Managing The Local-To-Global Dynamics Of World Heritage Interpretation And Appropriation
Creators: name: Salazar, Noel B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011

description: The global expansion of world heritage sites coincides with the growth of leisure
and tourism as major forms of economic and socio-cultural development. Year
after year, the tourism and travel industries proudly present statistics showing
steady increases in international tourist arrivals and receipts, and a growing
contribution to the world total GNP. Given the pervasiveness and local particularity
of heritage, it is not surprising that heritage tourism is among those niches growing
most rapidly. Such special interest tourism is being developed, both as a primary
objective and as a by-product of other leisure activities, by a wide variety of actors.
The management of world heritage sites as sustainable tourism destinations is
seldom straightforward. Through an Indonesian case study, this paper critically
analyzes some of the key issues at stake in the management of world heritage
tourism.
The central part of the island of Java is home to three world heritage sites,
while four others are on UNESCO's tentative list. The region's internationally
acclaimed and protected temples and palaces draw large crowds of domestic and
foreign visitors, and offer a lucrative source of income for both the government
and tourism service providers. In 2006, when I was doing fieldwork on local tour
guide practices around these monuments, a severe earthquake and several
volcanic eruptions of Mt. Merapi struck the area. Many lives and homes were lost
and some historical buildings badly damaged. In addition, the number of tourists
drastically dropped. The ensuing crisis intensified existing conflicts over heritage
appropriation and interpretation on local, national, regional, and global levels.
Why, for instance, did the main complex of the Prambanan temples have to remain
closed until international UNESCO experts showed up to assess the damage?
Moreover, how to defend the pumping of large sums of overseas money into the
restoration of "dead" pre-Islamic heritage when thousands of families had lost their
houses?
Based on extensive fieldwork, I use this particular Indonesian case study to
explore ethnographically how translocal processes increasingly influence the local
meanings and management of heritage – both in times of stability and of turmoil –
but also how these "foreign" elements are incorporated and strategically (mis)used
by locals in the heritage narratives told and sold to tourists (be they domestic or
international). An in-depth analysis of the empirical findings leads to a broader
reflection on the dynamic interplay between the externally imaged (represented)
and locally imagined value and management of world heritage in Indonesia and
beyond. Heritage interpretation and appropriation seem enmeshed in complex
webs of meaning, variously cherished and expressed by shareholders at different
levels. While much of the theorizing on world heritage management has relied
upon inherited or borrowed (Euro-American) conceptions and assumptions about
what should be valued and privileged, this paper illustrates that the significance of
heritage – be it natural or cultural, tangible or intangible – is characterized by everchanging
pluriversality. This complexity needs to be taken into account when
developing sustainable tourism management strategies.