Cultural Tourism
In the process of regional and rural renewal, many communities turn to tourism as a key economic driver. Some communities have embraced tourism and been successful while others have not. Some of the most successfully reinvented regional centres in Australia have become so because their community has an understanding of where they have come from and where they are going.
What's a cultural tourist?
Traditionally, a cultural tourist has been defined as a person who visits museums, galleries, heritage sites or stage performances. However this has evolved to include a more sociological interest in people and place. How often have you heard someone say “we’re going down to the pub to mix with the locals”? Communities that have a strong sense of who they are and where they live tend to share their sense of pride with their visitors and make their place a more enjoyable one to visit.
What makes a place unique? What are the local stories? Cultural tourism has a very distinct tie to the philosophies of placemaking. The arts sector is perfectly poised to capitalise on the cultural tourism agenda and help the community to express their identity. The cultural tourism element gives your argument for related projects the economic weight that many governments and funding bodies are looking for in supporting regional initiatives.
Some examples of cultural tourism projects that your arts organisation may like to instigate are:
- Public art trails or heritage trails
- Interpretive signage or interactive media in places of significance
- Stage or street performances based on local stories and/or regional identity
- Tours of sites of cultural significance including re-enactments or storytelling though characters
- A signature festival.
With cultural tourism comes the responsibility of sustaining sites and practices of cultural significance. Projects must be carefully planned and include impact assessments to ensure that damage is not done to sites through increased human access in the process of celebrating places and stories.
The Cultural Tourism Incentive Program (CTIP) was launched in 2000 as a Queensland Government initiative to provide grants between $5,000 and $100,000 for projects that advance the aims of the Network in regard to conservation of heritage, regional community development, employment and cultural tourism opportunities. You can see the outcomes on www.heritagetrails.qld.gov.au/
You can find out more about grants available for heritage projects on www.environment.gov.au/heritage/programs/index.html
Our individual and collective sense of place is an important driver for developing our community’s identity. Through creative placemaking activity and cultural tourism, the arts can give voice to our distinct identities and turn our town into a ‘destination’!
Maryborough tells their story
In 2006, Arts Queensland commissioned Community Rites, a Noosa based group of community artists, to work with the Maryborough community to develop a performance for the Regional Arts Development Fund conference. The group provided the guidance and skills required to help them to tell a story about their heritage and culture through an outdoor performance.
“The project exposed the participants to the potential to do other performances. The conference performance provided the momentum with the arts community to form a Street Theatre group that performs at local events,” said Susan Rogers, Cultural Development Officer for the Maryborough City Council.
www.communityrites.com
Resources
John Oxley Library Oral History Section (07) 3840 7436 www.slq.qld.gov.au/oh
Feral Arts, a cultural development company working in digital media including Placestories www.feralarts.com
Queensland Stories - www.qldstories.slq.qld.gov.au
Lambert J. Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. Digital Diner Press: 2002. Joe Lambert is the co-director of the Center for Digital Storytelling with Nina Mullen and Dana Atchley. He initiated digital storytelling and has helped to promote it around the world. This book provides background, techniques, ideas and examples from around the world.
Funding for community story telling programs can be obtained regionally through:
• The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a partnership program between Arts Queensland and Local Government www.arts.qld.gov.au/funding/radf.html
• The Our Place Our Future Program in Blueprint for the Bush now managed by the Office of Rural and Regional Communities Department of Local Government, Sport and Recreation. www.dlgpsr.qld.gov.au