Sheffield Business School
BSc (Honours) Tourism Management
Title The development of heritage tourism in Macau: A Case Study
Name YUNG KA WAI, VERA
Student No 91204610
Month Year April 2010
1
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Business School
Title The development of heritage tourism in Macau: A Case Study
FULL NAME YUNG KA WAI, VERA
STUDENT No 91204610
Supervisor: Dr. Connie Mok
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management.
Month Year April 2010
2 Acknowledgements
This study could not be completed without the assistance and support of many people, and I want to acknowledge them here. First, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor, Dr. Connie Mok. She is the person who pushes me to work by utilizing various ways to encourage me. She also stimulates me by giving suggestions and guidance to help me in the entire procedure of the study. Besides, she has provided me with valuable suggestions and ideas with her profound knowledge.
Besides, I would like to thank my friends and classmates for their support and mutual help. Without their support and encouragement, this study could not be finished.
At last, I want to acknowledge my mother for her love and patient.
3 Abstract
In recent year, tourists are tend to seek for the authentic trip and experiencing more about the cultural and heritage in the destination. Heritage tourism, therefore, has a growth of the tourism Trend. Macau, a unique places that possesses array of valuable heritage sites with the mixture of Western countries and China. “The Historic centre of Macao” even approved to be the
World Heritage Site in 2005.
The purpose of this study is to find out the elements that influence the development of heritage tourism in Macau. Therefore, the result can point out the ways to develop its tourism well and get the good benefit of this tourism.
In the conclusion and recommendation, the study is to attempting to point out the six influencing elements to heritage tourism in Macau and give the recommendation for the weakness when it is on the growing stage.
4 Contents Pages Cover page 1 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Contents 5 List of tables and figures 7
Chapter 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Background 8 1.2 Aim 10 1.3 Objectives of the research 10 1.4 Dissertation outline 11
Chapter 2 Literature Review 12 2.1 The concept of sustainability 12 2.2 Definition of cultural tourism 12 2.2.1 Definition of culture 14 2.3 Definition of heritage tourism 15 2.3.1 Definition of cultural heritage 17 2.3.2 The characteristics of heritage tourists 18 2.3.3 Heritage interpretation 19 2.3.4 Heritage management 20 2.3.5 Community involvement 21 2.3.6 Authenticity 22 2.4 Macau tourism industry 23 2.4.1 History of Macau 23 2.4.2 Tourism development in Macau 24 2.4.3 Heritage tourism in Macau 26 2.4.3.1 World Heritage Site 26 2.4.4 Cultural Identity of Macau 27 2.4.5 Macau’s Image 30 2.4.6 The heritage management in Macau 31 2.4.6.1 Conservation of heritage sites by government 34 2.4.6.2 National protection and international protection 35 2.4.6 Benefit of heritage tourism 35 2.47 Challenges for Heritage Tourism in Macau 36
5 Chapter 3 Methodology 38 3.1 Case study 38 3.2 Secondary research 39 3.3 Advantages 41 3.4 Limitation 40
Chapter 4 Findings 43 4.1 Conceptual framework 43 4.2 Government support 44 4.3 Community involvement 47 4.4 Heritage Interpretation 48 4.5 Conservation 51 4.6 Tourism trend 53 4.7 Gambling industry 55 4.8 Outcomes 57 4.8.1 Sustainability 57 4.8.2 Host-Community identity 58 4.8.3 Jobs opportunity 59 4.8.4 Heritage-related activities 60
Chapter 5 Conclusions and recommendations 63
Reference List 67
6 List of tables
Table 1 33 Table 2 49 Table 3 54 Table 4 60
List of figures
Conceptual framework of Macau’s heritage tourism development 43
7 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Heritage is the inheritance to be passed down to current and future. Although it
is selective, it also represents the sense of identity and belonging of local people. Heritage tourism has grown in recent years because of the higher level of education, income and technology. The globalization makes the world smaller, people get the information of the other place easier and the curiosities are grown. It is defined as the act of “traveling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present” (The National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2000)
Macau, a tiny place of China, has her unique culture .Started from Ming
Dynasty, Macau had been a colony of Portugal for nearly four hundred years where was also an important trading port between European countries and
China .Meantime, the foreigners brought lots of featured architectures and
their cultures to Macau. Therefore, Macau possesses array of unique
heritages in colonial and Western color in this piece of Chinese soil as well as
performs the coexistence of the Eastern and Western countries.
8 Although gambling is so popular and flourishing in Macau, the government has
never ignored the preservation of their heritages. According to the Macao
World heritage Information Kit, the Macau governor, Marques Esparteiro, had
started to pay attention on preserving their heritage and established a
committee in charge of these jobs since 1953. Today, Macau government still
very concerns the protection of its heritages .We can prove it though the
Cultural heritage Department of the Cultural Affairs Bureau established to responsible for all Macau heritages and they determine on educating the local and encourage them to get involve in the heritage tourism.
On 15 July 2005,” The Historic Centre of Macao “was inscribed on the World
Heritage List and became the 31 World Heritage Sites in China. It is the oldest, the most completed and concentrated heritage sites with mixture of western and traditional Chinese architectures in this tiny land which enables people to have deeper understanding of the spread of western religion .It contains about twenty valuable historical architectures.
9 1.2 Aim
Mass tourism has been a main economic pillar in Macau since many years ago;
however, heritage tourism is a new trend in recent years. The heritage sites
are preserved and conserved well and there are distinctive advantages to
promote heritage tourism in Macau .Therefore, I want to identify the progress
of developing heritage tourism in Macau and the improvement they should do in this study.
1.3 Objectives of the research
Based on the aim of the dissertation, here are the objectives I want to achieve and investigate:
1) To find out how Macau government preserves heritage sites;
2) To find out the destination image of Macau ;
3) To identify the elements influencing the heritage tourism development in
Macau; and
4) To recommend the ways to improve heritage tourism in Macau.
10 1.4 Dissertation Outline
Chapter one is an introduction of the heritage tourism and the distinctive
advantages of Macau developing this kind of tourism. Aim and objectives are
included in this part to show what the purpose of this study.
Chapter two is a literature on reviewing the definitions of heritage tourism,
images of Macau, legislations that Macau government would make to preserve
heritages and the challenges would meet.
Chapter three illustrates the method used in this study. It shows the research
method I chose and describes the processes of carrying out the research.
Chapter four presents the results of this project. The six elements that
influence the heritage tourism development in Macau are identified and four
outcomes are discussed.
