Interpretation of European Cultural Heritage in Tourism

Resumen

The Guidelines are one of the outputs of the international Erasmus+ project “Methodology ofInterpretation of European Cultural Heritage through Attractions in Tourism” (MIECAT). Thebook is designed for experts in the tourism industry.The Guidelines collate basic information on the interpretation of cultural heritage in tourism.They consider both tangible and intangible heritage; the book explains the importance, goals,and principles of heritage interpretation. The book deals with the specifics of interpretation insix thematic subtopics: architecture, fine arts, religious monuments, music, local traditions andcustoms, gastronomy.Interpretation of cultural heritage is currently very topical. Its significance has been enhancedby the activities of the EU in the field of cultural heritage. The year 2018 was declareda European Year of Cultural Heritage. European Heritage Days organized annually also bringup topics closely related to the issues of interpretation of cultural heritage – in 2018 the topicwas “Common heritage, common values” and 2020 comes with the topic “Monuments andEducation”.The development of cultural tourism is increasingly challenging for the interpretation of culturalheritage. The process of searching for new ways, which would address and appeal to sufficienttarget segments of visitors is not always easy. However, the successful interpretation providesopportunities to raise emotions and facilitate experiences, creating a relationship between thecultural heritage site and the visitor. This relationship motivates the visitor to search for contextand explore the most diverse targets which cultural heritage offers.In the globalized community in which we live, tourist destinations can play an important roleas places for intercultural dialogue, which contributes to mutual understanding and building offriendly relationships among nations with different cultural histories.The objective of the project was to create didactic materials for the implementation of a newstudy subject focused on the current issues in the interpretation of cultural heritage in tourism.The project was funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme and was implemented in 2017–2020.The Tourism Department of the Faculty of International Relations at the University ofEconomics in Prague (FMV VŠE) was the leading partner and coordinator of the project.Partner universities were Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain; “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”University of Iași, Romania; University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, Austria;Fachhochschule des Mittelstands, Germany; University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia.The publication is a non-profit output of the international project MIECAT co-funded by theErasmus+ Programme of the European Union.Thanks to this project, specialists from different countries of Europe were able to join and sharetheir professional knowledge and wide experience, which result from the different developmentof cultural heritage in individual countries and their approach to the interpretation of culturalheritage. The text of the Guidelines was created by an international group of experts (Austria,Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain – the members of partner universityteams of the Erasmus+ project MIECAT). The outputs of this international project provide useful insights for all those, who want to searchfor new and efficient methods of cultural heritage interpretation. Comprehensive methodologyof interpretation in its complexity can be found in the main output of the MIECAT project, inthe e-book – Interpretation of European Cultural Heritage in Tourism.