Definition of Cultural Tourism

Definition of cultural tourism
According to National Trust for Historic Preservation of America, cultural tourism is “visiting to
see and experience the locations and activities that genuinely represent the stories and societies
of the present and the past. It includes cultural, historic and natural resources.”
Tourism can be very helpful for economic development. It creates jobs, provides novel business
opportunities and supports the local economies too. If cultural tourism can be developed in right
way, it will help to protect a nation‟s natural and cultural values while improving the life quality
of its residents and visitors. When tourism is linked with heritage and culture, it can be more
advantageous for local economies than promoting them separately, which is the core idea in
cultural tourism. A region that improves its potential for cultural tourism creates new chances for
tourists to get an understanding of a new place and people. The arrival of tourists in turn create
new opportunities for conservation. Well-maintained sites will teach the visitors their
importance, and in addition, the importance of protecting such sites in other places.
But not every community can enjoy benefits of cultural tourism. Countries or communities that
have lost their inheritance, or not protected their cultural potential might not have the cultural,
historic and natural resources, which it takes to develop cultural tourism to attract cultural
heritage tourists.
When a community‟s heritage is the element of what it offers to tourists, protecting that heritage
is also important. Therefore a major challenge in cultural tourism is to make sure that developing
tourism would not destroy the very assets that attract tourists in the first place. Another problem
is it put demands on infrastructure of a country; on roads, water supply, airports, train lines and
public services etc. When travellers increase in number and adding stress to infrastructure and
heritage sites can create problems with time.
“Getting Started: How to Succeed in Heritage Tourism” (National Trust for Historic Preservation in the
United States)

Current cultural tourism trends in Kerala includes home stays for tourists in local houses,
pilgrimage tourism, tourism on heritage places, ecotourism, coastal tourism, backwaters,
traditional dances and martial arts, cultural monuments and museums on Kerala‟s culture and
history.

 Home stays
Nowadays home stays has become one of the main cultural tourism attractions among the
visitors who come to Kerala. Apart from its natural beauty, Kerala is well known for its delicious
cuisine and hospitality. Homestays started in Kerala around seven years ago. Now, according to
records, there are more than 400 homestays in Kerala. It has become more popular since it helps

tourists to experience the real cultural traditions of the area. Tourists from all over the world are
coming to stay in homestays to live the lifestyle of Kerala. Traditional home made Kerala dishes
have become the one of the main attraction of Homestays of Kerala. Also the guests can join
with various household activities of the family and interact with people of a different culture.
Homestays are provided at competitive prices and they also help to bridge the gap for quality
accommodation in Kerala area and returning the benefits of tourism directly to the general
people. Home stays of the Kerala area are categorized into three types; silver, gold and diamond
houses.

 Pilgrimage tourism
One of the famous pilgrim places in Kerala is Sabarimala of Lord Ayyappa. It is a one day walk
from Thekkady through beautiful forests. Every year thousands of people visit Shabarimala for
different kinds of purposes. Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple in the Fort area of Trivandrum
attracts the tourists with wonderful specimens of Dravidian architecture. But there the entry is
restricted to Hindus.
The Attukal Devi temple in Thiruvananthapuram is known for Ponkala Mholsavam, where the
entry restricted to females. Another famous pilgrim place in Kerala is Sri Narayana Religious
Complex in Varkala. Aranmula Parthasarathy temple holds a grand show of snake boat races on
Pamba river in August or September. Thousands of people come to see this boat race.
The Pooram festival in May at Vadakkunathan temple with eye catching display of caparisoned
elephants in line and silken umbrellas is what known as the city “Thrissur” is a must in cultural
tourism in Kerala. It is again the path for a side trip to Guruvayoor, the famous Sri Krishna
temple in India.
The most famous pilgrim place in Wayanad is Thirunelly temple, which draws a large number of
tourists each year. This is famous for „Pithritharpanam‟. One of the significant pilgrim places in
north Kerala is the Parassinikkadavu Sri Muthappan temple, located 14 km away from Kannur
town, which is a pilgrim place of Hindus.
Most of the pilgrim places in Kerala are distinctive with their „prasadams‟. The manufacture of
such prasadams creates employment opportunities. It needs the service of skilled people. All
these places need accommodation and transportation facilities for tourists. The services of the
guides are also required, where the tourists need to be taught about the customs and conditions
prevails in various temples. Also certain items are necessary to bring to each temple. Sale of such
items also has created employment opportunities.

