15th Seminar UNESCO CHAIR “CULTURE, TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT”
Today, two Secretour pilots and partners, UGR and Bibracte, speak at a UNESCO event in Paris.
This seminar will be devoted to analyzing how the different forms of world heritage - tangible and intangible - can enter into dialogue within - or through - the tourism experience. We know that,beyond the binary opposition suggested by the titles of UNESCO's two major heritage conventions - 1972 and 2003 - the dialogue between tangible and intangible heritage is ongoing. Criterion (vi) of the 1972 Convention allows for the inscription of sites that are: “directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance”. Conversely, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) refers not only to practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and know-how, but also to “instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith”, thus emphasizing the link between the tangible and the intangible. It also recognizes, as a category of ICH, “the skills associated with traditional craftsmanship”, the indissociable materialization of which has often been emphasized. This link between tangible world heritage and intangible cultural heritage raises key issues for the tourism experience: how can know-how, stories, living practices and forms of hospitality be integrated into site enhancement? How can ICH become a vector of anchorage, meaning and encounter for visitors? How can the intersection of tangible and intangible elements meet the challenges of sustainable tourism? What is the role of ICH holders in the co-construction of these tourist experiences? What tensions can this tourism experience raise within communities?
