Proceedings of the Heritage, Tourism and Hospitality International Conference HTHIC 2017 September 27-29, 2017 Pori, Finland

Abstract

After the great successes in Istanbul 2014 and Amsterdam 2015 we were delighted to arrange the 3rd HTHIC conference in Pori in 2017. The year is especially significant as it coincides with Finland celebrating the 100th anniversary of its independence. This makes it even more significant to study and debate preserving and promoting the coastal and industrial heritage in Finland.

We sought to focus the HTHIC2017 conference with the leading question “How can tourism destinations succeed in attracting tourists while simultaneously engaging all stakeholders in contributing to the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage?” In this world in transition, characterized by globalization, continuous growth in tourism, migration and mobility based on migrant citizenship, there is a need for researchers and practitioners alike to explore the possibility of reframing tourism beyond “the tourist gaze” and studying the interaction, dialogues, and conflicts that arise between visitors, hosts and cultural institutions in the representation and re-use of the past for tourist purposes. These are leading themes in many of the papers presented in the tracks on the topics Natural Heritage and Tourism Development, Public Policy and Stakeholder Engagement and Gamification, Audience and Stakeholder Engagement. These themes were also apparent in the papers presented in the session dedicated to Festivals and Events. We also welcomed contributions that advance our understanding of the role of storytelling and narrative techniques, since destinations (places, regions, and routes) and tourism dynamics need people to tell and share stories to co-create heritage values, embed them in a sustainable spectrum of tourist facilities, and induce valuable tourist experience. These contributions were to be seen for example in the papers presented in the tracks with the topics of Tracing, Narrating and Developing Routes as well as Architecture, Heritage and Narratives.

Storytelling plays a role as a tool for branding, marketing, ensuring stakeholder and visitor engagement, and promoting sustainable management and innovation strategy, as is illustrated in the papers presented in the track titled Latest from Lapland as well as Current Research and Education at the University of Turku.

Knowledge of critical success factors, and skills in narrative management are necessary if storytelling is to contribute to the development and promotion of innovative heritage-based tourism value propositions and products. These were themes in many of the papers presented in the tracks of Creative Industries and Tourism Development, Sustainability and Inclusiveness, as well as Heritage, Tourism and New Media, and moreover, the papers in the track for Museums Off- and Online represented this particular theme. 2017 has been designated by the United Nations 70th General Assembly as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Consequently, HTHIC2017 stresses the close connections between the topics covered, sustainability in its many aspects, and development. This emphasis can be seen in the papers presented in the tracks with the topics, Sustainable Tourism Development and Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Development. In addition, several papers are presented in the track on Heritage, Tourism and Water.

Three papers were nominated for the Best Paper award. The winner was Emanuela Conti et al. with the paper titled “Museum visitors’ profiling in the experiential perspective, value co-creation and implications for museums and destinations: an exploratory study from Italy.” The paper analyses the changing competitive position of museums today and promotes the need to re-segment the audience and re-promote the offerings. The second prize was given to Sanghamitra Basu’s paper titled “Mapping and narrating heritage: retracing a forgotten route to link multilayered history of a region and use of an indigenous storytelling technique for presentation.” The author provides a lively description of how cultural heritage may be conserved and communicated in a sustainable and co-creative manner. The third prize was given to Silvia De Ascaniis et al. for the paper titled “A social media campaign to raise awareness about violent heritage destruction. The case of#faces4heritage.” The paper offers a compelling discussion of a campaign addressing the worldwide and serious problem of heritage destruction. The awards were given to the winners at the celebratory dinner at the Noormarkku Club by Ms. Frasquita Go and conference chair Arja Lemmetyinen.Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all the authors for your invaluable contribution to the HTHIC2017 conference and the proceedings.

We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the organizing committee, and particularly HTHIC co-founder and managing director and HTHIC2017 Chair Karin Elgin Nijhuis who, in collaboration with the Destination and Industry Committee, has succeeded in safeguarding that the conference is a practitionerfriendly event, in which scientific evidence is interacted with best practices and experiences from around the world. We also thank the Scientific Conference Committee and the reviewers, who have worked to ensure the quality of the submitted papers. Additionally we would like to acknowledge the support of our sponsors and partners in ensuring the success of the conference.

We hope that you will enjoy this collection of high quality papers, research notes and abstracts from a cast of international researchers in the fascinating field of heritage, tourism and hospitality.