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Relation between Cultural Heritage Protection and Tourism and Leisure Industry

Release time:2017-08-10 16:51

  "Cultural Heritage" refers to various kinds of practices, performances, patterns of manifestation, knowledge systems and skills as well as any tools, physical artifacts, crafts and cultural places, all of which are deemed the cultural legacies by any group, society and individual (in some cases). With the continuous development and gradual growth of the tourism and leisure industry, the scope of tourism resources is increasingly expanded, and the cultural heritage characterized mainly by cultural attributes is being entered into the tourism industry and becomes an important part of tourism resources, and the cultural heritage is integrated with other resources to improve the image of the tourism and leisure demonstration city and increase the attraction of our city to tourists. It is indisputable fact that the protection and development of cultural heritage is mingled and affected with the development of the tourism and leisure industry.

  I. The cultural heritage enriches the cultural connotation of the tourism and leisure industry.

  Cultural heritage is the cultural inheritance and the sustenance of spiritual civilization of a region, reflecting the pleasures of life of people in this region. It is a relic left over from history; if the cultural heritage is properly utilized and developed, the development of the tourism and leisure industry of a region will be greatly promoted. Regionalism is one of the important features of cultural heritage, and the tourism resource of intangible cultural heritage is the fruit of human wisdom in a certain region; for the cultural connotation is rich and the tourism value is high, the development of local tourism and leisure industry can be effectively promoted. The cultural heritage is an important tourism resource characterized by rich and diversified contents. If the cultural heritage can be properly conserved and used as the main product of tourism and leisure and the promotion of government can be strengthened, the tourists at home and abroad will be attracted by its reputation, so as to further develop the tourism industry, and then the economic income from tourism can be utilized to protect the cultural heritage and develop more and more tourism products; in this way, a healthy industrial chain will be realized, with the aim to further improve the conditions of the traditional tourism industry dominated by single natural resources and to accelerate the transformation of the tourism and leisure industry.

  II. The cultural heritage increases the quantity and quality of tourism resources of the tourism and leisure industry.

  The tourism industry is an industry that provides tourists with travel and sightseeing services based on tourism resources and tourist facilities. The tourism resources include natural landscape, historical sites, revolutionary sites, construction achievements and customs, etc., all of which are enjoyed and known by tourists during the process of leisure and sightseeing, and these resources belong to the cultural heritage. The close relationship between cultural heritage and tourism is created due to the cultural value embodied in cultural heritage, and some cultural heritages are developed into tourism and leisure products, which can be used as a unique tourist attraction to boost the development of tourism and also as an important way of protecting and inheriting these cultural heritages.

  III. The protection and development of cultural heritage reinforce the cultural experience of tourists.

  As one of the four greatest ancient civilizations, only China has an uninterrupted civilization, culture and history; China is not only a country having a great number of historical relics, sites, ancient buildings and cultural relics, but also a country having a lot of cultural heritages. China has a full range of cultural heritages with rich contents. Various kinds of cultural heritages can meet the demands of tourist for newness, unorthodox things, knowledge, beauty, entertainment and leisure, etc.; once the cultural heritage is widely known by the public by the mass media, a huge attraction to tourists will be generated to provide a new outlet for heating-up tourism. The maturing tourists are no longer be content to enjoy static tourism products and start to pursue the real experience of tourism and leisure; such change certainly will trigger a strong demand for tourism and leisure products of cultural heritage. In terms of protection and inheritance of cultural heritage or the demand for tourism resources, the development of tourism is unavoidable; the proper development is realized during the process of protection and protection is achieved during the process of development, and by targeting tourist attractions, a new height of tourism and leisure of cultural heritage is elaborately forged.

  IV. The development of tourism and leisure industry builds a foundation for inheritance of cultural heritage.

  The rapid development of economy changes the traditional social environment on which the cultural heritage relies for survival and development, and if its foundation is eroded, a huge threat will be posed to its inheritance. The combined values owned by the cultural heritage require us to conserve it, while the definition and characteristics of cultural heritage determine the difference in protection between cultural heritage and other tangible cultural heritages. The difficulties in protection and inheritance of cultural heritage are two features of the cultural heritage product, i.e. active state and close combination with human. The active state of cultural heritage determines that the protection of cultural heritage cannot be frozen or cannot be fixed in a certain point of time, while the cultural heritage can continuously evolve only during the social development and its inheritance cannot place cultural heritage in a vacuum environment; a market is the space between the carrier for diffusion of cultural heritage and the diffusion, and the cultural heritage cannot independently exist and must be dependent on a certain carrier for purposes of display, diffusion, storage and inheritance. The tourism and leisure industry develops with the aid of an increase in the tourism demand arising out of economic development, and in the theory of economics, supply and demand influence each other. The quantity of tourism resources is continuously increased and the quality is increasingly improved, and especially the cultural heritage having rich cultural connotation is included in tourism resources and attract more tourists, promoting the development of the tourism and leisure industry. The development of the tourism and leisure industry provides cultural heritage with a display platform and opportunity in turn, while it also offer a new idea for the inheritance and protection of cultural heritage. The tourism and leisure mode is a mode that the "intangible cultural heritage" is used as a tourism resource to be effectively utilized and developed as a tourist product for sightseeing, experience, study and purchase by tourists, so that the "intangible cultural heritage" can survive and develop in a new manner in modern society.

  V. The tourism and leisure industry enriches the modes of diffusion of cultural heritage.

  As the folk culture and tradition, the cultural heritage is the fruit of human wisdom for years. Nowadays, the cultural heritage has reached a new height. As one of modes of cultural manifestation, the cultural heritage was not been well known a long time ago, but with the development of the tourism and leisure industry, people can know it through different channels, e.g. entertainment programs, publicity and education and commemorative activities, so that people can understand the meaning of cultural heritage in a vivid manner, which is the huge effect of development of the tourism and leisure industry.

  VI. The intangible cultural heritage has been the media of publicity of tourist destinations.

  In the theory of microeconomics, there are supplier and demander, which are connected by price. With the increasing development of commercial economy, the impact of publicity of media on both of supplier and demander grows with each passing day. For the government's focus on the protection of cultural heritage and the publicity of media, the degree of popularity of cultural heritage is being enhanced. The cultural heritage is provided with regional characteristics, so as the popularity of local cultural heritage is increasing, the region and tourist attraction where the cultural heritage is located have been well known by tourists. Consequently, cultural heritage becomes a very good medium of publicizing tourist destinations.

  Therefore, the relation between the protection of cultural heritage and the development of tourism and leisure industry is properly handled so as to make their development coordinated and maximize the role of cultural heritage as a tourism resource to promote the tourism and leisure industry, actively guide the orientation of the development of tourism and leisure industry for the protection and exploitation of cultural heritage, lay a solid foundation for cultural heritage and finally achieve the objective of coexistence and common prosperity.