Cultural Heritage Tourism - In partnership with the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing (VDTM) the Council has taken a leadership role in developing strategies to generate tourism dollars for the state by integrating the promotion of arts events, festivals, historic sites, museums, and heritage trails into mainstream tourism marketing initiatives. From the Council's perspective, the purpose is twofold: to help local arts and heritage organizations generate additional earned revenue through tourism, and to integrate our cultural heritage resources into Vermont's marketing strategy.
If you're interested in starting a cultural heritage tourism initiative in your community, check out The Cultural Heritage Tourism Tool Kit. This document provides the broad range of information you can use to promote cultural heritage resources in a sustainable fashion.
Much has been written about heritage tourism, and cultural tourism over the last decade. Some maintain that the focus has to be on “cultural”, others insist on “heritage.” In Vermont, however,we decided long ago that our efforts were best described by the broader, more encompassing term of “Cultural Heritage Tourism.” We see the landscape as having shaped our settlement patterns, not only in terms of how we used it, but also in where we placed our houses, public buildings, and commerce centers. The land has fashioned our culture, providing the raw materials for our crafts, the inspiration for our art, and the grist for our stories. It has directed our activities, fueled our industry, and captured our hearts. It is central to our nature.
In this context, Cultural Heritage Tourism is, simply: visiting a place to experience those singular qualities that define its character, name its essence, and provide for its collective memory. In Vermont, cultural heritage is found in its people and is reflected in its objects, structures, museums, sites and landscapes. It is expressed in its crafts, visual and performing arts, history, literature and oral traditions. It is the embodiment of our behavior, and as such is organic and evolving.
The benefits of cultural heritage tourism can be far-reaching. For communities, it can strengthen the local economy; promote resource protection; increase visitor expenditures; generate employment; preserve the unique character of a community; increase community pride, and awareness of community resources; increase tax receipts; and stimulate economic growth. It can assist the cultural heritage resources themselves by augmenting revenues in appropriate and sustainable ways; fortifying cultural heritage resources through a stronger base of cooperation; fostering recognition of the economic contribution of the cultural heritage resources on a regional and community level; and strengthening the preservation, protection, and presentation of the resources. Finally, on the state level, cultural heritage tourism encourages the protection and continued use of cultural heritage resources, which is important to the quality of life and economic well-being of the state. It strengthens cultural heritage resources, and the tourism industry; it is an integral, complementary element of the recreation and leisure environment of the state; and it stimulates revenues in appropriate and sustainable ways.
- Front Cover, Table of Contents, and Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Appendices
- Back Cover