Creative destruction: the commodification of industrial heritage in Nanfeng Kiln District, China

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe potential value of industrial heritage for developing tourism has attracted increasing attention worldwide. In China, there is an emerging trend of the reuse of industrial heritage sites to develop industrial heritage tourism as ‘creative parks’. Studies have found that over-commodification is occurring while protection of the historical and cultural value of contemporary industrial heritage is neglected during the process of redevelopment. However, detailed research on the processes and mechanisms of over-commodification is limited. A qualitative approach is adopted to examine the development process of a typical industrial heritage tourism destination, Nanfeng Kiln District in Foshan, China. Through application of a creative destruction model, the relationships and interplay of a variety of actors in this process are uncovered. Mitchell's model of creative destruction is applied to explain the transformative process of tourist destinations whose development has occurred based on the commodification of heritage. It is found that the creative destruction model should be modified to include the roles of urban land policy and various governments, to reflect the politico-economic characteristics of China.