Communicating Cultural Heritage to Many and by Many

Abstract

Cultural heritage has been connected to identity, community belonging, and sustainability, all of which should be communicated effectively through and with the given cultural heritage. One key factor of effective communication is the involved actors. Communicating cultural heritage involves new actors if the given cultural heritage example receives more than local acknowledgement. The current research investigates the actors involved in communicating such a cultural heritage through the example of the Fertő/Neusiedlersee transnational UNESCO World Heritage site. One of the identified outstanding universal values is that there is multiculturalism printed in the cultural landscape. Accordingly, the investigation looks both at the diverse cultural communities communicated as heritage values, and at the actors participating in the touristification of the site by communicating the local heritage values. Two main findings of the investigation are that the dynamic character of the actors and their lack of cooperation threaten the heritage communication of the researched location.