Waves of Innovation and Heritage Tourism Attractions

Abstract

This paper sets out some foundations for a theory of innovation at built heritage tourist attractions. It demonstrates the role that innovation plays in enabling built heritage tourist sites to remain sustainable in a constantly shifting market and proposes that innovation occurs in waves driven by changes in social values and meaning over time. That heritage places innovate, particularly using interpretation as a media to enhance the tourist experience, is widely accepted (Ashworth 1994; Garrod & Fyall 2000; Giaccardi & Palen 2008; Graham 2002; Halewood & Hannam 2001; Richards & Wilson 2006; Stamboulis & Skayannis 2002; Wanhi1l2003). However, there has been little research about types of innovation or how it is affected by the heritage context. Additionally, the drivers and determinants for innovation in the broader tourism industry have been discussed briefly, but the factors associated with innovation in heritage tourism have not. Innovation in this study is defined as "new combinations of existing resources" (Fagerberg 2003, p. 4; Schumpeter 1939, p. 88). The paper begins with a description of the method undertaken in the study; this is followed by a literature review which incorporates a definition of the heritage product and the internal and external drivers which provide the criteria for understanding how and why innovation occurred at specific times. This is followed by the development of a model. The paper then goes on to briefly describe the findings from the case study. In this paper the term heritage attraction refers to heritage tourist attractions.