Case study of Ahsan Manzil and Gol Talab: Assessment of public opinion to access the possibilities of heritage trail in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh

Intangible cultural heritage is representative of a community’s cultural authenticity and identity and includes oral traditions, performing arts, festive events or traditional craftsmanship which have been inherited over generations (UNESCO, 2003). Each culturally diverse community possesses its own unique and authentic intangible cultural heritage, which is not only an integral element of the soul of a community, but can be a vital resource for generating tourism at the national and local levels. There is little argument that intangible cultural heritage can provide a destination and/or community with a unique selling point and competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Intangible cultural heritage is experiential by nature, thus supports tourists in their desire to have a culturally authentic experience. In the process of commodification, however, intangible cultural heritage is transformed and staged too often and to varying degrees, which can lead to a loss of its authenticity (Alivizatou, 2012; Giudici, Melis, Dessi, & Ramos, 2013). Therefore, an approach facilitating intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource is tenuous (WTO, 2012). Despite the increasing attention to intangible cultural heritage and the advice to adopt sustainable approach in the development of intangible cultural heritage as a tourism resource, little research has explored intangible cultural heritage from sustainability perspectives. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which the development of intangible cultural heritage facilitates the development of a sustainable tourism resource. To achieve this, the following three objectives were developed. First, to situate the sustainable tourism development literature within the context of intangible cultural heritage; second, to analyse public organisations’ documents in order to determine the extent to which they have facilitated the development of intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource; and third, to establish a framework facilitating intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource. This study adopted a single case study, with South Korea as a single representative case. A qualitative-dominant, mixed method approach was used in the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation. A total of 131 public documents from six public organisations were analysed for the second objective. Semi-structured face to face interviews were conducted with a total of 25 intangible cultural heritage practitioners and 22 locals; and questionnaires were given to 255 visitors at National Intangible Heritage Centre in Korea and then collected, to address the third objective. The critical interpretive analysis of 131 public documents revealed that overall, Korean public organisations’ goals and strategies have shown a propensity toward economic neoliberalism, mainly by regarding intangible cultural heritage tourism resources as economic tools. To a much lesser extent, they focus on social development such as ICH practitioners’ equity to participation in the decision-making process and/or intangible cultural heritage practitioners’ empowerment. The analysis of 47 interviews with intangible cultural heritage practitioners and locals, and of 255 questionnaires revealed that safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and developing its tourism role share a symbiotic relationship. This study presents a framework to facilitate the growth of the symbiotic relationships. The framework suggests, for the symbiotic relationship to be facilitated, a top-down approach blended with a bottom up approach, cooperation between stakeholders, and entrepreneurship are necessary. This research addresses a gap in the literature and provides the practical understanding of intangible cultural heritage development. The exploratory research on intangible cultural heritage provides a much-needed framework for intangible cultural heritage to be a sustainable tourism resource, which can be groundwork for future academic research. Moreover, the project offers valuable insight into the combination of various intangible cultural heritage development strategies within one destination (i.e., South Korea), in order to reduce overlapping efforts by stakeholders in South Korea and maximise synergies to facilitate a greater range of positive impacts on the development of intangible cultural heritage for communities.

The article is devoted to study the role of intangible cultural heritage in the development of modern urban areas. Modern cities are experiencing a transformational load associated with the transition from industry to the post-in- dustry – service industry comes on the place of the plants, and one of the leading sectors becomes tourism. Social and environmental factors on the one hand, reflect the general level of development of the city and, on the other hand, in a post-industrial economy are the main actors in the development of all areas, including city tourism. Intangible cultural heritage is seen as a social factor, the formation of which is related to the environment (natural- ecological spheres), and history of the city. Intangible cultural heritage serves as a catalyst for the creative economy and the events of the city, which in turn have a positive impact on city tourism. The city squares, streets, parks are becoming the immediate territorial areas, where the intangible cultural heritage are demonstrated to the citizens and tourists and their level of status, comfort and attractiveness depends largely on the implementation of the tourism potential of the intangible heritage. Cities skillfully combining the intangible heritage, creative industries, event and educational tourism receive an additional impulse for the development of city tourism and the whole economy of the city. The Republic of Tatarstan last decade is actively moving towards the formation of territorial attractive tourism product. Kazan has ranked among the leading cities of domestic tourism sector. Moreover, any tourism city is interested in attracting more tourists for longer periods, which is possible due to the diversity of the program in the city or region. Intangible cultural heritage can play an important role in solving this problem. In the article using the example of the three cities of the republic – Kazan, Chistopol and Elabuga – is shown as a combination of social factors, such as intangible cultural heritage, and natural factors can create an attractive tourism route. Publication of the article was supported by Russian Humanitarian Research Foundation and government of the Republic of Tatarstan as part of scientific project № 15–13–16004.

