Question
What is the role of interpretation in promoting a sustainable tourism development?
Does interpretation contribute anything to sustainable tourism?
All Answers (21)
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According to me interpretation plays a major role in promoting sustainable tourism. Because unless and until you are able to interpret either quantitatively or qualitatively, one can’t get a complete understanding regarding what is happening and what is lacking. Basing on that a set of policy recommendations may be developed which leads to sustainable development. -
Thank you Partha, am writting my masters thesis and the Topic is: The role of interpretation in promoting sustainable tourism development in Uganda. Am mainly looking at the service delivery of tourist Guides because they are the ones who interface the tourists with the attractions. -
Actually the interpretation would be encourage and promoting a sustainable tourism. If it is the mainly role of this interpretation will be own by the host/ local tour guide or Villagers who responsible to this activities.
The destination will be attract to tourists for better understanding by local host as treat tourists as their guests. -
That's really very nice. Try to determine the tourist and tourist guides behaviour, that might support ur study pretty well.
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Very important to tourism. In fact you should determine which nationality visits most and cater specifically for them.
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I work in the field of interpretive planning in the UK and for us it is instrumental in consolidating the tourism infrastructure. By drawing attention to, and developing, a range of cultural and heritage attractions you can encourage visitors to explore further and dwell longer in your target area. The consequence being that these visitors will be encouraged to spend more - through accommodation, entertainment, refreshment etc - and therefore contribute to the local economy. The interpretation itself needs to 'make connections' with people by communicating the significance of a particular landscape, archaeological site, historic building, object collection or whatever else, which help to reinforce the cultural identity of that particular area or region. If a sufficient critical mass of such attractions can be developed within a given area then there will be more to promote, and a far greater chance of achieving a sustainable tourism economy. -
Interpretation is useful to improve the quality of visitor experiences. However, its role is much more valuable than simply providing information. It can be used as a management tool, especially in cases that involve depreciative behavior. Many tourists do not know the correct behavior, but want to do the right thing - so interpretation is a perfect fit. Also, interpretation is a good PR tool for the agency, ensuring that tourists receive something of value for their money. Tourists want personal service. For example, interpreters can assist international tourists with language barriers. Tourists want something geniune and guides can give them a sense of authenticity. Most importantly, tourists want an experience (which includes, but is not limited to, information). See the Experience Economy (Pine & Gilmore) for more details. -
It is the interpretor and the driver with whom the tourist has the maximum interaction at the destination. Through correct responsible practices,the interpretor can influence the tourists' perceptions of the destination . In most cases, it is the local expert ,familiar with the folklore and customs,who enhances the experiences of the the tourist and which results in WOM publicity for the destination.
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Tourism more specifically, nature based tourism may contribute to the principle of sustainability through the interpretation presented to the tourists. Personal appreciation, sense of place, perception and values etc. actually play significant role in interpreting a tourist site. These factors affect tourist market and regulate the important aspects of sustainability. Interpretation also creates links between local communities, tour guides and tourists. -
Adrine, you're asking a very important question. The answer isn't all that simple. I devoted an entire book to it:
Salazar, Noel B. (2010). Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond. Oxford: Berghahn.
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=SalazarEnvisioning
PS: Particularly interesting for you, Adrine, may be the fact that this book is the result of ethnographic fieldwork on tourism interpretation in Tanzania. Related work includes:
Salazar, N. B. (2005). Tourism and glocalization: "Local" tour guiding. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(3), 628-646.
Salazar, N. B. (2006). Touristifying Tanzania: Global discourse, local guides. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(3), 833-852.
Salazar, N. B. (2007). Towards a global culture of heritage interpretation? Evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania. Tourism Recreation Research, 32(3), 23-30.
Salazar, N. B. (2008). "Enough stories!” Asian tourism redefining the roles of Asian tour guides. Civilisations, 57(1/2), 207-222.
Salazar, N. B. (2009). Imaged or imagined? Cultural representations and the “tourismification” of peoples and places. Cahiers d'Études Africaines, 49(193-194), 49-71.
Salazar, N. B., Bryon, J., & Van Den Branden, E. (2009). Cultural tourism storytelling in 'Flanders': The story behind the stories. Leuven: Steunpunt Toerisme.
Salazar, N. B. (2011). Managing the local-to-global dynamics of world heritage interpretation and appropriation. In L. Bourdeau & S. Chassé (Eds.), World heritage and tourism: Managing for the global and the local (pp. 1044-1055). Québec: Université Laval.
Salazar, N. B. (2012). Shifting values and meanings of heritage: From cultural appropriation to tourism interpretation and back. In S. M. Lyon & C. E. Wells (Eds.), Global tourism: Cultural heritage and economic encounters (pp. 21-41). Lanham: Altamira.
