Heritour |

netherlands

HERITOUR addresses some of the most pressing challenges in the heritage and tourism sectors today: hybridisation, resilience, sustainability, and democratisation. Challenges that, until now, have mostly been understood and addressed from a perspective of economic growth. Instead, HERITOUR advocates for a radical paradigm shift by tackling these challenges through a regenerative framework, where social, cultural, political, ecological, and economic processes are interrelated.

HERITOUR is guided by four primary research objectives:

To provide an in-depth understanding of the interrelated practices concerning shared challenges in the heritage and tourism sectors at local, national, and European levels, and to develop a novel conceptual framework on regenerative heritage tourism;
To bring forward innovative, cutting-edge interdisciplinary methodologies that reveal new narratives on regenerative heritage tourism, further enhancing our understanding of how hybridisation, resilience, sustainability, and democratisation influence these narratives;
To engage local communities concerned with heritage and tourism and include previously overlooked, unspoken, or marginalised perspectives in academic discourses, and as such developing a more holistic and effective understanding of regenerative heritage tourism;
To provide fundamental theoretical and empirical coherence to the currently fragmentary study of heritage tourism.

To achieve this, 10 doctoral candidates will conduct cutting-edge research at six universities across The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Aruba, and Turkey. A central aim of the research is to incorporate overlooked and marginalised perspectives, including those of underrepresented communities, whose voices are nevertheless essential in the understanding and development of regenerative heritage tourism. DCs will conduct their research across governance levels – local, national, and European. Therefore, the training programme, delivered in partnership with 10 international partners across seven countries, will focus on equipping DCs with the skills to integrate overlooked perspectives, involve local communities, develop sustainable practices, and become future leaders and specialists on European heritage tourism.

HERITOUR is deeply committed to cultivating a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers and professionals able to address these challenges, and transform them into workable actions. By creating synergies across these sectors, disciplines, regions, and governance levels, HERITOUR will be a transformative network, setting the way for a hybrid, resilient, sustainable, and democratic future for regenerative heritage tourism.

HERITOUR is a consortium consisting of academic partners Erasmus University Rotterdam, Middle East Technical University (Ankara, TR), Mid-Sweden University (Östersund, SE), University of Stavanger (Stavanger,NO), University of Granada (Granada, ES), University of Aruba (Oranjestad, AW).

Associate partners in the field of heritage and tourism are KORDER Association Türkiye, Istanbul Planning Agency, Europa Nostra – Türkiye, Saami Museum Gaaltije – Sweden, Kalmar Castle – Sweden, Interpret Europe – Association for Heritage Interpretation – Germany, Edge of Norway/Region Stavanger – Norway, Cas Di Cultura/Stichting Schouwburg Aruba, Monumentenfonds Aruba.