1. It starts with a sense of ceremony to the approach.
Visitors enjoy approaching the site on foot, and appre-ciate being made aware of the surrounding landscape.
One has only to consider the part this plays in our most famous international icons, Machu Picchu or Petra to re-alise how important this is. There is no sense of ceremo-ny, privilege or occasion attached to rolling up in a tourist coach and parking next to scores of others.
2. Ancient sites, no matter how renowned, remain strangers to the visitor who is not introduced to them.
The level of sophistication or the depth of information may depend on the facilities of the site – but a simple notice board should be possible anywhere. Every visitor will gravitate naturally first of all to a source of informa-tion, and armed with that will then continue their visit.
One might be very impressed by a visit to the Roman forum, but would leave confused and perplexed without access to detailed information. An ancient battlefield or a prehistoric tumulus is just a field and an earthen lump without an explanation.
3. The introduction needs to have sufficient structure to create a framework on which further information can be hung; pose some interesting questions, and give in-triguing insights which might not readily be available otherwise – it is “an invitation” to become interested.
Thus armed, the visitor is then free to do with that in-formation as he/she chooses, and many will enjoy con-sidering unanswered questions, playing with suggested theories and then finding their own answers. Children enjoy this in the form of a game; adults enjoy it in the form of intellectual challenge.
4. Options and Choice are key. The modern Cultural Tourist is unwilling to be told how to appreciate a site: to
141 PAINEL X Património, Turismo e Economia II
be forced to follow a set route; to be forced to listen to a local guide; to have an “experience” forced upon them.
They need to be given information and then allowed time and space for their own imaginations to engage.
5. Privilege. Privilege, by definition, cannot be af-forded to everyone. Small privileges, however, can be effective. Obvious examples are the opening of sites such as Stonehenge to private parties before and af-ter the public opening hours, or the special opening of certain villas in Pompeii. Most museums and galleries have huge collections of artefacts and art works which never see the light of day, and which could be used for object-handling sessions. It is always special to be able to handle artefacts created thousands of years ago and allows people a direct sense of connection with the past. Cultural Tourists enjoy the sense of doing some-thing special.
6. Physical Contact with the Past. Standing in the isolated darkness of a Palaeolithic (Ice Age) decorated cave, the modern visitor finds himself in the exact spot that his ancestor stood when creating and contemplat-ing his paintcontemplat-ing. little has changed inside the cave in the intervening 10,000 years. The “human to human”
response at a moment like this epitomises the unique empathy of which we are capable. It is the physical situ-ation which allows this. In other instances, the visitor will naturally reach out to touch an ancient column, to feel the stone touched by so many thousands before down the ages – it is another instinctual route to connecting with the past.
7. Today’s Cultural Tourist is also likely to appreciate a reflection of local culture (at an appropriately sani-tised level!) in the places they stay and the food they eat. International chains and bland international buffet is not acceptable to someone who travels especially to
encounter local authenticity and tourists have increas-ingly high expectations in this regard.
8. Part of the experience of a holiday is in “capturing” it to take home and tourists enjoy being able to buy souve-nirs, and today the expectations of quality are high: rep-lica artefacts, post cards, guide books, reference books, posters and local crafts are all popular. Guests have been consistently amazed and dismayed, over the years, to find nothing to buy – even in communities which could plainly benefit from our trade. The major museum in a North African capital city used to offer a few post cards and a selection of erudite tomes (all of which had to be requested if you wished to view them as they lay behind the barrier of a glass case), when they could have done a roaring trade and benefited from good income as well as giving visitors a much enhanced experience had they just provided a reasonable shop. Visitors expect to be enticed to purchase in just the same way that they are in the high Street – the use of colour, attractive presenta-tions, the ability to leaf through books, pick things up and examine them are all important.
It has become clear to us over the years that our own cultural tourists seek one experience above all, and that providing that experience involves a great deal of ef-fort and care, for they want nothing less than their own private encounter with a place, its people and the an-cient world. Everyone concerned with the provision of that: sites, heritage managers, tour operators need to be aware of that and offer visitors the choice and inde-pendence to feel the magic of the place, the genius loci, for themselves.