Nuestra NEBRIJA 28 - Enero 2019

44 Nebrija Investigates Investment in heritage interpretation strategies is the way forward for the protection and integral conservation of Spain's cultural heritage. The interpretation of heritage as a tool to fight tourism-phobia Alejandro Beltrán Ortega and Clara Martín Duque. Researchers of the Nebrija Group on Economic Analysis of the Tourist System There are many articles that have been written lately about tourism-phobia and tourism's negative consequences for tourist destinations. However, there are not as many solutions provided on this subject. If specialized literature on tourism impacts is reviewed, we observe that the lack of tourists’ civility is among the most recurrent causes when evaluating the negative sociocultural impacts of tourism. One of the most affected by this issue is precisely cultural heritage, which is very vulnerable to these behaviors and whose consequences can be, in some cases, irreversible. In 1982, UNESCO defined cultural heritage of a people as the set of the works of its artists, architects, musicians, writers and sages, as well as the anonymous creations, arisen from the popular soul, and the set of values that give meaning to life, that is, the material and non-material works that express the creativity of that people; language, rituals, beliefs, historical places and monuments, literature, works of art and archives and libraries. Since then, there are many places whose unique value has been declared a world heritage site by the UN agency, adding also new categories worthy of protection, such as natural or intangible heritage. Spain is one of the countries in the world with the greatest number of both cultural and natural enclaves, and of identifiable features of an intangible nature recognized as world heritage, only after Italy and China. This diversity has become an undoubted resource of tourist interest. To this we must add all the places that, even without this declaration, are included in some of the protection figures provided for in Law 16/1985, of June 25, of Spanish historical heritage, as a cultural interest or simply inventoried in the archaeological charts. However, this scenario is an obvious conservation risk, mainly due to a certain type of tourism that lacks civic values and the lack of active policies that encourage research, appreciation and dissemination of this heritage, much of which remains semi-abandoned and even totally oblivious to the action of public institutions that must ensure their protection. Precisely, investment in heritage interpretation strategies in all its aspects is the path to follow for the protection and integral conservation of Spain's cultural heritage, as well as its management and exploitation as a sustainable tourism resources.