ARCHIVE of the immaterial heritage of NAVARRE

  • Year of publication:
    2010
  • Authors:
  • -   Boati, Paola
    -   Lombardi, Patrizia
  • Volume:
  • Number:
  • Pages:
    491–505
  • ISBN:
    978-9957-8602-8-8
According to the World Tourism Organization, sustainable tourism leads to the management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems (UNEP, 2002).Sustainable tourism can be seen "as a tool for conservation and sustainable development" (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1998, p 8.) of the built environment. The role of its interpretation is "to make people more aware of the places they visit, to provide knowledge which increases their understanding and to promote interest which leads to greater enjoyment and perhaps responsibility", (Herbert, 1989, p. 191). In this sense interpretation considers both tangible and intangible elements and plays an important role in preserving and maintaining cultural heritage, promoting and motivating people toward a more ethic, educative and sustainable purposes, evoking unique images in tourists' minds.Tangible components, both natural and built, are firstly considered as heritage; in fact in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (Paris 1972), cultural heritage was formed by monuments, groups of buildings and sites, while natural and geological sites were considered as natural heritage. According to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Paris 2003), "the intangible means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills that communities, groups and individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage." Unfortunately, there is still a lack of understanding of the intangibles and their enhancement for tourism strategies (Mitsche, et al., 2009).The aim of this paper is to illustrate, through case studies, how interpretative strategies related to intangibles can enhance sustainable tourist development.