Abstract:

Tourism plays a key role in the development and competitiveness of many regions, which increasingly view the economic valorisation of their cultural heritage through tourism, as a driver of sustainable economic development. With competition growing and calling for new value-added, specialised tourism products and services, the present paper investigates the enhancement of cultural heritage through the development of value-added learning services for tourists.Learning is an inherent attribute of cultural heritage tourism. Cultural heritage tourists are in search of authentic experiences associated with a variety of cultural traits that are linked to distinct geographic locations. Dallen (2020) highlights this diversity, stating that cultural heritage tourism “encompasses built patrimony, living lifestyles, ancient artifacts and modern art and culture”. Most heritage sites are multidimensional and dense with meaning. Several cultural heritage contexts can coexist and serve as a backdrop for many overlapping learning offerings targeting diverse audiences. As the motivations and degree of engagement of cultural heritage tourists also vary, creating good tourist experiences that resonate with travelers represents a challenge for the industry. Service offerings take a variety of forms that range from tourist guide applications, assisting and guiding tourist activities to travel and destination storytelling multimedia content.
The present paper investigates the premises of learning content development and service design for cultural heritage tourism, drawing from the work of the CLOUDLEDGE (“CLOUD Learning on the EDGE of TOurism and Culture”) project and other relevant research efforts and achievements.

Keywords:

Cultural heritage tourism, e-learning, mobile learning, content development.