Heritage, Tourism and Places: A Review

The subject of this review is the relationship between three phenomena, heritage, tourism, and its context of places. This triangular relationship has been viewed in three main ways namely as automatically harmonious, inevitably in conflict or potentially sustainable. The basis for a sustainable heritage tourism can be investigated in two directions. First by examining the management of heritage for tourists which requires answers to the questions, ‘why are tourists interested in heritage?’ and ‘how do tourists use heritage?’ Secondly heritage tourism can be managed for the attainment of local objectives, frequently local economic development, which requires investigation of the relationship between heritage and places and between heritage tourism and local economies. The extent to which these questions have been posed and answered in the research literature is reviewed.