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between heritage trails and cycling tourism, specifically focusing on the case study of the heritage-rich city of Surakarta. The convergence of heritage trails and cycling tourism forms a dynamic nexus that influences both the experiences of tourists and their expectations. The notion of the "tourist gaze" serves as a foundational framework, shedding light on tourists' perceptions and anticipations of Surakarta's cultural heritage, culinary offerings, and local populace. Rooted in socially constructed constructs, the tourist gaze significantly shapes how tourists interpret and emotionally engage with Surakarta as a destination. Through a qualitative exploratory approach, this study delves into the multifaceted interplay between heritage trails, cycling experiences, and the tourist gaze. Data is derived from in-depth interviews with tourists engaging in heritage cycling trails, capturing their subjective accounts of experiences and expectations. The findings unveil a range of themes, including the influence of heritage sites on cyclists' emotional connection with the city, the role of the tourist gaze in framing their encounters, and the impact of well-designed heritage trails on overall satisfaction. The study not only advances our understanding of the complex interrelationship between heritage trails, cycling tourism, and the tourist gaze, but also offers practical insights for heritage site management, urban planning, and tourism experience enhancement in Surakarta and beyond.

Urban cultural heritage conservation in China, mainly driven by top-down management, heavily relies on national leadership. However, there is a lack of systematic research investigating residents’ perspectives on the effectiveness of Chinese government conservation strategies. Taking the Guancheng district in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, as a case study, this study employs a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews with 15 participants and quantitative analysis from a survey of 294 respondents. It aims to assess the impact and outreach of the local government conservation strategies. The findings reveal limited public interest and awareness regarding the government’s efforts to conserve Guancheng’s heritage sites. To support these conservation initiatives, this study proposes strategies to foster public participation, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of urban cultural heritage conservation in China. The insights from this case study may serve as a guiding reference for similar initiatives in other cities or districts across the country.

Sustainable city planning plays an important role in fighting climate change, and heritage trails are critical to this effort. Heritage trails are walking, hiking, and biking paths that link features of historical interest. Examples include paths in parks, trails connecting villages, and walking routes in the historic centers of cities. On its face, historic conservation is not a sustainable practice. Heritage sites can be constructed with non-sustainable materials, and they occupy valuable space that city planners could otherwise use. Heritage trails offer a solution. In addition to providing access to cultural sites, these trails are beneficial to the environment for two reasons. First, they promote emissions-free activities. Second, they are green spaces that offset carbon emissions. In order to create buy-in, constructing heritage trails should include a wide range of stakeholders from across the community.

Re-Imagine

Kampung Luat situated in Lenggong Valley, Perak, is a well-known tourist destination due to its natural attraction, archaeological elements, promotion of rural agroindustry and home-based products, as well as unwavering and strong local community commitment. Distinct local characteristics, such as traditional culture, agricultural setup, countryside landscape, and simple lifestyles, offer a different experience for its visitors. The combination of these aspects provides a huge opportunity for tourism heritage trail development. As such, this study discusses the development of a heritage trail in Kampung Luat. The initiative was taken by a group of USM researchers, along with the cooperation from the local community. Observation and focus group discussion (FGD) techniques were adopted in this study. Several meetings were conducted and the development of Kampung Luat heritage trail was proposed, which covered seven stops in four hours, which involved 20-30 residents with different roles. This heritage trail was tested by 20 respondents. The findings showed that the visitors had placed a high value in the experience and enjoyed the different rural activities, apart from proposing several suggestions for trail improvement. Low level of community readiness, lack of facilities, and communication issues were their main concerns for trail improvement. These findings suggest the implementation of stringent and effective action taken by the federal and state governments, apart from including stakeholders to both coordinate and realise the heritage trail in future to increase the competitiveness at the Lenggong Valley as a tourism destination. Keywords: Heritage trail, trail development, case study, Kampung Luat, Lenggong Valley

