Empowering Small Rural Communities through Heritage Tourism

Abstract

Tourism and culture have become the joint promoters of cultural heritage, thus helping spread traditional values and knowledge. Such joint promotional processes were particularly apparent in 2018, the European Year of Cultural Heritage. This chapter argues for forms of rural development through cultural tourism where these options also preserve cultural heritage and local traditions. Communities are often the core to national identity by preserving the authentic traditions and customs of its culture. Developing this community base for local well-being provides the generic core of this chapter. To illustrate the relevance of local community destination management, two cases are presented, an archaeological site in Spain and a natural and historic site in Belgium.