Importance Of Culture Tourism Cultural Studies Essay

Cultural tourism can be defined as to enhance the interaction between different cultures. Travelers shared values on the same platform through visiting cultural and natural resources, historically preserved places, museums, or other historical values. In the European history, there is considerable number of travelers from different countries to travel all over the Europe. Grand Tour, one of the most influential trips, which consist of scholars, middle class expresses the Renaissance from Italy to the whole Europe. Thus they promoted the flourish of culture and created the initial cultural identity in Europe. After that, the three types of traveling consist of merchants, scholars and politicians, had brought so many European cultural value and spread to the whole Europe. At the same time the conception of cultural heritage and historical identity all associate with the history and common past of European society.

The cultural heritage is also a dimension of cultural tourism aiming at getting information and education of the cultures of other societies. So, in this paper I will focus on how does cultural tourism in Europe as an opportunity for preserving those cultural heritages which has huge impact on European integration process. Such kind of cultural tourism also has huge influence on the promotion of European cultural identity today. I will depict the history evolution of such cultural tourism including yesterday and today. Rethinking the European common identities, shared values, and common memory of history events; Analyzing those identities and cultural heritage, brought from such communications across European continent, based on a historical approach.

Definition of Cultural tourism

Cultural tourism is a complicated conception. It consists of two elements: ‘Culture’ and ‘tourism’. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) definition as amended in 1993 is now widely accepted, however, and is also applied by the European Commission (1995). The WTO definition of tourism includes “the activities of persons during their travel and stay in a place outside their usual place of residence, for a continuous period of less than one year, for leisure, business or other purposes”

Greg Richards (in his research) identifies two basic uses of the term ‘culture’ can therefore currently be identified in the academic literature: culture as process and culture as product.1

As Clarke pointed out, culture “designates the social field of meaning production”, or the processes through which people make sense of themselves and their lives.2 The boundaries of social groups, and therefore cultures, are variable, and can cover a nation, tribe, corporation or those pursuing specific activities. These two approaches integrate with each other when culture as a process and tourists seek authenticity and meaning through their tourist experiences. However, the very presence of tourists leads to the creation of cultural manifestations specifically for tourist consumption.3 In other words culture as process is transformed through tourism (as well as other social mechanisms) into culture as product. So the term ‘cultural tourism’ refers to describe the consumption of art, heritage, folklore, and a whole range of other cultural manifestations by tourists.

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The cultural tourism is defined as the events and relations formed by the special interest travels for the purpose of knowing about historical places and events.4 It can be viewed as to increase the interaction between different cultures, makes shared values meet on the same platform through visiting cultural and natural resources, historically preserved places, structures, museums, cities or such other historical values that are unique from the point of science and culture, also attending to theaters, cinemas, art galleries or festivals increases the interaction between different cultures, makes shared values meet on the same platform.

The original Cultural Tourism in European History-Grand tour

In European history, there is a closer connection between tourism and culture. Roman ‘cultural tourists’, for example, steeped themselves in the culture of civilizations more ancient than their own, such as Greece and Egypt.5Subsequent medieval tourists were mostly pilgrims, and laid the foundations for some of the modern ‘cultural itineraries’, such as the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella in northern Spain. The word ‘tourism’ can be derived from the important event – grand tour, which has a huge impact on the European history originated in Britain in the 17th century. Some questions about this historical event may be raised: who are the tourists; why they do such travelling; what is the destination and what did they achieved in such tour? The early Grand Tourists were aristocrats or tutor. The goal of their trip to continental Europe is for classical education. Usually they would spend two or three years travelling through France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, often visiting sites connected with classical culture. Italy at that time was considered the ‘prize’ to be won by Grand Tourists struggling over the Alps.6

During the 1780s the nature of the Grand Tour began to be transformed by the growth of the British middle class, and a resulting shift of Grand Tourists from a predominance of landowners to the professional middle classes.7 The grand tour at that time mainly concentrated on the culture of the ancient classical world and the Renaissance. Until the early nineteenth century most people travelled rarely or not at all; the few who did, did not do so for motives which really opened up the possibility for cultural communication. While considerable numbers of people from all kinds of social groups have always been forced either professionally or by unpleasant circumstances to travel or even migrate, this type of travel, though of unmistakable cultural significance for Europe.8

As Rietbergen asked in the book European history: What sort of travel can be distinguished within the group of literate people who were in a position to actually communicate with their foreign surroundings? Which group cultures gained a more international character and gave Europe a more marked cultural unity?9

