Prerequisites for Adequate Tourism Valorisation of Cultural Resources

Management of cultural resources for the purpose of their valorisation is a highly complex process and requires joint work, synergy and cooperation of cultural and tourism sector. On a national level, most archaeological sites and museums are managed by cultural institutions while tourist boards and local governments are side actors in that process. Many discrepancies in attitudes toward valorisation of cultural resources are found in the process which prevents it from occurring. The goal of this research is to define the main prerequisites for adequate tourism valorisation of cultural resources by including professionals and their practical experiences in a high quality focus group interview. The most important finding relates to the importance of education of participants in cultural and tourism sector in order to avoid discrepancies in the way they perceive the means of tourism valorisation of cultural resources. Specifically, tourism sector aims to exploit the resources economically in a short period of time without paying attention to carrying capacity of the historical resources. On the other hand, cultural sector especially those that manage archaeological sites, have lack of management and marketing skills to be able to valorise the heritage that leads to the need for ongoing education in those fields. Therefore, those key actors should find the mutual path to avoid the uncontrolled exploitations of cultural resources and to achieve its adequate valorisation.