A Heritage for Europe: The Need, The Task, The Contribution

One of the central arguments of this book is that the exploitation of historic resources is a major economic activity which is widespread throughout Europe, that it is most developed in the states of Western Europe, but that it is likely to be of increasing importance to the emerging states of Central and Eastern Europe. Heritage involves the conversion of history into a modern commodity – the heritage ‘product’ – for contemporary consumption (Ashworth, Chapter 2 of this volume). It is closely linked to the leisure industry; indeed, in marketing terms, heritage represents nothing more than ‘a specific aspect of tourism supply to be marketed to an identified tourism demand’ ( Ashworth 1988 : 164). Put another way, heritage is ‘historical tourism’ ( West 1988 ; Light 1991a ).