Introduction

Heritage tourism has become an increasingly important segment of the tourism industry with a significant proportion of domestic and international visitors now looking to participate in cultural experiences as a key element of their holidays (Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), 2005; Snowden, 2008; Tourism Queensland, 2003). It has also become an important element of the tourism mix for many holiday destinations where the seaside is not the principal attractant (Prentice et al. , 1998). Importantly, the heritage tourism segment represents one of the highest yield tourism groups, ahead of both traditional mass markets and other niche tourism audiences such as the arts. For instance, heritage tourists spend on average 38% more per day, stay 34% longer than traditional tourists, and spend 20% more and stay 22% longer than arts-oriented tourists (Tourism Western Australia, 2006). In terms of locally generated tourist activity in the Australian setting, approximately 10.9 million domestic overnight visitors and 10.4 million domestic day visitors participated in 2007 in some form of cultural and/or heritage activity (Tourism Australia, 2008). Heritage tourism, sometimes also referred to as cultural tourism, is however no different to other sectors of the tourism industry in that it is now starting to feel the full impact of the global financial meltdown of 2008. Recent forecasts suggest that international tourism related travel will decline significantly in the Asia Pacific region in the immediate future (Tourism Research Australia, 2008). This is an important issue for the heritage tourism sector as approximately 51% of all international visitors reported participating in at least one cultural and heritage activity whereas only 20% of domestic visitors did likewise (Tourism Research Australia, 2006). In response, the tourism industry has sought to place a greater emphasis on promoting domestic visits in an effort to generate sufficient business to maintain tourist operations through the difficult times ahead.