The last chapter is the conclusion and the recommendation of the project. It
summarizes all the finding after analyzing and the suggestion for improving the
heritage tourism in Macau
11 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The concept of sustainability
World Commission on Environment and Development identified it is “forms of
progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their needs.”
Richards (2007) noted that sustainability is about reaching a simultaneously
increase of social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits in the
development process.
2.2 Definition of Cultural tourism
The definition of cultural tourism is arguably. The varied definitions are provided by different authors. It is not easy to set a universally valid definition of cultural tourism. It is relatively easy to fall into trap of using terms, such as heritage tourism, art tourism, ethnic tourism or indigenous tourism that is almost interchangeable.
Richards (2001a, p7) suggested that cultural tourism should cover the consumption of cultural products of the past and contemporary culture or the
12 personal or regional ‘way of life’. Thus, cultural tourism can be seen as covering both heritage tourism and art tourism.
Cultural tourism is as much based on experiencing as it is on seeing compare to the past definitions as previous definitions placed much more emphasis on cultural tourism as a in its narrow sense of arts and heritage tourism (Smith,
2003). In 1999, the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research (ATLAS) carried out a Cultural Tourism Research Project for which they defined cultural tourism as:
“Technical Definition: All movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as museums, heritage sited, artistic performances and festivals outside their normal place of residence” (Richards, 1996, p24).
“Conceptual Definition: The movement of persons to cultural manifestations away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs” (Ibid.).
On the other hand, Stebbins (1996) noticed that cultural tourism is a style of special interest tourism based on the exploring and involve in new and deep cultural experience whether aesthetic ,emotional intellectual or psychological.
13 2.2.1 Definition of Culture
According to William (1958, p4) “Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every
society human society has its own shape, its own purposes, and its own
meanings. Every society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and
learning”
Smith (2003, p10) has a more specific definition. “Culture is viewed as being
about the whole way of life of a particular people or social group with distinctive
signifying systems involving all forms of activity. These are useful and
comprehensive definitions, since they cover both the development of individual and group culture, conveying the importance of heritage and tradition, as well as contemporary culture and lifestyle.”
2.3 Definition of Heritage tourism
There are several of experts and researchers tried to define “Heritage tourism”.
It is one type of cultural tourism which includes “movements of persons for
essentially cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and
cultural tours, travel to study nature” (World Tourism Organization, 1985, p6).
14 Ibid. also has a similar saying that tourism makes use of the conserved past artifacts and hence gaining a patina of artistic patronage and educational
worth, while the conservation lobby obtaining justification and political support ,as well as the possibility of a volume of needed financial contribution.
Smith (2003, p37) noted that “Heritage tourism is concerned largely with the interpretation and representation of the past. Hence it is a branch of cultural tourism that can be something of a political and ethnical minefield. Heritage has become increasingly politicized as recognition has been granted to
previously marginalized, minority and ethnic group. The study of history is
always disjointed and distorted in some way. The quest for absolute truth and the depiction of ‘reality’ is ultimately a fruitless quest, as evidence is often hard to some by, and its interpretation is subjective and biased. The so-called ‘grand narratives’ of the past have often been refuted because of their patriarchal and
ethnocentric bias. Instead the social histories of working classes, women,
ethnic minorities and indigenous groups have gradually become the subject of
considerable academic and public interest.”
Moreover, Zeppel and Hall (1992, p7) defined heritage tourism is based on
15 nostalgia for past and the desire to experience diverse cultural landscapes and forms.
2.3.1 Definition of Cultural Heritage
Referring to the World Heritage Convention, ‘Cultural heritage’ is defined as below:
Monuments:
architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements
or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and
combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the
point of view of history, art or science;
Groups of buildings:
groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their
architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of
outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;
Sites:
works of man or the combined works of nature and of man, and areas
16 including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from
the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological points of view.
Smith (1998, p69) mentioned about “Heritage sites and buildings are not just important because of what they reveal about the past… Nor are the y just fine parts of a human-created landscape that are pleasing to the eye and interesting to the intellect. They are examples that we carry with us into future.
We can learn from them, we can teach from them, we can inform our future choices by understanding them. In a very real sense, heritage is as much about the past.”
Therefore, heritage stresses the importance of social meanings and values.
These meanings and values are usually linked with identity and with the construction of memory (Franquesa and Morell, 2007, p171).
2.3.2 The Characteristics of heritage tourist
Referring to Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996), the characteristics of heritage tourist are noted as following:
- Better than average education
- Age groups 20 to 30 or 45 to 60
17 - In the older age category, or above- average income
- An actual or aspirant member of the middle class.
- Travelling without children
- Experienced in foreign travel
- Chooses catered accommodation forms
- Relatively high per diem expenditure
In 2003 , Smith also stated that “Heritage tourists are often believed to be a
‘better class’ of tourist because they tend to spend more money in the local economy of a destination and they are supposedly sensitive to local culture, customs and traditions of the host community. They are also more likely to have some awareness of environmental and conservation issues.”
18 2.3.3 Heritage interpretation
Tilden (1977, p8) defined ‘interpretation’ as “An educational activity, which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by first-hand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.” Use is made of a wide range of tools, which are becoming increasingly high-tech and interactive. Light (1995, p139) stated that at the heart of interpretation is informed education. Interpretation is designed to communicate the significance of heritage places, in a manner appropriate to visitors engaged in leisure activities during their leisure time.
Schouten (1995) argued that the visitor is looking for an experience rather than the hard facts of historical reality, which can be provided through interpretation.
Uzzell (1989, p41) saw it can stress the need of visitors to engage with and learn form heritage: If interpretation is to be a source of social good then it must recognize the continuity of history and alert us to the future through the past. Interpretation should be interesting, engaging, enjoyable, informative and entertaining. But now and again it has to be shocking, moving and provide a cathartic experience.
19 Light (1995, p139) states that ‘At the heart of interpretation is informal
education. Interpretation is designed to communicate the significance of
heritage places, in a manner appropriate to visitors engaged in leisure
activities during their leisure time.’ This combination of learning and fun has
been referred to by Urry (1990) as ‘edutainment’, a concept that has become
central to leisure and tourism industries.(Smith ,2003:83)
2.3.4 Heritage management
Heritage management is gradually a global phenomenon in destinations.
