The goal of this book is to deal, in a provocative way, with a number of
key issues involving the increased participation of the private sector
within cultural tourism. My goal is not to write a complete overview of
the field. Instead, this short book deals with a fairly circumscribed
set of issues involving contemporary changes within cultural tourism.
Since modern business largely focuses on serving customers, a major
focus of this book concerns marketing thought and its implications in
regard to cultural tourism. In large measure, this book seeks to help
host communities and their advocates to become familiar with and
comfortable within a private sector context as well as being able to
interact in such an environment. The book starts with a two-chapter
introduction that focuses upon the distinctive role of cultural tourism.
As emphasized in chapter 1, a dilemma arises because cultural tourism
must simultaneously serve multiple stakeholders and do so in equitable
ways. This is much more complex than the more typical task of
concentrating upon the needs, wants, and desires of customers. These
ideas are refined in chapter 2 where the discussion centers primarily
upon the importance of serving host communities, in addition to
customers. Certainly, catering to customers continues to be an issue,
but it should be envisioned as an ad hoc method of serving the host
community.
