Purpose - This paper seeks to highlight issues surrounding ownership and copyrights relating to intangible cultural heritage and to raise potential concerns for local (rural, remote, smaller) ...communities involved in cultural heritage tourism.Design methodology approach - The objective of the paper is to provoke reflection and further discourse on how local culture in smaller rural communities has been appropriated for tourism and related issues and concerns. Selected literature, other relevant documents and data from personal observations, derived from previous research, were examined to provide insights on the subject and to help achieve this objective.Findings - Findings suggest that an inequity gap exists in benefits distributed to many rural communities whose cultural heritages are being appropriated and exploited by multiple commercial entities for tourism purposes and personal gain. Little, if any, of the profits realized benefit the local community - the actual creators and owners of the local culture.Practical implications - With a new awareness and understanding of this phenomenon, developing and implementing a new and alternative approach is possible - an alternative approach that may help narrow this inequity gap while also ensuring significant sustainable benefits to all the stakeholders.Originality value - This paper presents new perspectives about the value of intangible cultural heritage when used for tourism. This paper should be of interest and importance to community tourism planners and policy makers, industry operators suppliers dependent on local cultural tourism products, and consumers of local intangible culture who seek unique cultural experiences.
This paper focuses on how the First World War (WWI) is seen by Canadians (n = 194) and Americans (n = 257) today. The primary focus of this paper is on the factors that shape Canadians' and ...Americans' memories of WWI and the influence of these factors on their intentions to visit WWI sites in the future. In addition, it also examines their first thoughts on WWI, how they describe WWI sites and why they think memories of WWI should be kept alive. Results indicate that while there are strong similarities in the way the two neighbouring countries describe WWI sites and why they want to keep the memories of this event alive, the two groups differ in how their memories of WWI are shaped on other variables. Practical implications for organizations involved in promoting tourism to these sites are also discussed.
In Fall 2020, universities saw extensive transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among their populations, threatening health of the university and surrounding communities, and viability of in-person instruction. ...Here we report a case study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where a multimodal "SHIELD: Target, Test, and Tell" program, with other non-pharmaceutical interventions, was employed to keep classrooms and laboratories open. The program included epidemiological modeling and surveillance, fast/frequent testing using a novel low-cost and scalable saliva-based RT-qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 that bypasses RNA extraction, called covidSHIELD, and digital tools for communication and compliance. In Fall 2020, we performed >1,000,000 covidSHIELD tests, positivity rates remained low, we had zero COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths amongst our university community, and mortality in the surrounding Champaign County was reduced more than 4-fold relative to expected. This case study shows that fast/frequent testing and other interventions mitigated transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a large public university.
Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, an outstanding example of a traditional land-use that is representative of human interaction with a distinctive environment, has been presented for UNESCO World Heritage Site ...(WHS) designation. One of Canada's most fertile agricultural landscapes, it is also an iconic memorial site for a people who overcame a tragedy of forced migration—the Acadian Deportation—in 1755, which has since become the lure for significant numbers of tourists to the region. Now facing a double threat of agriculture change and tourism decline, Grand Pré has high expectations from its recent WHS designation (2012) and the perceived tourism that it will bring. This concept paper discusses Grand Pré as a globally important agriculture heritage system and, in light of previous research, questions its expectations of WHS designation as a conduit for future economic viability and sustainability in the region.
The commodification of culture for tourism can result in fundamentally changing a community's structure. Focusing on one rural Atlantic Canadian community, this article examines the transformation of ...longstanding stable forms of human and social capital that have bonded a local community over two centuries, and in so doing helped to ensure sustainability. Transformations induced by tourism development may dramatically transform such cultures. To avoid corrosive transformation of local culture, careful management plans that protect community values must become the focal point of the plan. This paper discusses the commodification of the culture process as it has unfolded and transformed local culture in a case study rural community. Results of the study show that while local culture may be a community's most valuable asset, the commodification of local culture for tourism may, in reality, impede a community's efforts to achieve sustainability. Cultural-based tourism development invokes transformation, whereas the traditional community culture dies away while attempting to simultaneously create a new culture based on the icons of the traditional one. This may be described, metaphorically, as a death-rebirth-like process. This research suggests that conventional notions of cultural tourism as a means of community sustainability without regard for traditional practices and values may not be appropriate.
The First World War (WWI), referred to as the Great War, claimed over 16 million lives and involved over 70 countries, affecting the course of history in many parts of the world. This paper presents ...partial results from a larger study (n = 2490) investigating global opinions about remembrance of WWI today, and focuses on how respondents from Britain (n = 184) differed from those from three of its colonies—Australia (n = 104), New Zealand (n = 34), and Canada (n = 194). Differences between respondents from these countries are presented regarding three variables: (1) how they describe WWI, (2) factors that influence their memories of WWI, and (3) reasons for wanting to keep the memories of WWI alive. Data were collected over a period of 6 months in 2012 through an online survey. Researchers defined and tested six descriptors of WWI, eight factors that influence respondents’ memories of WWI, and seven reasons to for keeping the memories of WWI alive. Data were analyzed using the SPSS package. T-tests and ANOVAs were used to examine the differences between respondents. Results indicate that respondents from the colonies differ from their British counterparts on all three variables. Implications for organizations that promote tourism to WWI heritage sites are also discussed.
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