Mckercher and Du Cros defined cultural heritage management (CHM) is the
systematic care taken to maintain the cultural values of cultural heritage assets
for enjoyment of present and future generations. A series of internationally
recognized codes and charters, such as the Venice Charter (ICOMOS 1994)
and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, dictate its core principles
However, McKercher and Du Cros (2002,p59) also noted that the cultural heritage management sector’s traditional lack of power often makes it vulnerable to tourism, especially when governments regard these assets as
potential revenue generating by tourism use and CHM conservation objectives.
20 So, decision makers need to have reasonable expectation of the amount of tourism potential an asset has and how to achieve that potential in a socially and culturally responsible manner.
In addition, Bramwell and Lane (2000, p1) mentioned that the importance of involving diverse stakeholders in tourism planning and management is receiving growing recognition. This has led to increasing attention being directed to the use of collaborative arrangements or partnership that bring together a range of interests in order to develop and sometimes also implement tourism policies….Stakeholder collaboration has the potential to lead dialogue, negotiation and building of mutually acceptable proposals about how tourism should be developed.
2.3.5 Community Involvement
Boyd and Singh (2003) pointed out latest researchers have strongly recommended community-based tourism for a sustainable tourism industry.
Host communities involve intourism planning and development is fundamental to the process (Cooper and Wanhill, 1997; Richards and Hall, 2000). Therefore,
21 community involves in tourism could offer chances for them to participate and
control and provides income sources for them during development. Otherwise,
the economic benefits can encourage local community to protect the natural
and cultural resources while they realize conservation and sustainable
management offer them income sources (Naguran, 1999).
Moreover, general public participation in planning is important in the
sustainable tourism which should include gaining attitudes and perceptions of
residents’ views on their environment, community aspirations and on the tourists themselves.
2.3.6 Authenticity
Authenticity is perhaps the one area in cultural heritage management and conversation planning in which lively debate has resulted in a noticeable broadening of opinions (Mckercher and Du Cros, 2002, p73). Prentice (2001) argued that “experiential” cultural tourism is about the research for authentic experience. It is produced between tourism providers and consumers, in discussing museum-based heritage tourism.
22 MacCannell (1984) suggested that attractions vary in the degree to which they are “staged” or shown to tourists. He suggested visitors seek the real or authentic experiences because everyday modern life is artificial, fragmented and holds little meanings. According to MacCannell, it was from this quest that modern tourism arose.Thus, “staged” approach assumed that authenticity was an agreed upon absolute, and could be objectively defined, discovered and enjoyed (Budruk, 2008, p187).
2.4 Macau Tourism industry
2.4.1 History of Macau
Macau is located one hour by ferry Hong Kong and lies adjacent to southern
Chinese province of Guangdong. It was not more than a small collection of fishing villages when Portuguese, Eurasians, Indians, Malays, Chinese and
Japanese (Du Cros, 2007)Beginning in 1670, Portugal leased the territory, although there was no transfer of sovereignty.
The Chinese people adopted a “three no’s” approach as a means to continue their struggle with the government – no taxes, no services, no selling to the
Portuguese. They were successful and in 1967 the Portuguese government of
23 Macau signed a statement of apology. This marked recognition of Chinese identity and of de facto Chinese control of the colony and the beginning of equal treatment.
Portugal and the People’s Republic of China agreed 12 years later to regard
Macau as “a Chinese territory under (temporary) Portuguese administration.”
Negotiations between the Chinese and Portuguese governments on the question of Macau started in June 1986. In 1987, an international treaty, known as the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, was signed to make Macau a
Special Administrative Region of the PRC.
2.4.2 Tourism development in Macau
The tourism development in Macau has closely linked to gaming in the very early period. The sub sector of tourism has also been benefited as it brought the improvement to other service sectors, and supports employment.
According to Pao (2004), he examined that the little and unregistered casinos had begun to appear since the Portuguese Macau Government announced the legality of gaming in 1847. In 1930, a local businessman set up Hou Heng Co.,
24 which won the sole right for the first time to carry out gaming business. In 1937,
Tai Heng Co. won the concession and operated three casinos. Meanwhile, the
tourist resources and establishments had begun to develop. However, there
were only three well-established hotels, namely International Hotel, Central
Hotel and East Asia Hotel in the 1950s. Until the Government granted the
Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) the franchise to operate
casinos in 1962, tourism then entered into a take-off era.
With the increasing number of Hong Kong visitors and the promotional efforts
of the Government, several hotels of international standards such as Lisboa,
Santiago, President, Hyatt Regency, Royal and Mandarin Oriental were established between the 1070s and the 1980s. Other than the hotel facilities, cultural attractions and events have appeared and visitors have been keen on trying different cuisines in Macau.
Accordance with the Macau Tourism Figure 2008, Macao’s top three tourism markets have been Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan in the past three years. The numbers of Mainland China visitors are increasing every year.
25 Refer to recent statistics from China, from 9.1 million visitors in 2000, arrivals to Macau has grown to 18.7 million visitors in 2005, 21.98 million visitors in
2006 and is expected to receive between 24 and 25 million visitors in 2007, with over 50% of the arrivals coming from mainland China (Kiosk, 2009) .In
February ,2010 Macau received 2.05 million visitors, up 24.4 percent on the same month of last year, announced the DSEC.
2.4.3 Heritage tourism in Macau
Macau possesses a total number of 129 monuments, buildings, ensembles, and sites which including the non-World heritage sites and World heritage sites.Heritage tourism in Macau began to develop in parallel with gambling as one of the key attractions of Macau before 2002 and in the yearbook 2002 has also mentioned that the government attempted to start the work on sustainable development.
The Chief Executive of Macau, Edmund Ho named gaming, leisure and MICE as the three pillars of Macau‘s economy in 2002, then “the breaking of the monopoly on gambling to allow Las Vegas investment in casino development, the Macau government made the way was clear to allow a new generation
26 multipurpose leisure and gambling complexes to be constructed” (du Cros,
2009, p82). It causes the rapid growth of gambling industry. With a period of time, Macau government realized the negative problem caused by this rapid growing industry.
In 2008, MGTO also made a presentation to the Committee of Tourism Support and Development in Macau on next year’s objectives to improve the visitor experience by supplying site guides to improve the visitor experience for the
World Heritage Site (WHS), heritage bus shuttles from transport hubs to heritage attractions (MGTO, 2008a).
2.4.3.1 World Heritage Site
“The Historic Centre of Macao” is combined by streetscapes and piazzas such as Barra SquareSt. Augustine’s Square, Cathedral Square, Lilau Square, St.
