| Visions and Goals
The aims of the International Institute for Culture, Tourism and Development (IICTD) are to develop and carry out innovative and relevant research into tourism, culture and heritage with a view to being a leading contributor to scholarship and academic discussions, as well as to providing independent and informed policy advice related to contemporary issues. To this end, the IICTD is able to draw on considerable research expertise in the field of tourism, culture and heritage.
Operating Principles
Its interests in this area are framed by a commitment to a critical, humanist and interdisciplinary approach to research, underpinned by the principles of cosmopolitanism, diversity and democracy. The flexible and collegiate structure of the IICTD enables it to undertake a diversity of research challenges. Its members work simultaneously on individual and collective research projects in both academic and more applied contexts. Intimate knowledge and experience of a wide variety of geographical and cultural environments as well as fluency in numerous languages underpins the genuinely cosmopolitan and diverse outlook of the IICTD.
Main Constituencies
The diverse research interests and expertise provided by the IICTD enables it to work in partnership with a varied constituent base. These include: a wide variety of academic institutions in the UK and internationally, central, regional and local governments/policy-makers, professional bodies, international agencies (WTO, UNESCO, UNEP, World Bank, European Union), museums, trusts, charities, funding agencies, non-governmental organisations and community groups.
Expertise Offered / Provided
The IICTD has considerable expertise related to tourism development, culture and heritage conservation in a range of island and small state destinations encompassing the Mediterranean, Pacific, Southeast Asian and Caribbean regions in particular.
There is a strong focus on the political economy of tourism, and the social organisation of tourism/craft enterprise. Related areas of interest and expertise include stakeholder analysis, community planning, social auditing in tourist resorts and destinations communities. Members of the IICTD have also been at the forefront of research into sustainable and equitable forms of tourism. In addition, the IICTD can offer expertise in tourism (master) planning and policy, and the development of new methodologies in order to evaluate models of fair trade in tourism.
Members of the IICTD specialise in the study of inequality and poverty in access to arts/leisure amenities and social exclusion in tourism using a variety of qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
Using numerous anthropological and social research techniques the IICTD can also offer expertise in the analysis of culture and heritage. Numerous members have contributed to current debates concerning the conservation and interpretation of cultural heritage (tangible and intangible), World Heritage, cultural globalisation and patterns of consumption in tourism. The work of the IICTD's members in the domain of heritage encompasses many interrelated areas of scholarship, including, museums and interpretation of culture; material culture and handicrafts; ethno-cultural identity and nationalism. |
Recent and Current Activities
• Tourism Development
Research has been carried out on patterns of dependency and underdevelopment in tourism (Canary Islands, North Cyprus), globalisation and cultural pluralism (Fiji) as well as other developmental concerns related to gambling tourism (North Cyprus), the promotion and conservation of heritage, labour migration, ethnicity and gender relations, as they are implicated in and affected by tourism.
• Tourism Audit of Turtle Island (Fiji)
In 1994, an Environmental Audit was carried out for Turtle Island, which detailed the Island's ecological system and the impact of the resort on its physical surroundings. It was subsequently agreed that a similar exercise, a 'cultural audit', focusing on the impact of the resort on the wider social and cultural environment, should be carried out.
• Fair Trade in Tourism
Members of the IICTD have also carried out research - in collaboration with the UK-based NGO, Tourism Concern - on the application of the principles of fair trade in tourism as a means of empowering local people and small-scale tourism enterprise.
• Tourism Master Plan (North Cyprus)
IICTD members produced a product development strategy incorporating sustainable development aims.
• Tourism and Social Exclusion/Racism
The study of tourism and social exclusion involves investigations of the difficulties of participating in travel and tourism, especially with respect to particular social groups (e.g., lower socio-economic groups, single- parent families and ethnic minorities). Accordingly, research has been carried out on UK ethnic minority groups, in particular, the Afro-Caribbean and Pakistani communities; focussing significantly on the problems that racism and prejudice impose on such groups in white spaces and places in Europe.
• World Heritage
Recently a team of researchers carried out a comparative study which set out to investigate the implications of being granted World Heritage status in several cities and communities around the world - the results of which are published in the International Journal of Heritage Research . The research examined the implications of being granted World Heritage status for all stakeholders concerned, particularly local residents, and the potential implications for the conservation, management and interpretation of such sites. As a result of this work, members of the IICTD have been involved in a consultation process with UNESCO with regard to discussions surrounding the declaration of a Convention for the protection of intangible heritage.
As part of the EUROMED HERITAGE II programme funded by the European Union, the IICTD was recently awarded €3m to conduct research into oral history and its relationship to heritage conservation and urban planning debates in fourteen Mediterranean cities.
Also, as part of another EU-funded programme [ASIA-URBS], members of the IICTD are working with the town of Hai Duong in North Vietnam to help them develop initiatives for supporting the traditional handicraft businesses and tourism in the town. |
