How to promote the local environmental and cultural heritage towards customers and staff?
Cultural and historical heritage
Understanding the nature and importance of cultural heritage is a necessary condition for making strategic decisions ensuring the proper implementation of CSR in the hotel/restaurant management. Cultural property is any movable and immovable authentic tangible and intangible evidence of human presence and activity which has scientific and cultural value and has social significance.
Types of cultural properties
Archaeological sites and reserves
Works of fine and applied arts
Folk crafts
Architectural sites and complexes
Ethnographic sites and complexes
Historical sites and complexes
Samples of park art and landscape architecture
Natural values (samples) – anthropological remains
Industrial heritage
Documental heritage
Audio – visual heritage
Spoken tradition and language
Literary values
Customs, rituals, celebrations and beliefs
Music, songs and dances
Traditional medicine
Culinary and ethnological traditions
Folk games and sports
Cultural heritage stores the historical memory of human societies. It contributes to national identity and its scientific and cultural value makes the country recognizable and improves its image. The concept for development of culture should pay special attention to the symbiosis between culture and tourism. The development of cultural tourism is an important factor for the sustainable economic development, profit and jobs generator and a fundamental factor for image building for any tourist destination. The interaction of tourism and anthropogenic environment is versatile and has different dimensions. Its positive sociocultural effects are the local production of goods and souvenirs, promotion and revival of local art forms – folklore, gastronomy. At macro level the sustainable development is associated with an increase in the population welfare and reducing poverty and inequality. Historical heritage, authentic culture, traditions and peculiarities of the host communities must be respected and their preservation and development must be promoted. Tourism is a sector using the cultural heritage of mankind and bearing its contribution to its enrichment. One of the main problems of the strategic management of tourism is related to the sustainable development of the anthropogenic resources that are irrecoverable. This requires the development and use of specialized approaches, methods and techniques for their conservation, tourist interpretation and use.
Protection of cultural heritage is a systematic process of discovering, researching, identification of cultural property and archaeological sites, as well as their promotion. It also includes their documentation, registration, conservation, restoration and adaptation.
Protection of cultural heritage is a function and responsibility of authorities and institutions organized in a national system at national, regional and local level.
Achieving the cognitive goals largely depends on the promotion of the cultural heritage and the development of cultural tourism – its marketing, permanent advertising and specialized commercial publications; popular educational programs and multimedia products available for the formation of knowledge and attitude for trips to tourist sites – cultural valuables.
Ethnological tourism is a specialized type of cultural tourism, which is associated with the ethnographic components of the visited destination. It recreates and transfers over the generations’ people’s memory and makes it available not only for local visitors but also for international tourists.
The resources of this kind of cultural tourism are the ethnographic evidences of life, crafts, skills, and beliefs that are inseparable elements of the spatial environment to which they belong and are significant in terms of ethnology. These are real and movable, mainly architectural and historical buildings and cultural valuables. The majority of the ethnographic anthropogenic touristic resources belong to the intangible cultural heritage. It consists of traditions, crafts, shows (performances), social practices, rituals and festive events.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage aims at protecting, conserving and respect for:
– language traditions and expressions including language as a carrier of the intangible cultural heritage;
– performing arts;
– social practices, rituals and festive events;
– knowledge and practices concerning nature and the Universe;
– knowledge and skills associated with traditional crafts.
Conservation and display of local cultural, historical and natural heritage can be included in the marketing strategy of the enterprise and be directed towards improving the quality of life in the region through development and promotion of small businesses (small hotels and restaurants) as a sustainable local economy. Sample investment activities can be directed to: support to existing groups for presentation of folk customs – purchasing costumes, musical instruments and audio – visual equipment; creating a permanent and travelling exhibition of the local ethnographical, natural and cultural-historical heritage with application of audio – visual computing.
Cultural and natural heritage are among the strategic factors for sustainable development of tourism, including hotel and restaurant business as a part of the touristic product. They gradually turn from an object of preservation into an instrument for development. The integrated approach to the protection and valorisation of the natural and cultural heritage is an important precondition for increasing the attractiveness of regions both for investment and for development of quality living environment while preserving regional identity.
What can be done?
⇒ explore local traditions, customs, rituals, festivals, myths and legends, lifestyle, crafts and cuisine and create and promote own programs or thematic tourism products.
⇒ create and offer products tailored in scope and time with the calendar of local events – fairs, festivals, gathering, for example:
⇒ arrange and offer a visit of a traditional local feast (not necessarily in a village) – a celebration of the days of various saints with ritual dishes and folklore. It is good to know the calendar of various local festivals, fairs, traditional celebrations;
⇒ arrange demonstrations of cooking local foods/ drinks – tasting home recipes,
⇒ arrange demonstrations of local crafts – pottery, wood carving, hand loom weaving etc.
⇒ offer visitors the opportunity to try to make a small souvenir by themselves;
⇒ arrange demonstrations of local folklore – songs, dances, rituals, legends.
Natural attractions
Natural attractions are protected rare, beautiful and valuable natural sites from a scientific, cultural or aesthetic point of view, preserved in their most natural kind and forms. These natural objects can be both from the animate nature and from the inanimate one. The specific site declared a landmark includes the natural environment in which it exists. In these areas are prohibited activities that may disturb their natural condition or impair their aesthetic value.
One of the important things is gathering information about available resources and interpreting them in a way that is attractive to tourists. Information about the various landscapes can be obtained from the managers of parks, information about existing tourist resources, infrastructure etc. can also be obtained from municipalities and local ecological and tourist organizations.
What can be done?
Once you know what you have it is time to proceed to the assembly of various tourist products. The additional tourist services that can be developed based on the existing resources on a given place and the ingenuity and the imagination of the local people are many and varied. For example, you can organize and offer:
• a walk to nearby landmarks – centuries old trees, waterfalls, rock formations etc. – on foot or on horseback;
• short or longer walks in beautiful landscapes, for example:
• horseback riding/ carts to more remote locations, where you can pick herbs, mushrooms or berries; guests will be pleased if they receive a home-made dessert with fruits they have picked by themselves;
• picnic – if there are nearby ponds with fish, lunch can be fish, freshly caught from the tourists themselves.