Introduction

Tourism has always been linked with the commodification of culture, landscape, recreation and indigenous people (Marciszewska, 2000). There has recently been fresh concern about the role of tourism as a force for cultural commodification and socioeconomic development both in postmodern societies and in societies undergoing transformation.

This chapter is divided into two sections. In the first I focus on the place of cultural tourism in national/regional tourism development strategy in Poland. Selected data will be presented from national research carried out in this field from an international perspective.

In the second part the relationship between culture and tourism and their impact on socioeconomic development will be analysed. An attempt is made to present cultural tourism as a people-based activity, which can be seen as a factor influencing national and regional identity.

On the other hand, the impact of globalisation upon labour issues in the sector of culture and tourism markets can be simply stated as follows: to cope with the international intensity of competition brought about by globalisation a knowledge-based economy has emerged to replace the previously dominant national culture. The knowledge-based economy utilises the skills of the workforce in culture and creates new responses to the management of human resources by the organisations (Marciszewska, 2004: 28). This new organisational behaviour is characterised by innovation, diversity and flexibility, and requires meaningful changes in cultural policy to influence tourism.

Cultural tourism development in Poland faces a number of barriers that have to be recognised by both the national tourism administration and the sector of culture. The process of globalisation partly reduces borders and barriers for culture exchange between nations, but it also creates new directions for national policy.