 Heritage tourism
The temple of Sri Padmanabha Swamy which was renovated by Raja Marthandavarma in 1733
AD with gopuram of seven stories was an idol of the area. Its history also is an important factor
which has given its importance. Apart from that there are other tourist attractions too, such as Sri
Chithra Art Gallery, Napier Museum, Natural History Museum, Museum Art Gallery, Science
and Technology Museum, and Zoo in Thiruvananthapuram, which is the political capital of
Kerala.
Cochin has a nice combination of Jewish Synagogue, Dutch architecture, temples, mosques and
Chinese fishing nets. They all represent different cultures and histories. The Jewish Synagogue
was built in 1568AD in Mattanchery. The copper plates where the grants of privileges made by
the rulers of Cochin were written, the great scrolls of old testaments and the delicate Chinese
hand printed tiles are among the antiquities of interest. All tiles are unique in design and no two
are similar and they are over 200 years old. Also there are five gold and silver crowns which
were given as presents to the synagogue by various supporters.
Mattacncherry Palace was constructed in 1555 AD by Portuguese and handed over to the Cochin
Raja. In 1663 it was repaired by the Dutch. There are many rooms with paintings of Ramayana,
and also a gallery of portraits belonged to Cochin Rajas which was made in the 17th century. The
Bolghatty Island where a Dutch made palace is located, the man-made island Wellingdon and the
Gundu islands are also attracted by tourists.
Alleppy, which is 60km from Cochin, is an area with full of canals, temples and waterways.
There is also a famous snake temple with at least 4000 snake idols made of granite.
The tourism calendar of each year in Kerala begins with Onam festival, the harvest festival
which is held from August to September. The Kerala state government now celebrates it as a
tourism week. During Onam festival Kerala state celebrates Nrithotsavam which is over six
months long from October. Tourism department organizes dance programmes. Also there are
many important temples in Kerala with religious importance. There are more than ten cave
temples in the area. The main temples are Kottakal, Kaviyoor, Bhagwati in Kodungalloor,
Thrivikramangalam, Padmanabhaswami in Trivandrum, Guruvayoor etc. All these temples are
continuing their own unique traditions over centuries of years.
Also different fairs and festivals attract lot of tourists from all over the world. The great poet of
Kerala, Vallathol founded the Kerala Kalamandalam in Cheruthuruthi, which is one of the most
important places of cultural tourism. Vallathol Narayana Menon had rare poetic thoughts. Kerala
Kalamandalam is an academy which revive Kerala‟s temple and theatrical arts. Kathakali, which
is the Kerala‟s own dance system is taught there. Mohini Attom, which is another form of
Kerala‟s native art can also be seen there.

The heritage tourism provides employment opportunities to musicians and artists which are
seasonal in every year. Also the museums and art galleries need the services of many
professionally qualified people. Accommodation facilities are also necessary for the tourists
which create job opportunities. The manufacture and sale of handy crafts are other areas of
employment related to tourism. It can use the locally available resources like parts of coconut
tree, etc. and these types of industries require a less amount of capital.

 Ecotourism
Since Kerala is a small area bounded by high land area in the east and Arabian Sea on the west,
the different parts of ecological phenomena are always interrelated. The ecotourism in Kerala
began with the formation of Thenmala Ecotourism, the India‟s first arranged ecotourism
destination. Thenmala Ecotourism included three components; Ecotourism, Eco-friendly general
tourism, and Pilgrimage tourism. Facilities for available for boating in the wildlife sanctuary.
There is also a deer rehabilitation Centre. The National Adventure Foundation has soft hiking
programmes and night camps from one to three days in Thenmala. An eco-pilgrimage circuit is
also offered connecting three Ayyappa temples at Kualthupuzha, Achankoil and Aryan Kavu
from Thenmala. Also the government recently has decided to promote ecotourism in Paithal
mala of Kannur district, which is a place good for adventure tourism.

 Coastal tourism
With a coastline of about 575km, the sea has played an important role in turning the history of
Kerala. The sea has facilitated connections with many western countries for Kerala since early
ages. Kovalam, a beach resort, is situated in Trivandrum district. It is one of the finest beaches in
the whole world. The sea lying at the foot of rocky peninsula is like a calm pond during the
season where anyone can bath safety. Veli, near the Trivandrum, is a lake good for boating. It is
a rural area where visitors can take a good look at Kerala life in a natural setting. The Papanasini
beach in Varkala is famous for its springs and rocky cliffs. Cherai beach is a lovely beach
bordering Vypeen island which is best for swimming. Dolphins are also can be occasionally seen
there. Kappad beach in Kozhikode is a place where Vasco de Gama had landed in 1698AD. The
legends around its historic background and traditions create a mystic spell on this beach. Bekal
fort in Kasaragod is a classical beautiful palm beach. Muzhappilangad beach is protected by
black rocks and makes it swimmer‟s paradise. This is the Kerala‟s only drive in beach where one
can drive down the entire length of 4km. The payyambalam beach in Kannur is also a place
which attracts many tourists.
It provides employment opportunities for life guards in beeches where there is tourism take
place. Since accommodation near to the beach with the ability to see sunrise and sunset are more

popular among the tourists, it provides employment opportunities to many people in the coastal
area.

There are many pros as well as cons which can be identified of cultural tourism. As mentioned
earlier also, around any tourist attraction various kinds of job opportunities are created to provide
goods and services to them. It includes accommodation, guidance, security, sale of goods,
maintenance etc. It brings a big contribution to the country‟s economy, helps to promote the area
or country to investors of outside world. Also more attractions are built in such a region which
might be often beneficial for local people also. That includes the infrastructure development
(roads, airports, railways etc) related to tourism industry also. Outside people will learn the
culture and life style of the tourist attracted region and the people of that area have the chance to
meet people from various places and learn new things. Furthermore it will beneficial to the
country in terms of which its cultural and historical important places and traditions will also be
conserved with care for the future.
Similar to the many pros there are many cons also of cultural tourism. One of the main problem
would be it will be an invasion of privacy for local people of the tourist attracted areas.
Sometimes without knowing the traditions or rules of a particular area tourists can create lot of
problems. Another issue is some tourists do not want respect the places they go. For example
they tend to make noises at sacred places, try to take photographs of cultural assets which may be
prohibited to take photos of them. Not only that, environmental destruction due to construction
of facilities or provision of services in tourist attraction areas, diversion of infrastructure
development only to tourist attraction areas, sometimes only seasonal market for some goods or
employment can be problems also. Moreover if an economy of a country relies too much from
tourism that also can become an issue one day.