Heritage and Tourism: Alternative Perspectives from South Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the typical ways in which mass tourism has utilized cultural heritage as a salient asset for development. Tourism has long focused on extraordinary, exotic and grand heritage assets at the expense of ordinary, mundane elements the human past that are part of the everyday lives of ordinary people. The paper argues that there are numerous ways in which ordinary heritage should be researched better in South Asia, how it might be used as a tourism resource, and as a tool for community empowerment. The paper focuses on language, Indigenous minorities, religion, traditional livelihoods, and food as exemplars of ordinary heritage with significant potential for tourism and for heritage protection.