Cultural heritage is an important factor in ensuring regional development. Practice has demonstrated that first sustainability of heritage sites needs to be ensured and tourism they generate should ...also be re-visited as current over-tourism models are unsustainable. The assumption is that cultural/creative industries (CCI) can be a powerful tool for heritage livability as well as for sustainable tourism based on experiences. In order to stimulate regional development, specific CCI measures are often introduced in public policies but results of policy interventions are rarely monitored. Their performance can be measured against the pre-set indicators. Research studies focusing on such indicators are scarce. This short communication provides a possible conceptual framework alongside concrete indicators for cultural/creative industries’ sector impact assessment on cultural heritage and sustainable experiential tourism on the policy as well as on the project level. Desk research and brainstorming methods were applied to design the indicator sets resulting in a tool which is to be further tested and used in practice.
The aim of this paper is to present an overarching theoretical perspective on the paradox of inequalities and the paradigm shift in mobilities by reflecting on the challenges and opportunities in ...urban areas faced by the COVID-19 measures. The question of blurring boundaries between the human and the technological aspects and the ways in which they alter the form of communication and action is tackled reflecting on the digital divide and socio-spatial inequalities. In order to connect theory and practice, implications from different cases are provided for shedding light on the expected impacts and scenarios for the changing patterns of mobility and accessibility. The results indicate hybridization of the on-site and online forms of mobilities, as well as new approaches to make culture and leisure more inclusive and accessible. Promoting local integration, emerging forms of local tourism such as staycations, using digital tools to foster co-creation, co-curation, and audience engagement, developing new models of business and consumption reflect the changing patterns of mobility and accessibility. There are avenues for further research that revolve around the questions of inequalities, over-consumption, sociality and sustainability.
•COVID-19 accelerated the plans for eco-friendly and sustainable transportation.•More leisure activities have been provided for the local urban communities.•Cultural tourism (im)mobility is mainly promoted by virtual tours.•Digitalization had a major impact on accessing content and learning opportunities.•The lack of equipment and/or knowledge prevent access.
Experience design has become a widely discussed topic. Museums use experience design for engaging their visitors and culture offers exceptional tools for it. Visual arts and music are particularly ...effective in eliciting visitors’ emotions. However, there are a number of visual and acoustic cues that influence museum visitor response behaviours. Understanding the ways in which the human brain processes information provides a basis for furthering experience design principles. This study focuses on the emotion of surprise, considered especially effective for engaging visitor attention, providing meaning and affecting memory. The methodology involved monitoring psychophysiological responses and self-reports to assess research participants’ reactions to visual/acoustic stimuli. The aim was to confirm/ detect types of sensory stimuli that generate the emotion of surprise, to see if participants have similar reactions to stimuli and whether individuals’ self-reports are aligned with their psychophysiological reactions. The results showed that musical stimuli are more effective than visual arts in eliciting surprise. While the study showed no clear indications that visual cues have an effect on surprise, musical cues, such as rapid attack, large pitch variation, higher harmonics, slow tempo with a sudden interruption, and sudden change in loudness do seem to play a role. Other cues, such as major key, 4/4 meter, timbral difference, and diatonic harmony also have an impact on the elicitation of surprise. These are important implications for designing museum experiences.
A key tool in creating a destination experience is the experience economy. This is even more true for cultural tourism experiences since culture's intrinsic values are inherently linked to ...experiences.The book Creating and Managing Experiences in Cultural Tourism aims to provide theoretical and practical background on the experience economy applied in sustainable cultural tourism. This entails a wide range of subjects addressing cultural heritage, creative industries and contemporary culture. Theoretical approaches to experience creation are presented to offer the 'rules' of designing the cultural tourism experiences. With inspirational and innovative examples, it provides an insight into the field of cultural tourism from prominent editors, authors and contributors in their respective fields.
Sustainability of cultural heritage is a complex issue and is rarely measured, especially at the project level, mainly due to a lack of universal heritage sustainability indicators. This is why many ...heritage projects are only partially sustainable. This article defines the concept of heritage sustainability and offers methods to measure and evaluate it. The research presented was conducted on good practice examples analysed in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, which are assessed as strategic projects within specific EU, regional, or local policy instruments. The methodology, which explored possible indicators for evaluating the sustainability of cultural heritage investments, involved desk research and ex post analysis of selected heritage projects funded within a policy instrument, interviews with cultural heritage managers, focus groups, and comparative analysis of best practices analysed. The findings showed the crucial importance of cooperation and broad participation of various stakeholders, excellent cultural management, diversification of funding sources, community involvement and appropriation of cultural heritage by the community, respect for professional standards, innovative solutions, and careful spatial planning in ensuring heritage sustainability. Transferability of good practice examples is challenging because it depends on the local context. In order to be able to measure heritage sustainability at the project level, an all-encompassing set of cultural heritage sustainability indicators is proposed. To justify heritage investments, policy instruments may consider future priorities based on this set of indicators.
