What challenges does cultural heritage tourism face in Spain?
25 May, 2022The challenges faced by Spain when it comes to the future of cultural heritage tourism are centred on governance and heritage tourism, the use of resources as an engine to drive development designed to foster tourism, management of people in the industry, training programmes, the participation of local communities, sustainable and self-sufficient management, conserving cultural identity, social co-management of resources, moving tourism onto digital platforms, the use of technology as a tool for enhancing awareness and management, improvements in interpreting data and measuring activities and generated wealth.
Experts from the World Heritage Cities of Spain Group (Grupo de Ciudades Patrimonio de la Humanidad de España) were responsible for putting forward the key points mentioned above and have created a guide of best practices in cultural heritage for the creation of smart tourist destinations, created in the core of the Network for Smart Tourist Destinations, which analyses initiatives for 40 destinations both nationally and internationally with a view to accelerating their transformation.
The guide classifies best practices by category: adopting new technologies, information and promotion tools, digitalising resources and services, safety and hygiene measures and exclusive measures and events in enclosed spaces. It also highlights best practices categorised by type of heritage resource, including archaeological zones, museums, archives, libraries, monuments, intangible heritage, historic complexes and cultural landscapes. Additionally, it also explores the stage of any given trip which the resource could be applied to.
The cultural heritage tourism destinations included in the guide are as follows: Alcalá de Henares, Alcoy, Altea, Antequera, Arona, Ávila, Barcelona, Bizkaia, Cáceres, Calpe, Cartagena, Castro-Urdiales, Comarca de la Sidra, Conil de la Frontera, Córdoba, Gijón, La Adrada, Lorca, Palma, Ponferrada, Ronda, Salamanca, Segovia, Santiago de Compostela, Tequila (México), Toledo, Úbeda, Valencia, Valladolid, Vinaròs and Villena.