CULTURAL RESOURCES AND THE TOURISMIFICATION OF TERRITORIES The tourism research agenda: navigating with a compass

So far little attention has been paid to the territorial aspects of cultural heritage, dispersion patterns and clustering processes nor to the changes induced by tourism on the physical, economic and social environment. Studying the territorial cohesion of different elements of cultural heritage and the interdependency between tangible and intangible heritage assets brings us closer to an understanding of the cultural dynamics of a region or the place. The procedure is to identify the different characteristics of the cultural heritage elements and the driving forces in the process of tourismification. Three paradigms suggest that the conservation of both tangible and intangible heritage elements can give impulses to cultural activities and the development of a creative and productive environment. The capacity to capitalize on cultural resources, to support the process of identity building and eventually the creation of tourismscapes will diverge between types of regions and communities. The way regions (and nations) are valorizing and investing in cultural capital clearly makes the difference. The emerging gap between dynamic and less dynamic cultural regions, between emerging tourism destination and sleeping ones is not only based on the actual presence of monuments, museums or historical landscapes (the hardware), but more likely and increasingly on the marketing efforts, the narratives and the liveliness (the software). In addition the creativity with intangible heritage elements such as traditions imbedded in the local history and habitat will make the difference. Traditions find contemporary expressions in lifestyle, language, religion, music, folklore, and gastronomy and last but not least in events and festivities. It requires good organizational skills and professional know how to valorize these cultural resources. The analysis of territorial expressions of both, tangible and intangible cultural resources is complex. An analytical model to study the various aspects of territorial coherence will be introduced. Clearly, the capacity to (re) produce a cultural economy not only depends on the local expertise to manage and organize (the orgware), but also, and increasingly, on the capacity to get involved in various networks (the shareware). The current challenge is indeed to catch up with global trends and translate these into local, regional or national opportunities. Conservation policies for cultural resources need to be balanced against creativity in the production of innovative flexible products for cultural tourism. Above all, the research mission is to monitor the tourismification process; a key issue on the future research agenda.