Dominic’s Square, Senado Square, Company of Jesus Square and Camões
Square. The linkage is provided for a succession of over twenty monuments, comprising including Moorish Barracks, Mandarin’s House, St. Anthony’s
Church, St. Lawrence’s Church, St. Augustine’s Church, St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church, St. Dominic’s Church, Dom Pedro V Theatre, Sir Robert Ho Tung
27 Library, “Leal Senado” Building, Holy House of Mercy, Cathedral, Lou Kau
Mansion, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple, A-Ma Temple, Na Tcha
Temple, Section of the Old City Walls, Mount Fortress, Casa Garden, the
Protestant Cemetery and Guia Fortress (including Guia Chapel and Guia
Lighthouse)(MGTO, 2005).
At the 29th Session of the World Heritage Committee “The Historic Centre of
Macao” was officially approved to be the World heritage site, following strict analysis by the Committee and its associated experts on 25 March, 2005. It is a living representation of the city’s historic western settlement, involving architectural legacies interwoven among the original urban fabric illustrating the first and most lasting encounter between China and the western world
(MGTO, 2005)
2.4.4 Cultural Identity of Macau
Macau has obtained a specific identity since it belongs to China and had been
the Portuguese colony. The concept of “identity” relates mainly to a sense of
community based on history and culture. Moreover, it reflects not only a sense
of one’s self as an individual, but rather as a holder of a particular cultural
heritage. “Those feelings and values in respect of continuity, shared memories
28 and a sense of common destiny of given unit of population which has had common experiences and cultural attributes” point to the terms of collective identity (Smith, 1990, p170).
PATA had twice given compliments to Macau identity. It indicates that “the people of Macau and its government should be justly proud of the marvelous and rich urban experience that the city offers to both visitors as well as themselves. The physical and social quality of the city is most impressive […] it is a history in action as well as in stone and stucco. The people themselves, as they go about their daily activities, are a vital part of the Macao experience”
(PATA, 1980, p15).
In 1994 , PATA also defines Macau has its own identity due to its heritage, its way of life, and its unique capacity to be a meeting point and a place of patience. People can find the culture that simply is Macao that mixture with
Chinese and western styles together which you cannot be classified it is west or east, simply that it is Macao.
29 2.4.5 Macau’s Image
Macau has been given numerous of compliments since it was a colony of
Portugal. Cheng (2004) indicated that after the Diocese of Macau was formally established in 1576, Macau was dubbed with a hallowed name – “City of the
name of God”. Meanwhile, Macau was trusted to have built more churches and
chapels for its size than any other country, and prided by the name of
“Christian City” and “Holy City”.
Despite the proselytizing zeal of Judeo – Christian tradition, the Portuguese
failed to replace the Buddhist – Daoist faiths in Macau. It remains a religious
site where a multiplicity of cross – religious divinities proliferates. The worship
of A-Ma (Tian Hou, the Dioist Doggess of the Sea) in Macau originated with the
folk beliefs of fishermen living along the coast of South China. Most local
residents would go to temples to pray for blessings from certain deities according to situational need. A-Ma Temple has played a prominent role in
Macau, thus it also named as the “City of Tian Hou” (Macau Cultural Affair
Bureau, 2009).
People can easily find pleasure and feel decline in this “Holy City”, such as
30 Western cities. The evolution of Macau from a Catholic bishopric to Asia’s
foremost modern City of Gambling is not without irony. Although it was once
hailed as the “Eastern Vatican” and “Rome of the Far East”, its flourishing
gambling business has gained it fame as the “Las Vegas of the Far East” and
“Monte Carlo of the Orient”. Macau even prides itself on having more gambling
table than Monte Carlo and more churches than the Vatican. Moreover, its
heritage city image was confirmed by the “Historic Center of Macao”. The
antithetical juxtaposition of churches and casinos are the allegories of virtue
and vice that co-exist simultaneously (Cheng, 2002). These features attract
lots of people to visit Macau every year.
2.4.6 The Heritage Management in Macau
As there are lots of heritage in Macau which including World heritage and non
world heritage, they are under different conservation and protection policies.
2.4.6.1 Conservation of Heritage Sites by Government
There are a total number of 129 monuments, buildings, ensembles, and sites on the conservation list are regulated by the Decrees issued by Macau government.
31 The Decree Law No. 37/ 76/ M was the first in-depth of cultural heritage preservation in Macao that was promulgated on August 7, 1976. A new law in heritage preservation was promulgated on June 3, 1984 to replace Decree
Law No. 34/ 76/ M. The new law provided a more accurate and detailed definition and categorization of Macao’s cultural heritage properties and giving more comprehensive stipulations focus on the types of conservation measures for each cultural heritage property category (Cultural Affair Bureau, 2009).
Decree Law No. 83/ 92/ M was promulgated On December 31, 1992.This is the most up to dated heritage preservation law. A list and a map of the designated properties were included in two appendixes. The cultural Heritage
Department of the Cultural Institute currently pursues conservation works according with these two laws (Cultural Affair Bureau, 2009).
In addition, Macau government established few departments to responsible for the heritage- related affairs (Shown in Table 1).
32 Table 1. Heritage conservation-related departments Responsibilities The Cultural Affairs Bureau (1982) Principal government body for the formulation of heritage conservation policies. Entrusted with developing regulations and guidelines to ensure the public enjoyment of Macao’s historic architectural and cultural heritage, The executive arm of the Cultural Affairs The Cultural Heritage Department Bureau for classifying, restoring and renovating Macao’s cultural heritage. (1982) Specially, the department is tasked with: (1) evaluating plans and proposals relating to the listing, study, classification and protection of Macao’s cultural heritage; and (2) assisting in the development of heritage conservation guidelines.
Organizing and supporting research Studies, Research and Publications work, producing studies concerning the Territory's culture, granting subsidies for training in the Arts, holding competitions for Research Scholarships in the fields of History, Literary Studies, Cultural Heritage, Anthropology and Sociology, and organizing and supporting seminars, conferences and lectures. It maintains regular contacts with universities, institutes and research centers.