The answer will be connected with three types of cultural travel. Trade and travel: Jacob Fugger, the Augsburg banker, and his chief accountant, established the various branch offices that formed the Fugger Empire in Europe, and between which the Fugger factors journeyed to conduct their variegated business from 16th century. Such kind of travel brought out the growth of a more cosmopolitan, ‘European’ way of thinking in these circles also depended on the level of education. Those merchants worked and lived in a European world, so some sort of ‘European’ thinking was formed indeed. Another group who travelled extensively was the diplomats and politician which was coming into existence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The French example was followed all over Europe. Every prince wanted a palace as splendid as Versailles, a court as magnificent as the one that displayed itself there; the cities and countryside of Germany which, at that time, was still divided in numerous small states, even now afford many examples of the beautiful but, of course, costly results of this desire for emulation. Indeed, in one way or another, all European nobles strove to emulate their French colleagues: in England and Poland, in Sweden and Spain they started building country palaces and town mansions after the French manner, filled them with treasures after the French example, dressed according to the fashions dictated by France, ate as was prescribed in the manuals produced by the French cuisiniers. Over these centuries, elite culture slowly changed. Interaction between the Christian values which the Church had proclaimed as universal since the eighth century, and the even older regional or popular cultures, had resulted in the birth of ‘national’ elite cultures from the ninth and tenth centuries onwards. ( history Since the fifteenth century, as a result of contacts with the courts in Italy and with French culture, through contacting the culture of the French kings of which national cultures acquired a more ‘European’ aspect.10

A third group of cultural travelers, formed by students, scholars and artists, was undoubtedly the most important for the formation and transmission of culture. This kind of travelling was anchored in the ideal world of ‘culture’ Grand Tour ,which spreads all over the Europe, create a interaction between well-travelled clients and well-travelled or travelling artists, scholars so that churches, palaces, country and town houses were built and paintings and sculptures were created according to aesthetic principles accepted in the whole Europe. All of the cultural expressions: paintings and buildings, but also literary and scientific works and music defining as the ‘universal’, classical and Christian values. However, those tourists also appreciated the excellence of their own state and nation, consequently, a general ‘style’ developed which despite its national varieties was immediately recognizable everywhere in Europe.

In a word, as Rietbergen said, ‘certain forms of culture were profoundly influenced by the phenomenon of travel, becoming characteristic of a larger Europe as a result. Returning home, travelers did not only look back upon their stay abroad as an enjoyable conclusion of their relatively carefree youth, a chapter closed before the beginning of a responsible career. For many, the memory remained a life-enhancing experience, a factor which somehow determined their future thoughts and actions. An increasingly close interaction between travel and other forms of educated communication altered the elite vision of European culture.’11

Impact of grand tour in European history–Cultural influence

With the expansion of the Grand Tour in 18th century, it is a milestone which marked a shift from pre-capitalist, a historical conceptions of cultural production, where influences from outside the dominant culture were not considered worthy of the bourgeois notion of the universal an esthetic of cultural manifestations.12This modern view of universality allowed European culture to absorb and evaluate cultural products from different cultures and epochs with reference to aesthetic form as a homogenizing principle. Whereas Medieval ‘tourists’ were largely bound within a Roman Catholic cultural tradition, for example as pilgrims to Santiago de Compostella or Rome, the Grand Tourists were able to perceive the products of different periods and communities as contributing in different ways to the inevitable progress of European culture.

The increasing number of Grand Tourists was collecting cultural experiences across European continent; some cultural heritages from all regions of the Europe were being gathered together. People may have some doubts: how these flourish of cultural communication in Europe during grand tour time impact cultural tourism and cultural identity today? How these cultural heritages descended through such tourism? How can they be preserved? What kind of cultural identity or cultural history present from them? How does it impact on European identity today?

Perhaps in this case, we can look at the role of cultural heritage in the process of creation of consciousness of cultural identity.

Cultural heritage conservation to promote the European identity and European integration process

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Cultural heritage is a historical and social possession of a society that passes on as legacy to future generations has its place in its cultural being and attains greater importance with its historical identity.

cultural heritage which is a historical and social possession of a society that bequeaths as legacy to future generations has its place in its cultural being and attains greater importance with its historical identity.

