Tourism and culture New paradigms for sustainable development Introduction Tourism as a component of modern culture 1. Travel and tourism are based on motives that are beyond the realm of supply and demand. With the exception of business travel these motives are often culture-related. People travel to learn about other countries with their different customs and ways of doing things. But travel is only possible because the economy provides the capital, installations and services necessary. And relations between tourism as a leisure time activity, the economic sector and culture are closely entwined. 2. The behaviour of the tourist is inevitably conditioned by his own everyday culture as well as by the leisure culture of tourism, the service culture of the destination and the traditional cultures in the areas visited. Travel to a destination and staying there take place in a complex socio-cultural background. As an ephemeral form of culture tourism has interesting intercultural possibilities that allow the individual to enrich his life. But at the same time it interferes with the original local cultures. 3. Tourism and culture are both vague concepts, open to interpretation. Everything that has to do with travelling to a destination and staying there, away from the world of routine, can be regarded as tourism. In contrast to culture in general tourism is instantly visible in the form of streams of visitors and investments. Its impact can be measured objectively. 4. Of course culture also has its symbols, rituals and buildings, its instantly perceptible and tangible components. What is important beyond these physical manifestations however are the values, the ideas about the world and about mankind they represent, which cannot be directly exploited. Culture is thus not immediately perceptible and comprehensible. It is based on values transmitted by tradition, often hidden in the subconscious of the individual and of society in general. It is the result of a consensus at the level of ideas. Traditional cultural criticism of tourism 5. Aided by these succinct definitions of tourism and culture we can see how it is that tourism has often come under criticism from the cultural point of view. Cultured critics accuse tourism of reducing cultural realities to stereotypes, for the advertising campaigns of the tourism industry. The emotional culture approach of tourism is something the truly cultured classes find distasteful. They also regret the way in which culture is used for commercial purposes, as a mere commodity. 6. There are fears too that tourist attractions based on imitations will entirely replace the real thing, and that through the process of acculturation local culture will eventually gave way to a global culture. The phenomenon of culture shock, when visitors from various parts of the globe come into contact with local residents in the unusual circumstances of tourism, is still with us. Furthermore tourism is accused of having an adverse effect on the sustainable development of cultural sites by promoting their excessive use. Cultural change in the age of globalisation 7. The irreversible process of globalisation alters the relationship between tourism and culture. The modern world is visibly shrinking, as distances are annihilated. Travel and tourism accelerate this process. The increasing integration of the world leads to increasingly uniform concepts, expectations and patterns of behaviour. Today a global culture exists in many areas. The sharp growth of travel has also helped to develop a global leisure time culture. The traveller expects to find the same high standards of quality and consumption all over the world. 8. This increasing integration has also produced a counter movement. The greater the threat of cultural uniformity, the more ready we are to protect our cultural identity. Ever greater numbers of people are seeking their cultural roots. Destabilised by globalisation they want to go back to these roots in search of a lifestyle more in harmony with local traditions. 9. This trend is also good for tourism, which thrives on the differences between cultures. Travel gives individuals the opportunity to escape to the more pristine world of local tradition. Visitors increasingly prefer the original culture, in its uniqueness, its picturesqueness. The tense relationship between traditional and modern 10. These two conflicting trends create new polarities. People increasingly live in a schizophrenic no-man’s land between openness to the world and retrenchment to local reality. Societies are threatened by levelling and by ethnocentric tendencies. This could lead to a culturally bland pap, a uniform and universal culture. In a world that is getting smaller the cultural diversity of today is under threat. Tendencies towards withdrawal and isolation lead to social and economic rigidity, and prevent progress and development. This could aggravate the present differences in the levels of development between the prosperous countries and the third world, creating greater hostility between different cultures. 11. This conflict between tradition and modernity also has an impact on tourism, which of course does not develop in a vacuum and is in many ways a mere reflection of general social and economic trends. Tourism has however shown itself to be flexible with regard to cultural trends, capable of benefiting equally from the emerging global leisure time culture, and the backlash that wants to strengthen local identity. 