Source: Built heritage conservation policy in selected places 2008 and CAB
2009
33 2.4.6.2 National protection and international protection
Referring to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) of the meeting of the Convention for the Protection of
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972 states that member countries
should assume primary responsibility for safeguarding World Heritage
properties in their countries as well as agree to do all they can with their own
resources and with international assistance which includes the following:
(a) to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and natural
heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programme
(b) to set up within its territories, where such services do not exist, one or more services for the protection, conservation, and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage with an appropriate staff and possessing the means to discharge their functions;
(c) to develop scientific and technical studies and research and to work out such operating methods as will make the State capable of counteracting the
34 dangers that threaten its cultural or natural heritage;
(d) to take the appropriate legal, scientific, technical, administrative and
financial measures necessary for the identification, protection, conservation,
presentation and rehabilitation of this heritage; and
(e) to foster the establishment or development of national or regional centers
for training in the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and
natural heritage and to encourage scientific research in this field
Therefore, Macau government should agree and follow this agreement with it possessing “The Historic Centre of Macao”.
2.4.7 Benefit of heritage tourism
Inskeep (2003, p370) indicates that “a sense of pride by residents in their culture can be reinforced or even renewed when they observe tourists appreciating it. This is especially true of some traditional cultures that are undergoing change as result of general economic development and are losing their sense of cultural self –confidence.”
35
Heritage tourism also have some positive economic impact on local economies , such as new businesses, jobs and higher property values , tourism adds less tangible – but equally important- payoffs. A well tourism program leads to improve the living standard of local community and overall national and regional economic development (Inskeep, 2003).
An area that develops its potential for cultural heritage tourism creates new opportunities for tourist to gain an understanding of an unfamiliar place, people or time. With arrival of visitors in turn come new opportunities for preservation, the significance of preserving other such sites else where (NTHP, 2005).
2.4.8 Challenges for the Heritage Tourism in Macau
The main challenge of Macau heritage tourism is the visitor congestion in famous world heritage sites, especially in A- Ma temple and St. Paul’ s Ruin .
Accordingly, two main types of congestion have been identified: permanent and fluctuating congestion. Many researchers mention about this problem.
“With the off-peak figures and other tourist numbers factored in from student’s counts and interviews, it is likely that St. Paul’s Ruins attracted over 1.3 million
36 tourists of all kinds over 12 months meaning that around 1 in 14 people arriving
in Macau went to visit it in the year after it was inscribed in 2005(du
Cros,2009,p91)” In the 2008 observations , t St. Paul’s Ruins was confirmed
that is truly suffering permanent congestion on a daily basis and the busiest
times are early in the morning and later in the afternoon( du Cros,2009)
A-Ma Temple is experiencing fluctuating congestion, which could be verging
on permanent congestion if tourist numbers continue to increase at the current rate. The temple hosts various annual Chinese even and all these events attract a large amount of tourists and local residents.
.
37 CHAPTER 3 METHODOGLY
This chapter aims to illustrate the chosen method of search using in this study.
It also identifies the limitation when collecting data. This is a qualitative research using case study method. The research method is the method that aims to gather many data from different database and to conceptual a framework based on these data and information.
3.1 Case Study
Researcher Robert K. Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin,
1984, p. 23).
The Cumulative Case Study of various types of case study is used in this dissertation. It serves to accumulate the information from numerous sources at different times. The idea behind this study is to collect the past studies for a greater generalization.
38 3.2 Secondary research
Secondary data can be described as the most widely used method for data collection. It is the existing primary data that someone collected for a purpose other than the current one and includes collecting information from third-party sources.
The researcher has review those relevant documents and literatures to obtain
a valuable point of view on the heritage tourism development in Macau. The
sources of the secondary data are as following:
Sources
Journals:
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research
Journal of Heritage Tourism
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
Books:
Issues In Cultural Tourism Studies
Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural
HeritageManagement
39 Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives
Tourism at World Heritage Cultural Sites: The Site Manager’s Handbook
Special Interest Tourism
Macau Tourism Figures 2008
Built heritage conservation in selected places
Websites:
http://www.macauheritage.net/cn/Default.aspx
http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/asia-pacific-world-heritage-sites/faqs/
what-is-world-heritage/?type=98
http://www.macaukiosk.com/macau-tourism.php
http://www.amcm.gov.mo/publication/quarterly/Oct2004/Macao_en.pdf
http://www.mhaa.org.mo/
Press release:
Macao's tourism industry grows rapidly in 2007
Macau received 2 million visitors in January
Macau government to revamp the area of the Ruins of Saint Paul
Inscribed! Macao’s Heritage now features on World Heritage List
40 Macau received 4.1 million visitors in the first two months of 2010
3.2 Advantages
It is quite efficient and convenient when using secondary data because of
several advantages. Researcher can find the relevant information easily
through internet, libraries, electronic database and international journals etc.
Moreover, doing qualitative research method is rather low cost and more time-saving than quantitative research method as the use of secondary data has allowed researcher access to valuable information for little or no cost to acquire. As well as the detailed information procedure used in data collection of primary research is not able to apply in this study. Finally, this research method helps to clarify the research focus when using prior to primary research and improves the understanding of the study.
3.3 Limitation
There are some limitations when using secondary data. First, there are inadequate academic journals or books and few statistics about heritage tourism in Macau although the “The Historic Center of Macao” was approved to list on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Second, as the trend of tourism
41 industry is fast changing, the information or data collected by secondary research may not updated and the out-of-date research may have little or no relevance to the current situation, therefore, the information may be biased or inaccurate . Third, it is not always allowed to access to read the electronic journal and books. Finally, it is quite time-consuming when using case study as there are large number of information to filter and select from different sources.
In addition, the development of heritage tourism involves a variety of categories; it is difficult to cover all of them based on secondary data.
42 Chapter 4 Findings 4.1 Conceptual Framework
The heritage tourism in Macau is still in developing stage, but it has possessed unique historical background and features with a vast valuable historic sites and cultural value.
This chapter focuses on the elements that would influence the development of
Macau’s heritage tourism. The following model provides a framework of reference for the discussion of findings. This model comprises six elements that were developed based on the literature review in chapter two.
Figure1. Conceptual framework of Macau’s heritage tourism development
43 4.2 Government Support
Although government knows that gaming and tourism are taking an important
role in Macau’s economy, it also recognizes the rapid growth of gaming would
deeply influence the culture and society in the negative way in the future.
Therefore, government started to promote and preserve the distinctive
heritages after handover. Apart from the policies and department established in
the early period, Macau government tried to integrate its tourism policies with heritage conservation, in view of the economic importance of heritage tourism to the city. In recent years, the government has developed initiatives which incorporate the promotion of Macao's historic assets into the tourism marketing strategy. For example, the Cultural Affairs Bureau established a marketing programme in 2000 to promote three "Cultural Heritage Tours of Macao" routes, which link up some classified monuments, "buildings of architectonic interest", ensembles and sites in Macao. Each route has its own theme and attractions, whereby locals and tourists can explore numerous aspects of
Macao's historic heritage.