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The culture, cultural heritage and essential values of historical identity of cities have great significance. Culture is defined as the material and moral values generated during historical and social progress and the totality of the tools that are used in the establishment and transfer of these values to next generations. Culture is also the combination of a group of attitudes that societies which share the same background and traditions to future generations transfer to future generations and that need to be protected and developed .13

At the

The culture, cultural heritage and essential values of historical identity of cities have great significance. Culture is defined as the material and moral values generated during historical and social progress and the totality of the tools that are used in the establishment and transfer of these values to next generations1. Culture is also the combination of a group of attitudes that societies which share the same background and traditions to future generations transfer to future generations and that need to be protected and developed (Erkal, The

same time the conception of cultural heritage and historical identity all associate

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with the history and common past of a society. The cultural heritage is also a dimension of cultural tourism aiming at getting information and education of the cultures of other societies.

with the history and common past of a society. In cultural heritage is a dimension of cultural tourism aiming at getting information and education of the cultures of other societies.

The English philosopher John Locke once proposes the negative discourse on Grand Tour. He doubted whether a person would not benefit more from a foreign stay when he had grown to manhood; he would, then, be less easily influenced. Another Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus argued that he pointed to his own practice; after all, as a young man he had joined one of the first scientific expeditions to Swedish Lapland; he now considered that a similar experience with the unknown regions and cultures of a person’s own country could be benefited.

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Tangible heritage is composed of monuments, archaeological sites, churches, monasteries, citadels, historical buildings, traditional settlings and historical city centers; libraries, theaters and movies, concert rooms, portable elements and man novelties (paintings, statues, engraving, books etc). The abstract elements consist of language, dance, music and other means of communication and expression as well as custom and usage and habits.

Through cultural

tangible ones is composed of monuments, archaeological sties, churches, monasteries, citadels, historical buildings, traditional settlings and historical city centers; libraries, theaters and movies, concert rooms, portable elements and man novelties (paintings, statues, engraving, books etc). The abstract elements consist of language, dance, music and other means of communication and expression as well as custom and usage and habits (Tsouluovis, Cultural

tourism, travelers can visit and be process to that cultural heritage. Those expressions remind their common history of two world wars and such as the history of Christianity unity.

Now in European countries, more and more museums and historical buildings be preserved. The advent of museums in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries was the most physical manifestation of the bourgeois idea of the universality of culture. Museums were organized to demonstrate the progress of human artistic and industrial achievement, the pinnacle of which was represented by the products of Modernity.14 Museums were not the only markers of progress. Tourists in 19th century Paris was also shown through factories and the sewer system15. This early form of industrial tourism was supposed to underline faith in progress, in sharp contrast to the growth of industrial tourism in the 1980s, which was arguably designed to cash in on nostalgia for past industrial achievement.16The advent of museums in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries was the most physical manifestation of the bourgeois idea of the universality of culture. Museums were organized to demonstrate the progress of human artistic and industrial achievement, the pinnacle of which was represented by the products of Modernity.17

Taking the ‘Project of the Museum’ which took hold in Europe for example: the placing of objects in museum displays became important signifiers of their cultural significance, and the museum increasingly became the centre of cultural tourism endeavor.

Heritage today can provide more than an argument for beauty and certainly more than an attraction to travelers. It should be realized as a necessary precondition of integration and a vital instrument of creating European identity. Such heritage is a visible expression of our common European culture and history, a tangible testimony of our roots without which our present would be impoverished and our future would become sterile. As such, it is an essential element of our local, regional, national and European identity. The knowledge and the understanding of the “unity in diversity” of Europe’s shared cultural heritage contribute fundamentally to the development of a sense of European citizenship and a sense of belonging, as indispensable cohesive factors in the on-going process of European integration.

Conclusion:

Cultural tourism provides essential values of historical identity of European countries Those identities also share the same background and traditions to future generations and that need to be protected and developed.18The cultural heritage which is a historical and social possession of a society that bequeaths as legacy to future generations has its place in its cultural being and attains greater importance with its historical identity European union countries also shared such common identity and commemorations about the history and some values.

For example, the Roman culture, Christianity unity and so on . That culture brought and spread out by cultural tourism such as Grand tour. Even today, most of the cultural tourism activities like visiting the museum and historical places, monument of some common history events had been creating their own common identity among the Europeans. They are the travelers as well as the ”torch deliver” who deliver the culture torch to every where in Europe.

So they also play an in vital role on preserving the cultural heritage for young generations. Those cultural activities generate cultural communication among the region of destination. People from that region show their own unique culture to the travelers, and the travelers give it back to the other regions. They created a recycle link for cultural heritage conservation. At same time, they are also contributed to the promotion of the European cultural identity and the process of European integration.