ICH Tourism dialogues: conversations on Living Heritage and Tourism

Interdisciplinary Conversations on Living Heritage and Tourism

Following the new avenues opened up for dialogue and collaborations among diverse stakeholders by the web dossier on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism, the ICH NGO Forum Working Group on sustainable ICH Tourism initiates in 2024 a series of conversations looking to expand the scope of our understanding of the relationship between ICH and tourism.

The ICH Tourism Dialogues will bring together scholars and ICH practitioners along with people from NGOs, tourism agencies and the tourism industry representing localities, regions and national governments to talk about the benefits and challenges of this relationship from different perspectives.  

Dialogue about issues of economic development,  tourism studies, cultural resources management, the relationships of historic preservation and the protection of monuments with ICH,  environmental sustainability and perspectives from the social sciences can enrich this discussion.  

The ICH Tourism Dialogues will share the experiences of diverse types of institutions and key actors in the field that have developed successful and sometimes not-so-successful projects for promoting tourism related to cultural traditions and practices.  These conversations aim to further enrich and develop the web dossier for its multiple users, and contribute to the ongoing exercise on what to do when ICH and tourism meet.

For participation, registration is required: please register via this link.

The 3rd Dialogue introduces Costanza Fidelbo on 4th October 2024 – 3 pm CEST.

Costanza Fidelbo has been working on issues related to the protection and promotion of cultural heritage since 2017, first at the Italian Delegation to UNESCO and then at the Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit of UNESCO’s Culture Sector. Since 2020 she has been working as an Associate Programme Specialist in the Culture Unit of the UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Culture in Europe. Between 2015 and 2017, she worked for the Venice Biennale international art and architecture exhibition.

She holds a Master’s degree in Art History (Sapienza – University of Rome), a Master’s degree in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities (Ca’ Foscari – University of Venice) and since 2020 a degree in Human Rights and Conflict Management at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, and is the author of a dissertation on the role of culture and tourism in fostering recovery, resilience and peacebuilding in contexts affected by emergencies. Within the Culture Unit of the UNESCO Office in Venice, she works on projects related to the promotion of sustainable cultural tourism in Europe and the promotion of European cooperation in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural goods. Her professional interest in the role of cultural tourism in promoting sustainable local development, as well as peacemaking and peacebuilding in emergency contexts, has been cherished during the implementation of the SmartCulTour – Smart Cultural Tourism as a Driver of Sustainable Development of European Regions project, funded by the EU as part of the Horizon-2020 programme and completed in June 2023. In this context, UNESCO successfully led the coordination of six living laboratories of sustainable cultural tourism, while raising awareness and developing the capacities of relevant stakeholders for the implementation of relevant international standards for the management and development of sustainable cultural tourism.

Previous dialogues: 

• The 1st Dialogue introduced Halle Butvin on 18th March 2024 – 3 pm CEST. 

Halle Butvin is director of special projects at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural  Heritage. She leads the Center’s cultural vitality work around the world, designing collaborative projects to support communities in their efforts to safeguard their heritage, promote cultural expression, and elevate cultural practices to improve local economies. In 2015, she led a team to design a research-based approach to cultural heritage tourism experience development, piloted in rural communities across Armenia. This approach, which resulted in the creation of more than 100 new tourism experiences and a major shift to experiential tourism in Armenia, is being adapted and rolled out in communities across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Georgia, and the United States. An experienced trainer, for more than 15 years Halle has designed and led creative industries projects, including festival- making, artisan craft development, enterprise development, and organizational development for non-profits, in Europe, East Africa, and several countries across Asia.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a research and educational unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Center promotes greater understanding and sustainability of cultural heritage across the United States and around the world through research, education, and community engagement. The Center produces the Smithsonian Folklife  Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Cultural Vitality initiatives, exhibitions, documentary films and videos, symposia, publications, and educational materials. The Center also maintains the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, conducts ethnographic and cultural heritage policy-oriented research, and provides educational opportunities through fellowships, internships, and training programs.

• The 2nd Dialogue introduced Kaat De Ridder on 26th April 2024 – 3 pm CEST.

Kaat De Ridder is a heritage tourism researcher and lecturer at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in Belgium. Kaat’s research has been dedicated to ICH Tourism research over the past years. In her research, Kaat delves into the questions of what infuses places with meaning and what drives individuals to connect with these locales. Kaat navigates critical inquiries, such as the translation of heritage into meaningful and sustainable visitor experiences. She actively engages with a diverse range of stakeholders, ensuring a holistic and comprehensive approach to her research. Integral to Kaat’s work are key principles such as sustainability, safeguarding, and inclusivity. Her focus on intangible heritage tourism involves crafting a framework that fosters tourism as a platform for the safeguarding of intangible heritage, while empowering the communities that uphold the practices.

In this ICH Tourism Dialogue #2, Kaat shared insights from her work, including the recently finalized ICH tourism research project ‘impalpable heritage’, and introduced the just starting Creative Europe project ‘ICH Journeys’ on the integration of intangible heritage into cultural heritage tourism experiences (2024-2027).