In 2002, Macao Cultural Institute was provided a budget of over US$12 million which presented” a broad strategy from publications, the establishment and
44 maintenance of libraries and archives, cultural and artistic events, arts and film festivals to the running and maintenance of the Macau Conservatory (for music,
dance and drama), The Museum of Macau (constructed in the interior of one of
Macao’s oldest and largest fortresses, Monte Fort) and various libraries”
(McCartney and Nadkarni, 2004). It shows that government really wants to
improve the cultural standard and social value through conserving the valuable
heritages and strengthening the cultural resources.
In an attempt to protect Macao’s unique Sino-Portuguese architectural and
cultural heritage, government noticed that all the new mega-resorts comprising
casinos, convention centres and hotels and other supporting infrastructure
projects are to be built on Macao Peninsula’s Outer Harbour and on reclaimed
land between the two off-short islands of Taipa and Coloane (Ponto Final,
2003). Since the most valuable historic sites were built in the Macao Peninsula and the mega-resorts are always attracted large number of tourists that would cause the problems of congestion and overcrowding easily. Therefore, this decision can prevent the damaging by visitors and control the carrying capacity of the distinctive cultural architectures and heritages.
45 The submission of “Historic Centre of Macao” for being a world heritage site of
UNSECO was successful by Macau government, it was inscribed in the World
Heritage List in 2005.It may further raise community and visitor awareness,
fostering a greater appreciation of heritage in Macau and the ensuing benefits
would lead to more concerted efforts on the conservation of Macau's historic
heritage.
In addition, Macau government has put in place a tax incentive rule to reduce
the burden of private owners in dealing with the costs of maintaining and
restoring their historic assets. This action is not only increase the fund for heritage preservation, but also lighten the costs of government and private owners.
“The new heritage conservation law to be enacted by the Macao government also aims at introducing administrative procedures which allow for public involvement in the identification of cultural heritage” (Built Heritage
Conservation Policy in Selected Places).
However, Macau has less policy to prevent the visitor congestion in the famous heritage sites; it would cause the condition of overcrowded and conflict between public are easily to make through there are not site-manager.
46 4.2 Community Participation
Community is the basis of a destination, thus it is vital to get public involve to a
development in the places. They know the want and require of the
communities that sometimes the government do not realize.
Although the conservation efforts are primarily initiated by the Cultural
Consultative Committee that responsible to advise on the implementation of
cultural heritage policies, the membership of the Committee are including
government officials, professionals and representatives from the cultural, art,
academic and business sectors. People come from different classes always
can present their needs to generate an effective policies.
Since 2004, public are keeping to be informed of Macao’s heritage-related
activities from the website “Macao Heritage Net” established by Cultural Affairs
Bureau (CAB). They can learn more about the development and importance of heritage conservation through exhibitions, seminar and workshops, thus, they would know more about their history and culture as well as getting a higher
awareness to preserve their place.
The teenagers are able to participate in the “Heritage Ambassador Scheme”
47 which is held by CAB and Macao Heritage Ambassadors Association (MHAA)
to popularized the sense of heritage conservation and promote the cultural
heritages to tourists and local resident in order to introduce Macau and
increase the local identity. According to MHAA, They will become the Heritage
Ambassadors and work on various activities to promote Macao's cultural
heritage after training.
In addition, public were asked the opinion for the new heritage conservation
law in 2009 for identification of cultural heritage. However, the public
consultations are still not enough of government and businesses in only
specific programmes.
4.3 Heritage Interpretation
The heritage interpretation is taking a vital role in the heritage tourism. It
educates people about the place that they are visiting and to provide an
enjoyable, and even entertaining, experience for visitors. These two elements work together increase visitor’s respect for heritage responsibility for caring it.
Besides, interpretation is nearly always required as the meanings of places and their significance are difficult to grasp without the assistance of
48 interpreters and interpretive media.
Heritage can be interpreted through interpretive Media – personal media and non-personal media. Personal media such as museum are built widely in
Macau. It contains twenty museums in this tiny destination (Shown in Table 2).
Table 2. List of Museums in Macau - The Nature and - Grand Prix Museum Agriculture Museum - Maritime Museum - Museum of Holy House of - Communications Museum Mercy of Macao - Heritage Exhibition of a - Wine Museum Traditional Pawnshop - Handover Gifts Museum - Fire Services Museum of Macao - Museum of Sacred Art - Lin Zexu Mermorial and Crypt Museum of Macao - Museum of Taipa and - Macao Science Center Coloane History - Dr.Sun lat Sen’s Memorial - Treaure of Sacred Art House in Macau - Museum of the Macao - Macao Museum of Art Security Forces - The Taipa House Museum - Macao Tea Culture House - Macao Museum
Source: Museums in Macao
Most of them are placed in the historic sites and provide the free guided tour. It
49 is not only interpreting the species of related museum, but also its unique
architecture sometimes. Through guided-tour or free-guided tour, visitor’s
understanding of Macau and their visiting experience are enhanced. A quite
large number of museums were established shows that the Macau’s cultures can be largely promoted or penetrated to public in different categories since
they find acquiring knowledge enjoyable and enrich their experience. As well
as visitors can learn the diversified Macau elaborately in the variety of cultures
that co-exists with Chinese and Sino-Portuguese as well as the modern
culture.
Non-personal media are common at most heritage locations and include both
visual and audio devices. Written material is a very common interpretive media
such as brochures, guidebooks, labels and maps. Most of the heritage sites
provide brochure to introduce the history and the labels clearly to indicate the place for tourists. As well as Macau Government Tourists Office even established the online guidebook and brochure to tourists in order to increase the convenience.
However, interpretation sometimes might interfere with experience when an
interpreter provides propaganda instead of presentation.
50 4.4 Conservation
The “Historic Centre of Macao” has lead Macau’s heritage conservation to a
new stage. Apart from the legislation and related department established for
Macau heritage protection the very early time, Macau seems having few
encouragement to conserve the monuments. In contrast, government focused
on the gambling industry or MICE tourism after hand over.
