Cultural Tourism and Economic Development

Abstract

There are many links between cultural tourism and economic development. Governments from entire nations down to cities and counties have made tourism a focal point in their economic development efforts. This chapter discusses 18 types of cultural tourism attractions ranging from architecture to gastronomy to sex. Each of the types of cultural tourism are assessed in terms of the level of interaction between a tourist and an attraction. Travel and tourism's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) has outpaced overall GDP in 62% of the 185 countries studied by the World Travel and Tourism Council in 2017. Tourism's contribution to GDP exceeds 10% for several countries with Iceland topping the list at 20.1%. Sustainability is a key to the success of any long-term development strategy, and this is certainly the case with cultural tourism. The tradeoff communities face is maximizing short term returns versus managing development (tourism) to maintain the quality of the resource for the long run. Over-tourism results when an attraction or a community experiences numbers of tourists beyond the carrying capacity of the attraction. While the marketplace is better suited for managing much of tourism and its impacts, government is uniquely suited to manage some key aspects of tourism. Government is better able than business to manage for the long term. Additionally, governments can weigh costs and benefits to different groups (e.g., residents versus tourists). Two case studies are presented to highlight these issues.