Abstract
To reflect on the potential of the Cultural Route heritage category as an instrument for cultural revitalization and community strengthening in highland regions, we analyze an interaction of actors involved in the co-construction of a hiking circuit in northern Chile that succeeded in its heritage-based design but not in its touristic implementation. Based on an in-depth analysis of the socioterritorial context and on participatory action research carried out to design the circuit, we discuss the reasons for the project's failure during the phase of community-based tourism model definition. This leads to broader conclusions on the intersections of current policies on heritage, multiculturalism, and environment, relating to the 2014 inscription of the Qhapaq nan Andean road system on the World Heritage List. Finally, we highlight 3 lessons: (1) the need to clarify the risk of confusion between cultural revitalization and cultural tourism; (2) the Cultural Route category as a complex and heterogeneous heritage construct that is difficult to apply from global to local scales, and (3) the need to further develop Latin American regulations on heritage.
Highlights
In many highland regions of the Andes, the 20th century has been marked by a sharp process of rural exodus, mainly because of the inadequacy of the mountainous environment to host neoliberal economic models of productive intensification and specialization (Dollfus 1999)
As rural territories continue to be an important source of identity, for both rural inhabitants and their urban relatives, innovation in the valorization and social use of rural heritage could contribute to the revitalization of depressed territories. This assumption constituted a key argument for the 2014 inscription of the Andean road system, generally referred to by its Quechua name Qhapaq n~an (QN) on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List
The first phase of the QN project was undertaken by experts, mainly archaeologists and anthropologists, who surveyed thousands of kilometers of roads through the 6 countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile) to map the great diversity of sites and intangible heritage entities
Summary
To reflect on the potential of the Cultural Route heritage category as an instrument for cultural revitalization and community strengthening in highland regions, we analyze an interaction of actors involved in the coconstruction of a hiking circuit in northern Chile that succeeded in its heritage-based design but not in its touristic implementation. Based on an in-depth analysis of the socioterritorial context and on participatory action research carried out to design the circuit, we discuss the reasons for the project’s failure during the phase of community-based tourism model definition. This leads to broader conclusions on the intersections of current policies on heritage, multiculturalism, and environment, relating to the 2014 inscription of the Qhapaq n~an Andean road system on the World Heritage List.
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