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  Tourism and culture : new paradigms for the sustainable development of tourism

Prof. Peter KELLER - President of the Scientific Committee of the Tourism Summits - Tourism Service, Secretary of State for Economy, SECO, Bern, Switzerland

 

Slideshow

 

Introduction

By its very raison d’etre, the 4th Summits of Tourism of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc and Geneva can be distinguished from other conferences dealing with the links between tourism and culture. Here the purpose is not merely knowledge of how to exploit visitors and culture to make the most enormous profit. Our intention is to pose questions while maintaining our curiosity and our sense of wonder.

Culture as a tourist resource : an invitation to travel and a source of renewal

Why do human beings travel ?

This question is decisive for economic success. Tourist demand, fluctuating and subject to crises, cannot be explained solely by economic reasons. Travel and tourism correspond to motivations which do not depend exclusively on supply and demand. People travel to discover other countries, other customs, other ways of being. Culture is an essential tourist resource (Figure 1).

Cultural attractions draw visitors. They are the source of renewal for the economy. But cultural resources can only be exploited with the economic support of facilities and infrastructures which enhance them. No economic structure, no culture !

The traditional criticism of tourism: the most valued of all kinds of individual happiness and a disputed form of ephemeral culture

Why is tourism not recognised as part of modern culture ?

This bothers a good number of those who see culture itself as an absolute value. Tourist activity seems to them to be suspect. They cannot accept that tourism uses cultural resources for commercial ends. They reproach this economic sector for alienating reality, and for exploiting culture as an advertising cliché. They deplore the instrumentalisation of culture to excite the emotions, the stage-management of culture as an event, and the sale of culture as if it were merchandise. They also fear that tourism fosters the dilution of local cultures and the appearance of a single monolithic culture on a planet-wide scale.

(Figure 2)

The traditional critique of culture has little practical effect. But it does lead to misunderstandings and a failure to acknowledge tourism as a cultural phenomenon. It fails to take into account the fact that tourism is one of the most popular forms of individual happiness, and one of the last experiences of personal liberty. Furthermore, it fails to see that the world of culture itself today plays largely on the string of the emotions, and sells cultural attractions as events. Today we know that cultural pleasure is impossible without consumption.

The human being face-to-face with the alien : welcome and rejection

What is the contribution of tourism to culture ?

In their systematic criticism of tourism, those who hold out for “pure” culture fail to see that tourism holds an essential cultural function. Already, back in Antiquity, hospitality was a peaceful manner of relating to the foreign. And it still is today, even if the position of modern tourism has grown more complex. The truth to tell, there are four different cultures which meet today: the every day, generally urban, culture of the visitors, the world leisure culture, the service culture of the destination, and the traditional culture of the region visited, which is often a rural one.

(Figure 3)

This culture shock does not fail to give rise to tensions. The greater the number of visitors thirsty for living experience, the more risk exists for the social context and the quality of life of the indigenous population. Tourist centres are in fact laboratories for multicultural cohabitation, an element always more important in immigrant host countries.

Cultural change in the era of globalisation: opening up to the world and a return to the sources

Does tourism reinforce the tendency to a levelling out of global culture, thus undermining the very foundations of its dynamics ?

The world is becoming integrated, that is a fact. And as it integrates, it shrinks. This process is only accelerated by travel and tourism. The growing integration of the world gives birth to common vision, common expectations, and common forms of behaviour. It fosters levelling, but, in addition, the domination of cultures at the cutting edge of scientific, technical, and economic evolution. Moreover, with the support of the media, a world leisure culture has appeared, which is essentially virtual and, unlike tourism, does not involve travel.

(Figure 4)

The process of globalisation has nevertheless resulted in a movement in the opposite direction. The more the world culture tends towards uniformity, the stronger the will to safeguard local cultural identities is asserted. The number of human beings in search of their cultural roots is growing all the time. Although visitors expect to find identical standards of comfort and services throughout the entire world, their preferences are moving more and more in the direction of the original culture, a rediscovery of the past, the singular, and the unique.

Safeguarding cultural diversity: levelling, ethnocentricity and new cultural identity

How does the relationship of conflict between modernity and tradition affect the tourist encounter ?

The modern individual lives torn between opening to the world, and falling back into the local sphere. Levelling and the ethnocentric trend exert their weight on societies. The solution does not reside either in a “global cultural soup”, nor in cultural autarchy at the local level. Closure kills progress and development.

(Figure 5)

How does the conflictive nexus between tradition and modernity impact upon the tourist encounter ?

Tourism encourages the autochthonous peoples to accept the assets of other cultures. At the same time, it also contributes to reinforcement of the consciousness of local identity. If these two processes are not hampered, one can expect a contribution to be made to the maintenance of cultural diversity in the interests of humanity.

The new world leisure culture : authenticity and simulation

Is the cultural heritage in the process of being replaced by a “transplanted” tourist scenario ?

The reinforcement of cultural identities is important today in this sense where the heritage of the traditional cultures appears to be under threat, where it is more and more ossified in the form of a bloodless museum. Often the money is lacking to save the symbolic constructions of the authentic.

(Figure 6)

Is the cultural heritage in the process of being replaced by “rootless” heritage tourist productions ?

On the other hand, there is a continually growing investment in leisure parks or thematic parks, which often imitate elements of the cultural heritage, reinforcing them through the effect of fashion. As the attractions are set up in built-up areas, the visitor can save himself the trip to the real attractions. The result is a sort of “transplanted” tourist scenario. The limits between what is authentic and what is simulated are becoming more and more blurred, because what History has produced cannot be preserved as an inviolable “relic”, and each generation interprets it in its own way.

The event-based economy and the dream factory : imagination and the stage-management of tourism

How can the event-based economy of tourism ensure sustainable economic exploitation of cultural resources ??

From the economic point of view, tourism is kind of trade based on the dreams of potential visitors. More and more, potential visitors lead service providers to design and offer a set of services as a whole to realise their dreams. Seen from this point of view, tourism becomes a dream factory. It is a kind of subsidiary of the event-based economy and of the emotional experience which is in the process of emerging. Starting with the existing cultural resources or ones created out of nothing, this economy imagines and stages its products in a playful, hedonistic atmosphere, just as is done in the cinema or the theatre.

(Figure 7)

This new concept of tourism presupposes a systematically orientated procedure in terms of the needs of the customer. This constrains the service providers to cooperate amongst themselves, and at the level of the employees demands total individual commitment to be able to respond to the requirements of the customers. Finally at the management level, it demands professionalism on the part of the prime movers and recourse to the most modern data resources.

Epilogue

The dream factory which is tourism is in the process of generating all by itself a new form of culture. That said, it should not been forgotten that the event base and powerful experiences are not the ultimate goal of travel. The human being does not travel merely to fight against boredom. By travelling, he also is also going on a quest, seeking to find himself. In the exceptional circumstance the tourist is in, he poses himself the question of the purpose of his life, this life which is ephemeral and evanescent, like tourism itself.

(Figure 8)

The event and the intense experiences are not the final goal of the traveller

 

Slideshow

 

Source : Keller, P., Tourisme et culture, les aspects culturels du développement durable du tourisme (Tourism and culture, cultural aspects of the sustainable development of tourism), Frame of Reference, 4th Summits of Tourism, Chamonix Mont-Blanc & Geneva