AIC's 42nd Annual Meeting

This paper explores the connection between tourism and cultural heritage preservation. Our goals as heritage conservation professionals use scientific investigations and research to better understand material culture itself and how best to preserve it. Education and scientific illumination is just one end result of our work. Our work, the real end result of what most of us do, is for tourists, enticing people to visit our museums, national parks, archaeological sites, and historic buildings both in reality and virtually. We are involved in the cultural production of tourism and tourists sites, though we may not conceptualize our work in this way. This paper explains and explores this connection between tourism and cultural heritage conservation. The goals are to highlight these concepts and illuminate the wide ranging impacts and responsibilities we as heritage preservation professionals have beyond the actual physical preservation of our cultural heritage.