Sustainable Development is one of the most important arguments now a day. How we can make our world more sustainable in nature is the most significant phenomena for all of us. It is very difficult to transform the old, traditional and historically significant places to a more sustainable and modern in nature without hampering their values and historic resources. Cultural significances of old historic places represent the sense of connectivity and provide a continuation of past experience to the present and future generations (ICOMOS, 1999). These are the old urban characters which shapes the modern urban culture and identity over the time. They should treat as the most important belongings of history to go forward towards more advanced future. Future is always shaped by the past. Hence if we forget our history; it would be very difficult to get proper guidelines for future development. It is necessary for us to preserve our deteriorating heritage resources to develop our own future. However, globalization, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and technological advancement make these attempt challenging. Urban heritage conservation in a very integrated way would be one of the solutions for conserving old values and ideas with their own traditional nature. Conservation with sustainable manner should be taken as the top priority in all development planning agendas. Moreover, proper urban heritage conservation can help to transform historical places as the source of history, culture and socio-economic advancement for the local community and can change unsustainable community into more sustainable in nature. Dhaka is one of the major old cities in South Asia. It has a various combination of historic places and communities which give Dhaka a unique urban character. It has long history of urbanization and this urban growth pattern has influenced mainly by the topography, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics along with inherent morphological quality. However over population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, poor infrastructure facilities and weak urban management contribute to deteriorating these urban heritages rapidly. There are several discussions about urban heritage conservation of developing countries but little discussions have found which has focused on the conservation with empowering local traditional economy to develop the sustainable community. By enhancing local economy through proper planning and policy and promote sustainable tourism can contribute to conserve heritage resources of Dhaka and support sustainable community development. Two historically significant communities are chosen for representing Dhaka‟s heritage which is unique in nature for their traditional professions, significant local arts, handmade crafts, life style, religious and social festivals, urban fabric and built heritage. These are Benarashi Palli at Mirpur and Shakhari Bazaar at old Dhaka. They had a self-sustained economy in the past which becomes declining day by day due to rapid and poor urban development management and ignorance of historical values and ideas. However, still these two communities are trying to survive with their own efforts and make them represented of the glorious past to us. The main focus of this study is to revive their past well-sustained economic conditions with proper conservation of heritage resources and community participation. At the same time explore several guidelines of comprehensive conservation for sustainable urban community in Dhaka. The research identifies that there is a severe lacking of integrated conservation policies in Dhaka. In fact, the importance of heritage conservation is still very far away from national planning policies in Bangladesh. Dhaka has several development control agencies however; they are not so well-integrated and well-organized to provide a comprehensive heritage planning policies for Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Moreover, incompetent rules and regulations with scattered organizations make this problem more severe. The study has tried to incorporate all these issues and formulate a comprehensive conservation planning for Benarashi Palli and Shakhari Bazaar as well as Dhaka. Furthermore, the study tries to accommodate sustainable tourism for providing a sustainable urban economy which has always ignored in Bangladesh context. However, tourism could be a strong way of promoting heritage conservation in Dhaka which has already followed by many developing countries in South Asia.

This study aims to analyze sustainable development strategies for the colonial Dutch heritage trail in Kupang City. The city is home to various dispersed colonial historical sites with strong potential to be developed into an integrated heritage trail. Seven key sites were studied, including GMIT Kota Kupang Church, the Assistant Resident's House of Timor, and the Dutch Cemetery. A SWOT analysis was conducted to identify internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. The analysis places the development in Quadrant I (aggressive strategy), indicating high internal capacity and favorable external conditions. In response, this study proposes six integrated SO strategies, including the development of heritage trail tour packages, promotion through digital and institutional channels, investment in infrastructure and accessibility, community engagement in site preservation, incorporation of local culture, and alignment with long-term city policy for sustainability. These align with international heritage trail recommendations—integrating interpretive signage, community involvement, and digital promotion—to create an accessible, informative, and well-maintained cultural tourism offering. This study provides a strategic foundation for implementing a sustainable colonial heritage trail in Kupang City.

Sustainable urban development in historical areas using the tourist trail approach: A case study of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) project in Saida, Lebanon

Currently, heritage is challenged in the Indian city of Surat due to diverse pressures, including rapid urbanization, increasing housing demand, and socio-cultural and climate changes. Where rapid demographic growth of urban areas is happening, heritage is disappearing at an alarming rate. Despite some efforts from the local government, urban cultural heritage is being neglected and historic buildings keep being replaced by ordinary concrete buildings at a worryingly rapid pace. Discussions of challenges and issues of Surat’s urban area is supported by a qualitative dataset, including in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups with local policy makers, planners, and heritage experts, triangulated by observation and a photo-survey of two historic areas. Findings from this study reveal a myriad of challenges such as: inadequacy of urban conservation management policies and processes focused on heritage, absence of skills, training, and resources amongst decision makers and persistent conflict and competition between heritage conservation needs and developers’ interests. Furthermore, the values and significance of Surat’s tangible and intangible heritage is not fully recognized by its citizens and heritage stakeholders. A crucial opportunity exists for Surat to maximize the potential of heritage and reinforce urban identity for its present and future generations. Surat’s context is representative of general trends and conservation challenges and therefore recommendations developed in this study hold the potential to offer interesting insights to the wider planners and conservationists’ international community. This paper recommends thoughtful integration of sustainable heritage urban conservation into local urban development frameworks and the establishment of approaches that recognize the plurality of heritage values.

