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Projecting Images: Marketing in the case of two World Heritage Sites in Sweden
Dalarna University, School of Technology and Business Studies, Human Geography.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8134-5999
2010 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Cultural tourism is increasingly used as a tool for the development within the medium-sized municipalities in Sweden. The World Heritage Status is looked upon as a quality stamp giving considerable destination development possibilities. Most of the Swedish World Heritage sites were accepted on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List during a very short period of time in the 1990s. Since then the ambitions of the local actors were strong and resulted in five additional nominations during the beginning of the 2000s. Several other destinations are on the tentative list of properties that could be considered and nominated by the Convention in the future. Previous studies have indicated that managing cultural sites has not always being an easy task. The institutions which role lies in promoting the development on the local arena could in fact become an obstacle. These different interest groups involved in the formation of the heritage make it difficult to form a joint promotion strategy covering a wider audience of users. Cultural or heritage tourism is an example of niche tourism, which is highly specialised and targeting only a certain limited group. Marketing strategies adopted by World Heritage Sites help to identify and support this notion adopted by destinations. This study helps to gain a deeper understanding in how these different heritage sites are promoted to the specific interest group. Are these promotional strategies inclusive or exclusive? The research is based on the text analysis of the marketing and information material on the Internet from the 14 existing World Heritage sites in Sweden. There were some 700 pages of written material analysed in total. The texts were organised into groups related to place description and tourist activities, for example shopping, and dining. The preliminary results support the notion of the tourism industry adjusting itself towards more sophisticated and experienced travellers in their search for small-scale and unique activities. Heritage tourism is a good example of a small-scale niche product. The heritage for sale has to be presented in the way that is going to fit the new niche which has replaced the conventional industrial type of tourism. In order to maintain tourist flows to the heritage sites, involved actors have to diversify and scale down their business strategies. The concept of a place as being unique or of exceptional value with the help of the World heritage status is going to increase its attraction power. The study material allows for a classification (typology) of the World Heritage Sites according to the use of heritage as it promoted to the tourists.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Limasol, 2010.
Keywords [en]
Niche tourism, Falu Mine, Old Church Town, management, commodification practices
National Category
Human Geography
Research subject
Complex Systems – Microdata Analysis, Kulturturism och malmbrytning sida vid sida? Gruvans produktionssystem i den regionala utvecklingen
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-5279OAI: oai:dalea.du.se:5279DiVA, id: diva2:522252
Conference
Assosiation for Tourism and Leisure Education , Limasol, 3-5 November, 2010
Available from: 2011-02-07 Created: 2011-02-07 Last updated: 2021-11-12Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
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  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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  • text
  • asciidoc
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