12. Event-driven urban leisure time culture clearly draws new visitors to the agglomerations of the industrialised countries. The endangered traditional culture is imitated in artificial leisure centres and theme parks. At the same time more and more people are travelling to cultural environments that are still to a great extent intact. On the way to new paradigms 13. These new developments at the level of supply and demand in tourism require rethinking the critical view of tourism mentioned above. There is no doubt about the fact that traditional, modern, everyday culture has an intrinsic value which deserves our respect. Travel and tourism have become one of the most popular and influential forms of individual happiness on a worldwide scale. One must accept that tourism in all its forms is now part of culture, on a local as well as well as a global basis. 14. That tourism-related advertising reduces complex cultural realities to picturesque stereotypes intended to draw visitors to a given attraction is inevitable. Tourism does not limit itself to objective realities. It is in the business of manufacturing and marketing dreams, the main ingredients of which are taken from culture. And it is true of course that tourism spices this cultural content with emotions. And the tourism of today is increasingly event-oriented. The traditional criticism of tourism is no longer applicable, for in today’s world culture itself increasingly relies on emotional appeal, marketing cultural sites and events as lifetime experiences. In the meantime, it no longer shocks anyone to see culture being exploited and hung with a price tag like any other commodity. It is now accepted that self realisation in the cultural area, as in tourism, means consumption (Figure 1). 15. Insofar as the phenomenon of cultural levelling is concerned, suppliers of tourism goods and services now accept that cultural goods which are intact and a strong cultural identity are of prime importance in destination-oriented tourism. They do their best to integrate local characteristics in the design and development of products in an effort to distinguish themselves from the competition. The borderline between a reproduction and the real thing is increasingly difficult to perceive, since the historical original cannot always be preserved and in any case each generation has its own interpretation. Finally suppliers of tourism products and services are aware that cultural commodities need to be protected from excessive flows of visitors through careful visitor management. Cultural sustainability is today a “must“. Tourism must be accepted for the business that it is 16. From the economic point of view tourism is the business of catering to the dreams of potential visitors. Thus an increasing amount of suppliers are convinced that tourism products and services must be designed and delivered as a complete package. Only this holistic approach can begin to correspond to the dreams of visitors. Tourism thus becomes a dream factory, a branch of the newly emerging experience economy. In the industrialised countries indeed thanks to increased productivity and improving standards of living the raw materials for dreamlike experiences, for individual well-being and self-realisation are already available in abundance (Figure 2). 17. Tourism thus conceived requires a new understanding of the tourism production process. Suppliers develop all-in products such as a cultural weekend in Geneva or a week of winter sports in Chamonix. As in the area of consumer goods they take care of the design, the building an image, the development of services, the creation of a good atmosphere for visitors and bringing the product to life on the site. Efforts are increasingly made to integrate specifically local cultural components throughout the production process. 18. The cultural backdrop plays a major role in the tourism production process. It influences the motivation of potential visitors at least in part and is a decisive factor in the choice of a travel destination. In many cases it is the destination that is chosen first for its cultural uniqueness, before the accompanying package of services. Be it everyday scenes in the area visited, a specific artefact or an experience, culture is the raw material of the tourism business. It acquires economic value only when it can be used, which in the case of tourism means only when it can be visited. Dialogue between tourism and culture 19. At the opening session of the 4th Sommets du tourisme Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Genève“ in Geneva we shall be discussing basic questions concerning cultural development and its influence on tourism. Another topic for discussion will be whether this age of globalisation will lead to the levelling of cultural differences worldwide, or will different cultures be able to co-exist in the “global village”. We shall also attempt to put traditional tourism criticism into perspective and to explain new paradigms in the relationship between tourism and culture (Figure 3). 20. At the Hotel Majestic of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc an effort will be made to demonstrate how cultural aspects can be incorporated in the tourism business process. We shall explore the potential of tourism based on cultural resources. And we shall investigate the way in which the culture of areas visited can influence the creation of tourism images and promotional efforts. We shall also see how existing cultural commodities, i.e. the “cultural heritage“, can be used for the development of new tourism products. And we shall discover how cultural tourism products and services can be brought to life. Another discussion will be devoted to the question of designing tourism products and destinations. Chamonix will show how a tourism destination can transmit culture for local residents as well as for visitors, with the example of the cross-border “Espace Mont-Blanc“ project. 21. At the final session we shall discuss what role tourism could play in the development of a better world in the years ahead, in the context of the world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg (South Africa). And we shall also attempt to draw the conclusions of the 4-year Chamonix- Mont-Blanc Genève conference cycle.