In the quest to develop cities for the long run, the debate is whether to retain elements of culture or to reinvent such spaces for new uses. Cultural heritage preservation thus becomes an issue in urban planning. Heritage sites and buildings are currently facing a great threat from new urban development particularly in developing countries including Malaysia. Nonetheless, there are those who argue for the preservation of local identity in the face of urban development. They claim that within the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, there are areas rich in diversity of identity, and these should be made more visible. This paper uses the case study of Chan See Shu Yuen, a historically significant Cantonese ancestral clan association building which houses both tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Through a mixed-method approach, combining interviews, surveys, content analysis, photography, and videography, I outline how this clan association increases social cohesion through its continued functions of providing aesthetic value and being a tourist attraction. This makes the case for the continued retention of historical buildings and practices, despite overarching social changes such as super-diversity.

An Analysis on Transmission of Ethnic Languages in Selected Communities in the World Heritage Site of Malacca, Malaysia

Authentic experiences of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are popular as tourist attractions, particularly in developing countries. However, how the authenticity of ICH is conceptualized in the context of tourism and how ICH relates to community empowerment is unexplored in recent literature. This study aims to investigate how hosts and guests (in this case domestic tourists) at a traditional cultural festival perceived the role of ICH in community empowerment. The study also sought to identify the factors influencing how hosts and guests perceive the authenticity of ICH, and how the effect of mutual (host-guest) authentication of ICH can build on community empowerment. A qualitative case study approach was utilised to understand host and guest perceptions and experiences of the traditional Rush Mela Festival (as an example of ICH) in the Sundarbans forest region, specifically at the sites of Dublar Char (inside the forest) and Chila (on the periphery of the forest), in Bangladesh. The study was based on a conceptual model for understanding mutual (host-guest) authentication of ICH and its relationship to community empowerment. This model was developed based on prior literature. The study revealed that the major elements of the Rush Mela Festival comprised of religious rituals, cultural programmes, economic activities, tourism, and community institutions. The majority of hosts and guests perceived that these elements play an important role in four dimensions of community empowerment (psychological, economic, social and political). However, there was some variation in the perceptions depending on the locality of the festival (i.e., Dublar Char or Chila) and the tourism opportunities available. The study found that factors such as the hosts’ attitudes, motivations, economic benefits, emotional benefits, individual participation, and institutional involvement influenced their perceptions of authenticity (both objective and existential) of the Rush Mela Festival. Also, the study found that factors such as guests’ attitudes, motivations, authenticity of objects, and authentic experiences also play a significant role in building guests’ perceptions of authenticity of the Rush Mela Festival. Despite some differences, most of the hosts and guests have perceived that some of the objects (e.g. the statues of the God and Goddess, the temple, the dried fish and local foods (sweets)) and experiences (e.g. worship ceremony, the holy bath, cultural programmes, and meeting family and friends) during the Rush Mela Festival were authentic, and these support the objective and existential authenticity of the festival. Mutual authentication of the festival has led to host support and guest loyalty towards Rush Mela tourism. Few hosts were concerned about excessive tourism and commodification of cultural practices, whereas some guests were not satisfied as they expected improved tourist facilities and more authentic local products. Moreover, the research also suggests that the mutual authentication of the festival and support for tourism have ultimately influenced the community’s psychological empowerment (i.e. strengthens spiritual belief), economic empowerment (i.e. increasing economic benefits), social empowerment (i.e. increasing social cohesion and consensus for preserving cultural tradition and natural resources), and political empowerment (i.e. development of community institutions). Finally, the study suggests that empowerment of the community could influence host and guest factors for authenticating the Rush Mela Festival and increasing loyalty and support for tourism, which could contribute to the development of sustainable ICH tourism. Further research should be carried out to test and validate the conceptual mutual (host-guest) authentication model in various ICH-based tourism contexts. Also, further study could explore the potential for a community-based ICH tourism programme that can facilitate the preservation of authenticity of ICH and enhance community empowerment.

Cultural heritage is not limited to material manifestations; indeed it also includes intangible, living and fragile expressions, such as oral traditions, performing arts, festive events, or the knowledge and skills necessary to produce traditional crafts. This essay focuses on the issue of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, especially in the framework of the French and Italian national cultural policies. In particular, it begins by following the evolution of the concept of heritage towards intangible cultural heritage and examining the principal historical events, programs and debates that in 2003 led to the adoption of a new international legal instrument: the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Then, considering the main changes of today's global economy, this study underlines the importance of intangible heritage from an economic, cultural and social perspective. Finally, the article seeks to examine different ways to implement the 2003 Convention at the national level. Traditional models of protection, valorization, and safeguarding need to be rethought on the basis of the specific characteristics of intangible heritage and of the needs of individuals, groups and communities that create, maintain and pass cultural heritage onto future generations. Two case studies, the French model and the Italian one, will be illustrated to identify the main measures necessary to implement an effective policy for the safeguarding of this fragile heritage.