourism development. The study emphasized that this would be even more important in small countries (de kadt, 1979). A related implication, stated by de kadt, is that the social interests of host communities are probably better served by facilities that are smaller in scale and widely dispersed, than by development at a large scale. Cultural tourism as an alternative to mass tourism, and cultural tourism as a vehicle for urban and regional revitalization, suggests both theses need to be questioned (Jansen-Verbeke, 1997).