Heritage as a Tourism Commodity: Traversing the Tourist–Local Divide

Abstract

In developing tourist attractions, government planning authorities and entrepreneurs face a challenging task trying to cater to the interests of foreign visitors while meeting the needs of the local community. This paper presents the case of tourism development as a dynamic process in which the “tourist–local divide” is negotiated and the welfare of both groups monitored. This argument is empirically developed with the aid of two case studies on heritage tourism in Singapore: the adaptive re–use of old shophouses after their conversion into boutique hotels, and the re–invention of street activities as tourist sites. The commoditisation thesis advanced by many tourism writers is critiqued. I argue that heritage development is geared towards Singaporeans as much as it is towards tourists, and the effects of commoditisation are not always negative for the host community. Rather than a static object, heritage is an ever–changing product influenced by the combined effects of economic development, tourism and socio–cultural forces at the local scale. For this reason, the notion that commoditisation leads to “inauthenticity” is re–evaluated and a more optimistic prognosis on heritage tourism is offered.