In order to encourage the successful factor of submitting “Historic Centre
Macao” as the World Heritage Site of UNESCO, “Macao Cultural Heritage
Preservation Year” was launched by Cultural Affairs Bureau in 2004. It aimed
to reinforce the understanding of local cultures and improve the awareness of
conserving the local culture and heritage for public through arranging a series
of activities
On the other hand, the “Historic Centre of Macao” was successful inscribed in
the World Heritage List. It helps to enhance the recognition in the international
status, and thus government and public associations become pay a highest
attention on their distinctive monuments when they even have a little damage.
Moreover, government much more concerns the urban planning and conservation around the World Heritage Site. For example, MacauNews on 24
51 February in 2010 presented that The Ruins of St. Paul faced various problems
such as, traffic chaos, inadequate tourism facilities, serious air pollution, weak
connections between different world heritage attractions and the conflict
between heritage preservation and private ownership. The Macau government
plans to revitalize the surrounding area of the Ruins of St. Paul to give to tourists new attractions and improve the quality of life of residents in the area.
It plan to cooperate with the School of Design and Environment of the National
University of Singapore, “ aims to set the Ruins of St. Paul's as the core of the
"world heritage travel network", which then expands to the Camoes Garden,
Tap Seac/St. Lazarus parish, Almeida Ribeiro Avenue, the Inner Harbour and also the Guia Lighthouse.”
No doubted, heritage is a major resource for heritage tourism and especially heritage recognized by international association, conservation is an essential element for sustainable development.
52 4.5 Tourism Trend
Heritage tourism is one kind of cultural tourism. It is not the new tourism, but
public are more concern about learning and sustaining the cultural heritages in
recent years as people become have a well-education Therefore, it has been
grown enormously in the last few decades.
A study conducted by European Commission discovered that 20% of tourist
visit to Europe were made for cultural purpose. Furthermore, culture was main
component of travel for 60% of the visitor (UNWTO). It reflects tourists go traveling is not only for entertaining purpose, but tend to understanding of other
cultures. As well as sustaining the cultural heritage is a global trend of tourism
trend as the heritage tourism is prevailing gradually.
With the forecasting trend of tourism in 2020, Asia-Pacific continent has been
seen as the most important tourism destination and it was believed that one of
the pillars of the tourism industry has been mankind’s inherent desire to see
and learn about the cultural identity of different parts of the world (UNWTO). A
study conducted by du Cros (2009) from a preliminary street survey in October
2007 of 1,100 mainland Chinese tourists for the purpose of emerging issue the
53 depth of cultural tourism experiences in Macau .Most tourists in the China
Mainland group to Macau were under 45 years old with approximately equal
numbers of females and males. The result was shown in Table.4
Table 3. Result of emerging issue the depth of cultural tourism
experiences of China Mainland tourists in Macau
Source: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs: Emerging Issue For Cultural Tourism in Macau
The rising demand of heritage tourism shows the need of supply in the market.
Macau has potential to become the top cultural destination and can meet the
current market needs as it is rich in unique monuments with over 400 years of
cultural exchange between Western World and China. Besides, a large area of
“Historic Center of Macao” was inscribed in the World Heritage List. It is also a
good opportunities for Macau government to balance the image of “City of
Gambling” and “City of Culture”.
54 4.6 Gambling Industry
Gambling industry play an important role of the economy in Macau, over three
quarters of all tourists come for the gambling as prime reason. Especially in
2002 to 2007, the tourists for gambling were rapid growth, it brings some of the tourists come round the famous historic sites indirectly.
Gaming is the main industry to generate revenue for the economy in Macau; its operators are required to pay 1.6% of their gross revenue to the Macao
Foundation for contributing the fund of heritage conservation in Macau (Built
Heritage Conservation Policy in Selected Places, 2008)
Except the name of “Eastern Vatican”, Macau also was dubbed the “Eastern
Chicago” (the crime city) just before the historic handover (Cheng, 2002). It was even seen as a “fragile city” and an abandon city” after 1999 (Porter, 1996) in Western eyes. Although gaming provides numerous jobs opportunities to local residents, the negative impacts such as, deteriorating environment, increasing criminal cases associated with gaming and growing crowdedness in the city, destroys local and regional features which suggest nothing of the life, history, and culture of the people who lived in Macau. On the other hand, it will
55 also affect the preference in heritage tourists when choosing destination.
Over-dependent on the gaming, local would gradually loss the senses of their
value and identity as they consider it is the best choices of their career and may lost themselves gradually when working in this industry .Moreover, too much capital spending on gambling industry and related industry that would decrease the funds for other development, such as heritage conservation and promotion. It affects when heritage tourists seek for the authentic experience in culture and heritages in Macau .Consequently, this relationship shows dilemma of the health tourism development in result of decreased market compatibility among gaming and heritage tourism.
56 4.8 Outcomes
4.8.1 Sustainability
Sustainability is a global trend in the 21st century. To develop heritage tourism, heritage conservation is the significant component to build a top cultural destination, sustain the cultural heritage of the destination.
Local residents always are given collective memories by the cultural heritages.
To give a well maintenance represents they can pass their story and the
Macau history to their children. It means the next generation can possible to enjoy and experience the same environment and way of life by a good conservation planning since the monuments are restored and protected well, for example, the youth can attend worship in A-Ma temple.
The globalization and the current tourism trend lead lots of people to experience the authenticity when traveling. The outstanding universal value of
“Historic Centre of Macao” would attract numerous tourists to visit and an indirectly promotion to their friends or relatives. Raising the international awareness of Macau’ heritage sites is not only encourage locals more appropriate heritage preservation, but also giving economic benefit in different ways ,such as accommodations, restaurants and local business etc. .
57
Besides, the restoration of the cultural can help to enhance the landscape of
Macau that “polluted” by gambling and promote the positive image to public.
4.8.2 Host- Community identity
Prior to this boom of number of gambling tourism in 2002 to 2007, “cultural
tourism in Macau began to develop in parallel with gambling as one of the key
attractions of Macau. It started with guided day tours and self-guiding tourists
with a variety of motivations, which may have including gambling as well in
some form” (du Cros, 2009, p79).
PATA even honored twice that Macau had a unique identity and ways of life in
19th century. However, the rapid growth of gambling tourism faded the Macau original identity away gradually. Macau has always known as the Eastern
Vatican” rather than the “Holy City”. Local resident become loss of the cultural
sense because of the rapid this development.
The heritage tourism development recalls the original culture of the local
residents, especially the youth since they have just learnt it from books.
58 Through the approval of the World Heritage Sites in Macau, it raises the local
pride and strengthens the value themselves as well as educates the public to
learn respect to the historical monuments.
