Personal heritage tourism

Abstract

Personal heritage tourism is a niche of heritage tourism that focuses on travel related to an individual's heritage and family history. Personal heritage tourism encompasses roots tourism, diaspora tourism, ancestral tourism, legacy tourism and DNA tourism. Based on extant literature, this chapter first describes and then classifies personal heritage tourists. The resulting typology characterizes the sub-niches in terms of the type of information that defines tourists' personal heritage, the locations visited, and their motivations and behaviours. Roots and diaspora tourism seek to reclaim a lost heritage, but diaspora tourists have typically left their homeland more recently and seek to relive personal memories. Ancestral and legacy tourists are combined into one category due to their overlap. Ancestral and genealogical tourists participate in family history before and during travel, but travel to different locations and differ in motivations. DNA tourists take a DNA test and seek a connection to their genetic heritage or to living genetic relatives. Overall, the chapter points to the increasing importance of personal heritage tourism, the many ways in which the tourism industry can cater to and benefit from the specific interests of this niche, and the need for more research on the emerging sub-niches.