Contested heritages and cultural tourism

Bibliographic Data

ID5700367
AuthorsBrendan Murtagh (0000-0002-9417-6052, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, UK, corresponding author), Philip Boland (0000-0003-1011-2447, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, UK), Peter Shirlow (0000-0002-7483-9859, University of Liverpool)
Year2017
Volume23
Issue6
Pages506-520
Publication date2017-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2017.1287118
OpenAlexW2586939268
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited41

The fascination with death and disaster has encouraged the development of distinctive tourism markets, the rediscovery of sites and places of past conflict and all accompanied with uneasy narratives about what they mean and how they should be consumed. The increasingly stratified tourist economy and the interplay between demand and supply has also stimulated a complex set of ontological, socio-political and indifferent responses as places and interests compete to project often selective or stylised claims for recognition. This paper reviews the experiences of tourists visiting Derry/Londonderry, the UK’s first City of Culture and how they make sense of the competing interpretations of the past in museums, rituals and artefacts. The 17thC walled city, the city of violence and the post-conflict renaissance city are spatially and socially reproduced but rarely connect with each other to help make sense of the past for the present and critically, for the future. The paper concludes that the discursive content promised by the City of Culture was a missed opportunity to debate these places and events and critically, the problematized and reified narratives they each project

Aesthetics · Art · Environmental ethics · Heritage tourism · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Renaissance · Tourism · Tourism geography · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · History · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Religious Tourism and Spaces