Besides, the cultural heritages always tell the history of Macau to public, they
would know their “root” in Macau and their uniqueness with the mixture of
Eastern and Western countries. It encourages them to treasure their cultural
heritage and introduce them to the other people.
4..8.3 Jobs opportunity
Macau possesses array of valuable monuments, while government decide to
develop in heritage tourism industry, it is necessary to employ a lot of people to work in the industry. It can generate a large amount of employments relate to
heritage tourism industry. For example, while government on the process of
conservation of various heritage, many laborers are required.
They are required for heritage maintenance, security of the heritage, promotion of the industry, etc. Besides, the industry also require professional for heritage consultation, management, promotion, marketing and the tour guides who are
59 acquired rich local knowledge such as, people with rich cultural knowledge can be consultant and tour guides.
Nevertheless, people usually tend choose a job can offer a better terms.
Gambling industry always offer a better salary compare to heritage tourism that may result in the recruitment difficulties in Macau heritage tourism. These reasons affect the development of heritage tourism in Macau since it need lots professional to involve in.
4.8.4Heritage-related activities
In 2004, Cultural Affairs Bureau launched “Macao Cultural Heritage
Preservation Year” in the purpose of promoting the “Historic Centre of Macao”.
It carried a series of activities (shown in Table 3).
Table 4. Main Activities of Macao Cultural Heritage Preservation Year 2004 Cultural Heritage Tours of Macao Objectives Design Competition Encouraging the population to explore Macao’s history through walking into different historical architectures and to discover the beauty of the cultural spots in Macao. By joining different spots together in Macao, the residents could design a unique cultural heritage tour of Macao.
60 Cultural Heritage Young Journalist Improving the students’ knowledge Summer Course in cultural heritage conservation and to teach them the basic skills in journalism. The students’ reports will be printed and distributed to schools and associations in Macao after the courses are finished. “Macao Heritage Net” launched - Keep the public up-to-date with Macao heritage conservation works and to provide them with information to research Macao Heritage and World Cultural Heritage. - Make use of the convenient, easily accessible and interactive internet to introduce Macao Heritage to the public and to promote cultural heritage conservation to achieve its promotional and educational goals. Publishing: The Historic Monuments Spreading the conscious of of Macao preserving heritage and improve the understanding of Historic Monuments of Macao for local resident "Charms of Old" kicked-off in Tap Attempts to bring people back to the Seac Gallery leisure that old Macau once possessed.
The conscious of heritage conservation would bring along to the schools and
society through the activities launched by CAB. To educate the new generation
is a useful way to protect and preserve the uniqueness of Macau since they do
more value their place and do not destroy them when they know the meaning behind their culture. When the public understand their meanings and value,
61 they would spread the message of restoration and preservation to the others,
thus the message of respecting and promoting their heritages are also
distributed.
In addition, “Heritage Ambassador Scheme” which is held by CAB and MHAA
started from 2004, Macau teenagers are allowed to participate. Refer to MHAA,
and 40 teenagers would be selected through interviewing every year. The
scheme recruits teenagers to receive training on heritage-related subjects.
Macau Teenagers will become Heritage Ambassadors and work on various
activities to promote Macao's cultural heritage, such as providing guided
heritage tours to the public and tourists visiting Macau. It helps to promote
Macau heritage tourism through the cross-culture exchange with tourists and reinforce the identity by observing tourists appreciating their culture.
62
Chapter 6 CONCLUSION and RECOMMADATIONS
Possessing lots of valuable historic heritage, Macau has over 400 years history with the mixture of Western and Eastern cultural. The development of heritage tourism in Macau is still on growing stage although there is a growth of searching authentic experience. One of the reasons is Macau government diversified the economic towards many parts such as gaming, culture, leisure and MICE. It is difficult to promote Macau as a famous heritage tourism destination in short- term as the concentration is separated to the other parts.
Actually, gaming is always been put on the top priority of the government agenda and cultural heritage are the second or even third. Although Macau can meet the rising demand of heritage tourists, it may not worth visiting in their views as the original cultural value and meaning have already “diluted” by the rapid growing development of gaming.
However, Macau has the potential to become a top destination for heritage tourism. Macau government established two legislation and few related department to preserve and responsible for the heritages in the early period.
As well as since it has given rich existed cultural resources and historic
63 monuments, such as “Historic Centre of Macao” is the outstanding example to present Macau can be a “City of Culture”. Apart from a series of unique streetscape and building of this World Heritage Site, the government support and community involvement are the key successful factors for the approval of
UNESCO to turn the “Historic Centre of Macao” to be the World Heritage Site.
Increased the international recognition, the awareness of heritage conservation are also increased by the Macau government and the public associations by this attraction.
The reputation of “Eastern Chicago” can also be “diluted” by the heritage tourism in Macau, thus the local community and government are very pleased to improve and promote the historic heritages to others in terms of retrieve their identity and original cultural value. Author finds that government is making effort to better the conservation of heritage through legislates a new heritage conservation law in 2010 to facilitate the current conservations.
A conceptual model has been developed based on secondary data collected in the literature review. Author believes that the six elements – Government
Support, Community participation, Heritage Interpretation, Conservation,
64 Tourism Trend and Gambling Industry can lead the development of heritage
tourism in Macau in a good way and also can benefit the economic, society and environment, except there is a little benefit from gambling industry.
Although there are abundant existed distinctive heritage sites in Macau, the name of “Las Vegas of the Far East” has known widely rather than its heritages.
Moreover, the education and the conservation are good enough. After
investigation, recommendations for improving Macau heritage tourism are as
follows:
Firstly, there is a need to employ the well-trained and educated staff in heritage
tourism in order to interpret the authenticity of Macau’s history and culture as
well as to manage the historic heritages effectively. As the heritage tourists are
always looking for “truth”, Macau is needed to have some professionals and
staff with rich local knowledge to satisfy their wants.
Secondly, as Macau has changed a lots in this few decades, only two
legislations were established to protect the heritage in Macau since 19th
century seems not enough to meet the current situations. Government is
suggested to form new legislations to preserve and conserve its own unique
65 heritage sites. As well as, it should keep promoting and educating public and
tourists to respect the past. It should also set up the rules and regulation to restrict the number of tourists in the specific heritage sites for preventing the visitor congestion.
Thirdly, in order to balance the image of Macau between gambling and cultures, government should make more efforts in promotion through activities, exhibitions, advertising by radio, TV and magazines. It can even promote to
overseas to increase the international recognition.
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