Heritage Tourism: The Contradictions between Conservation and Change

Singapore and Hong Kong are two geographically small economic powerhouses in Asia. In recent years both cities have been attempting to develop their tourism economies by communicating their unique cultural heritages to global tourists. While heritage culture-based tourism practice may help conserve a destination's cultural heritage, its development accelerates the change of the local society; and in the process the authenticity of the cultural heritage of the destination may be lost. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the efforts adopted by Singapore and Hong Kong to communicate their cultural heritages through the tourism developments. It focuses on three questions: (1) Do the inherent contradictions between conservation and change associated with tourism development constitute threats or resources for heritage tourism development? (2) What are the major issues in the process of portraying the past in the present for heritage tourism development? (3) What implications may be drawn, by studying these issues, for the tourism industries in their planning, conservation and promotion efforts to develop heritage tourism?