Heritage. New perspectives for tourism development and management

Heritage is created by a recognition of the value in what ancestors left behind and it is commonly understood to encompass three major entities: material culture, natural environment and human environment. The aims of this work is to stimulate discussion about built heritage as a resource for tourism. The relationship between heritage and tourism is well documented (Ashworth,2000; Garrod and Fyall, 2000) and it is generally assumed that culture and tourism are interdependent (Ashworth, 1993). This is particularly so with regard the positive impact of built heritage on tourism industry. But what it means to built heritage for tourism development? Heritage encompasses landscapes, historic places, sites and built environments, but it also includes biodiversity, collections, past and continuing cultural practices, knowledge and living experiences (ICOMOS). Our work aims at underlining the irreplaceable and the foundation role of heritage for development of each locality and community focusing on tourism development and management. On the other hand, the paper gives insight about what development of tourism means for a destination/locality/community in terms of economic development and management of cultural heritage resources.