Wellbeing has been researched in relation to social, wellness, rural, backpacker, senior, wildlife, transformational or transformative tourism or studies exist specifically focusing on wellbeing ...tourism. Surprisingly enough, there is a void of research focus on wellbeing in cultural tourism, although culture has been considered as having a substantial impact on wellbeing. The research uses the case study of the Museum of Broken Relationships (MBR) in Zagreb, Croatia, under the assumption that MBR experiences have a relevant influence on tourists’ subjective wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing was measured after the visitation using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) and a majority of the respondents experienced moderate to high wellbeing. Furthermore, the research aimed to investigate whether or not there is any difference between cultural and non-cultural tourists’ subjective wellbeing noted after the visitation to the Museum. The results showed that there was no substantial difference between cultural and non-cultural tourists’ subjective wellbeing.
Trajnostnost kulturne dediščine je kompleksno vprašanje, ki se zlasti na projektni ravni redko meri. Razlog za to je predvsem pomanjkanje splošnih kazalnikov, zaradi česar so številni projekti s ...področja dediščine samo delno trajnostni. V članku avtorici opredelita pojem trajnostne dediščine ter predstavita metode za njegovo ugotavljanje in presojo. Raziskava, ki sta jo opravili, se je osredotočala na analizo izbranih primerov dobre prakse v Grčiji, Italiji in Španiji ter na Poljskem, Portugalskem in Nizozemskem, ti so bili kot strateški projekti vključeni v posamezne instrumente regionalne ali lokalne politike Evropske unije. Metode, s katerimi sta proučevali kazalnike, ki bi se lahko uporabili za vrednotenje trajnostnih naložb v kulturno dediščino, so vključevale kabinetno raziskavo in naknadno analizo izbranih projektov s področja dediščine, financiranih v okviru posameznih instrumentov politike EU, intervjuje z upravitelji kulturne dediščine, fokusne skupine in primerjalno analizo proučevanih primerov dobre prakse. Iz izsledkov je razviden ključen pomen naslednjih dejavnikov: sodelovanje in široka vključenost raznih deležnikov, dobro kulturno upravljanje, razvejani viri financiranja, vključenost lokalne skupnosti, ki kulturno dediščino vzame za svojo, upoštevanje strokovnih standardov, inovativne rešitve in skrbno prostorsko načrtovanje pri zagotavljanju trajnostne dediščine. Primeri dobre prakse so težko prenosljivi, saj je uspeh prenosa odvisen od značilnosti lokalnega okolja. Za opredelitev trajnostne dediščine na projektni ravni je predlagan splošen nabor kazalnikov trajnostnosti, na podlagi katerih bi bile lahko v okviru instrumentov politike opredeljene prihodnje prednostne naloge in upravičene naložbe.
With the rise of creative industries, culture in international relations achieves strong competitive economic advantages. At the same time, it is often a fertile tool in reconciliation between ...conflicted communities and long-term consolidation of their relations. Economic peace theory claims economic interdependence as being the key factor in achieving peace between communities. Starting from this premise, this paper analysed the success of specific EU funding within cross-border cooperation schemes between Croatia and Serbia in enhancing social relations between the two states and their cooperation, as indirect effects. Adapted Conflict Management and Mitigation Matrix (CMM) served as a basis to confirm the assumption that international relations are enhanced if direct economic benefits for the communities are involved. The research confirmed this assumption and provided recommendations for future EU financial instruments.
Social conflicts and political pressures represent a specific man-made hazard for heritage protection and result in contested heritage. One of the recent cases, Equestrian Indians publicly displayed ...in Chicago, was the subject of contestation following the Black Lives Matter protests. The aim of this paper was to critically assess heritage contestation in this case study, also demonstrating other factors influencing heritage contestation than those so far detected in theory, and to find possible coping strategies. Qualitative mixed methods were applied: desk research, critical instance case study, and unstructured interviews. Analysis was completed in line with four theories (international relations theory, collective memory theory, social movement theory and cancel culture) and the results showed: (a) that the case had no greater effect on international relations of the USA and Croatia; (b) a new type of dissonance: a reversed contestation based on a distorted narrative; (c) illusory resistance in the social movement theory; (d) a new theory termed “cancel heritage”, denoting the cancel culture features a spill-over to a collective memory. Possible coping strategies for heritage protection point to the need for a more nuanced participatory approach while forgetting, but possibly the most effective method leading to a collective psychological liberation is hardly achievable.
Youth employment in Europe as well as in Croatia presents to be a substantial issue. Service learning fosters a strong relationship with community engagement offering hands-on experience. In this ...way, it may potentially prepare graduates from higher education institutions for an easier transition into the labor market. As to be able to address the question of whether service learning influences youth employment in Croatia, a study was conducted on 291 participants. The purpose of the research was to strengthen the links between service learning and youth employment in (social) enterprises. Methods applied two separate surveys, covering the topic of service learning and social entrepreneurship and youth, and the research was conducted from February to August 2021. The main findings point to the partial influence of service learning on youth employment in Croatia. Although it provides community engagement by introducing some hands-on experience, these skills and knowledge are still insufficient for the graduates’ competitiveness on the labor market. In order to increase the impact of service learning on youth employment in Croatia, some service learning-related enhancements are proposed but, more importantly, reforms are needed in the (higher) education system in general as well as in the strategic framework on the social entrepreneurship.
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