Heritage Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Heritage Tourism - Essay Example It is in the 1990s that the tendency to boldly state the function of tourism and investigate the conscious and unconscious forces that foster tourism as an expression of a facet of human life became in vogue. During these period researchers working independently arrived at the nature of tourism as method of forming opinion on the nature of local people that the tourists visited. Moreover, the scholars also unearthed the social compulsions that make going to places as an essential ingredient of modern living and the pseudo-cultural experiences that are generated artificially to fuel the growth of a flourishing business activity. Many social scientists inspected "the use of tourism to make, re-make and/or de-make specific peoples, places or pasts." (Hollinshead, 2004, p. 25) The present study focuses on central ideas of four authors whose monumental contribution, to the understanding of the discipline of tourism, is a necessary backdrop for our learning of postmodern issues in tourism. They are AlSayyad N., Hewison R., Horne Donald and Dolan D. The authors are able to give a penetrating vision of the various aspects of post-modern heritage tourism. AlSayyad explores in his writing the heritage and tradition of tourism and contributes sig... Heritage today is created and propagated and it plays a major role in gaining national identity. He argues that 20th century has been a period of travel and tourism. Travel industry knows too well that it is selling only dreams. The industry knows that the tourists are too nave to realize that he or she is treated to a fake experience. The old concept of tourism as a quest for knowledge, self-improvement and authentic experience is hardly found in today's tourism. Instead, shopping, dining, wining and evening entertainment are becoming in many cases more important than the visiting of monuments. One of the appalling tragedies of postmodern tourism is the directed tour that a tourist is supposed to cover in a package. In the past travel was undertaken as a finishing school for a man of leisure and culture. Now the tourist is compelled to travel as a part of social norm and often the itinerary in such travels are unauthentic experience the tourist is forced to endure. Alsayyad (2001) c alls it " sites of 'authentic fakery' such as Las Vegas or manufactured heritage theme parks of 'fake authenticity'. There are many such symbols of modern tourism, which can vie with any monumental heritage site of the past. In fact McDonald's and Disney have more popularity as symbols of culture. In the era of increasing globalization Disney theme parks in many parts of the world stand for the weakened notion of statehood having been replaced by a plutocracy of the world governed by a multinational corporation. It is a paradox today that people travel to actual destinations for a virtual experience. Destinations could be Taj Mahal. Pyramids or the Great Wall of China but the experience is stage managed by recreational aspects of enjoyment rather