Salazar, N. B. (2012). Community-based cultural tourism: Issues, threats and opportunities. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 20(1), 9-22.
Salazar, N. B. (2012). Tourism imaginaries: A conceptual approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(2), 863-882. -
Adrine, your question is very interesting and it requires a lot of input. Interpretation is critical for tourism mainly because tourists will feel at home and they will keep coming back again and again. In addition, they will recommend to their friends to come and visit. Africa is one of the most blessed continent as far as the number of languages spoken on the continent is concerned(more than 2,000). Therefore, there is need to have trained guides in interpretation and translation. This can assist the tourists to enjoy their stay from the time they land at the airport, take a taxi, stay in the hotel and go to the game park to appreciate the fauna and flora. -
There are 2 ways to define or describe interpretation. The first is to list the forms of interpretation and the second is to focus on its goals and key characteristics.
The 2 approaches to defining interpretation mirror 2 key themes in the broader business literature: the creation of consumer experiences and the importance of the sustainability. While Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) book The Experience Economy brought the concept of experience as a key element of consumption into the broader business literature, experience has always been at the centre of understanding why visitors go to attractions and what they get out of engaging in various tourists and leisure activities (Cohen, 1996). A number of authors have noted the increasing desire of consumers in general, and travellers in particular, for multi-dimensional and personalized entertainment and leisure experiences (e.g. Matathia and Salzman, 1998). In addition to the growing importance of the experience, sustainability issues have also emerged to dominate first the business and academic literature and, more recently, the popular media. These 2 themes can be seen as directly related to the key roles that interpretation can play in attractions and tourism development: building rewarding visitor experiences and supporting sustainability.
Finally, I would suggest you to precisely determine the study / research's perspective: destination development or tourism management, or marketing. It is very important... Good luck!
Prof. Marios D. Soteriades, Visiting Professor, UNISA -
As the interpreter usually has a very good understanding of the language and culture of both parties, he/she can play a very important role of approaching cultures with mutual respect.
Being a translator/interpretor and tour guide, this is basically what I do here in Rio with the tours I offer in favelas: making local culture and habits available to tourists by showing and explaining them the way of living in a favela and enabling them to interact with the community and see the people with the respect they deserve. Check out my site: www.tourguiderio.jimdo.com -
Interpretation as the translation of something in tourism industry especially in sustainable tourism has the great role of creating the awareness both to the visit as well as to the host community, as the result it enable the conservation and preservation of both natural and cultural resources -
Thank you people for all your contributions, this reaserch is becoming interesting, i have realised that interpretation is key to the tourism industry, an interpreter can make or break the industry. Another question, Do you think " The interpreter's characteristics/ attributes affect the quality of interpretation? Here i mean like, his/ her leverl of education, experience, age, sex extra.
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My answer is definetely yes; all the personality's attributes, mainly education, training, expertise, know-how and professionalism.
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I think experience evens things out - the more experience an interpreter has, the better they can handle new situations in a professional way. The other important thing is the level of proficiency in both languages. Tourism interpreters need to be at almost mother-tongue level in both their languages, because they will interact both ways, unlike conference interpreters who are supposed to interpret from the B language to their A language. I don't really think gender or race is going to make a difference - after all it's a linguistic proficiency issue. One problem of age is that younger people are better tour guides because they have more energy and enthusiasm, but they don't usually have the experience. Older people have experience and might interpret better, but they may not want to climb a mountain with their clients. You have to find the "happy medium".
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All the contributions are interesting. For a sustainable ecotourism, interpretation which forms the backbone of communication is very important, i agree.
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Interpretation is vital in promoting a sustainable tourism development. This is absolutely right and i agree to this since it helps in promoting transparency in the tourism sector where key issues are critically analyzed and addressed at the interest of the sector. -
In protected areas especially, it helps to raise public awareness and serves well as conservation education, which sustain the vitality of protected areas as the resources for tourism to depend on. Nonetheless, in Malaysian context, some parks are lack of expertise in this particular area, as this is not seen as the 'core' area. For example, there are parks that using the same posters in the exhibition hall for more than a decade without changing, or updating the information, linking the findings from the research work by scientists to the understandable and attractive materials by the general public. Interpretation is no longer a one-way communication, from the park authority to the general public. Instead, it requires a two-way communication for mutual benefit, which contributes to sustainable tourism development, especially the role of tourism in protected areas.
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To cap it all, it helps in minimising the impact of tourists on the site. Through such interaction the visitor is able to understand the dos and don'ts for sustainable tourism.
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