Tourism and Rural Heritage: A Win-Win Relation? The Conditions of Heritage Making in Touristic Rural Regions Alain Bourdina*, Tingting Wanb and Philippe Delbosc a Lab'urba, École d'urbanisme de Paris, Université de Paris-Est, Paris, France b LAVUE/CNRS, Université Paris Nanterre, Paris, France c Heritage Architect, Toulouse, France. * Corresponding author:
[email protected] ABSTRACT The relationship between heritage and rural development takes place within the heritage making pro- cess. It presents different characteristics of what exists in urban context, especially through the role that can play the built heritage in the reception of the tourists. The study of the case of a French department, the Gers, character- ised by an important intangible heritage linked to gastronomy and agriculture, but away from the major flows of mass tourism, reveals three major criteria for success: the importance of organising an actor’s network that gathers the world of local economy, tourism and heritage, in conjunction with local authorities; the existence of a strong legitimation structure that justifies these links. In France it was developed from a scientific approach: that of rural ethnology; the inscription in a temporality which allows successive stages and which is as much that of the local de- velopment project as that of the patrimonial action itself. KEYWORDS heritagisation, rural heritage, local development, intangible heritage, cooperation, heritage legitima- tion, owners Received April 12, 2019; accepted June 17, 2019. Introduction it must prove its usefulness. The satisfaction of the inhabit- ants—if it exists—is certainly important but rarely enough. The call for articles says: ‘Preservation is the basis and On the other hand, the contribution to the tourist econo- premise of revitalisation: the latter is the guarantee and my usually seems the best way to justify any kind of action ultimate purpose of the former.’ This formula highlights on built heritage, it is thus the ‘engine’ of the making of the primacy of revitalisation.