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This paper explores cultural heritage tourism approaches and practices, putting a special
focus on community involvement issues with reference from cultural heritage sites in
Tanzania. The paper uses the analysis of documents and empirical insights to enlighten our
understanding of how cultural heritage tourism operates, and is being approached, in
Tanzania. Cultural heritage tourism is considered as a form of tourism, involving people
visiting cultural heritage sites away from their usual residences for not more than one
consecutive year, for the purposes of leisure and education, and others that do not include
the practice of an activity remunerated from within the place visited. Cultural heritage tourism is a growing segment of tourism all over the world, accounting for
about 37% of all tourist trips in the world. However, its contribution to the
development of the place partly depends on the involvement of community members. Thus, as this paper highlights, it is important to put a special focus on the community involvement issues when exploring the approaches and practices of the cultural heritage tourism industry. This is particularly important in broadening our understanding of the complexity of the management of cultural heritage, which is often preoccupied with, and overwhelmed by, the protection of cultural heritage objects while marginalizing the community and their perspectives. The paper begins by defining key terms such as heritage, culture, and cultural heritage tourism with reference to Tanzanian cases. Finally, there is an exploration of community involvement and management practices in cultural heritage tourism in Tanzania. |
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