Heritage Tourism Research Paper

1.0 Background

Recently, travel has come to play a very important role in the lives of people. The term of tourism have state from the mid-1980s and become the world largest industry. Successful tourism is not simply a matter of having a better transportation and hotels but of adding a particular national flavor in keeping with traditional ways of life and projecting a favorable image of the benefits to tourists in term of goods and services.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has recognized the heritage and culture have become a component in almost 40 percent of all international undertaken. The WTO defines heritage tourism as ‘an immersion in the natural history, human heritage, arts, philosophy and institutions of another region or

2008). Heritage includes both past and present generation who pursue learning and adoring the lively and glorious history and culture as well as the past civilization (Chien). Tourism can be interpreted as the communicational setting or a space to narrate events in order to become familiar or in other words closer to them (Ateljevic & Doorne, 2003). In addition, Museums are often seen as a stage for social, cognitive and environmental education, and are a ‘behavior’ and ‘social’ setting; they tend to offer many service transactions and personal encounters (Chan & Yeoh, 2007). Moreover, museum experiences are a complex combination of factors which shape the feelings and attitude of visitors towards their visit and include issues of perception and subjective experience as reflected in the museum practices. This article defines museum experiences based on Otto and Ritchie (1996, p. 166) as “the subjective mental state felt by participants during a service encounter;” and “a steady flow of fantasies, feelings, and fun” (Holbrook & Hirschman 1982, p. 132). Simply put, the range of museum experiences gained is similar to heritage experiences which “may include feelings of fun and enjoyment, escape from routine, sharing valued time with family or friends or learning,” and the experiential gained is the “result of encountering, undergoing, or

A museum is an amalgam of a series of experience encounters (tangible and intangible) and museum experiences are derived from both service providers (quality of performance) and visitors themselves (quality of experience) (Chan &Yeoh, 2010). The Museum literature records an increasing need to focus on and understand visitors’ expectations and experiences of visiting a museum. Indeed, most museums are facing an increase pressure to attract wider audiences in order to overcome budget reductions from respective governments (Goulding, 2000). In addition, Rowley (1999) also points out the importance of re-assessing the customer experiences in museums. This is because of the government policy to encourage museums to be more commercial and to attract more visitors. This means that the roles and the core functions of museums have expanded from being collectors, preserves and conservers of cultural history, history and disseminators of information to marketing in terms of attracting more visitors (Chan