Cultural Heritage Sites Management - Coursework Example

Cultural heritage sites management s Submitted by s: 14th March 15th March Cultural Heritage Sites Management Effective management of the tourist sites is an aspect of tourists that has constantly eluded the site managers for a long time. Since the onset of the concerns for the heritage sites in the 1960s, there has been an array of suggestions for the management of the visitors and the heritage sites. Some of the proposed approaches have provided varying degrees of success. The management of the visitors is a key aspect in site management that has come to receive a lot of attention of late (Walker & Harding, 2006). The approach has received new interests following the renewal of the directions for the countryside and access policies, increased expectations from the citizens in the management and the bigger picture is sustaining the operations of a cultural heritage site. This paper looks at the lessons that the people have learned over the past four decades in the management of the cultural heritage sites. It also proposes the basic management policies that can be applied to the tourist sites in order for them to attain the required level of sustainability for the posterity (Page & Connell, 2010). The paper will propose the basic approaches of managing the heritage sites by providing sustainable visitor and site management system. This will be developed after a consideration of the wider international practices and literature and the approaches used in managing the cultural heritage sites in Scotland (Timothy, 2011). The paper will also look at the constraints of the approaches that the management system proposes. The systematic site management system holds a set of assumptions that form the basis for the site management. One of the main assumptions is that the system must incorporate the aspects of planning and management (Messenger & Smith, 2010). The assumption seeks to cement the fact that planning in itself is not sufficient in the creation of the best approach to the management of the sites. The management must oversee the implementation of the approaches proposed in order for the plan to culminate into productivity. The management of the heritage site must consider the existing site management practices and it must build on the existing approaches to provide the best results (Page & Connell, 2010). The approaches used in the management of the site in the United Kingdom must be applicable to all the visitors to attain consistency and validity. The advantages of implementing proper site management are that it leads to the attainment if the sustainability of the site. The site can be used for longer if it is well managed. The longer the use of the site, the more the money that the country will earn from the tourists that come to visit it on the regular basis. There are direct and indirect benefits that come from helping in the attraction of funding for the cultural heritage site. The economic benefits may take the form of inputs into the local economy through the spending of the tourists. They may also assume the form of donations or membership subscription into the organization that is managing the site. The other benefit of the proper site management is the increased satisfaction of the visitors. This might be the case in the majority of the visitors that come to the site. However, for some of the visitors, the site management activities may lead to dissatisfaction of the visitors that have their activities curtailed (Page & Connell, 2010). The drop in the satisfaction of the visitors that have their activities curtailed is insignificant compared to the gains of the visitor that have increase satisfaction (Messenger & Smith, 2010). The site management leads to the increase in the competitive edge of the site. The properly managed sites tend to attract more visitors compared to the sites that are not so well managed. The site management also leads to the enhancement of the public relations that is attained through the general promotions of the standards of the visitor provisions. The sustainable site management leads to the attainment of the important legal requirements needed for a site (Timothy, 2011). The sustainable management of the heritage sites helps in the adherence to legal requirements such as the disability discrimination act and the health and safety regulations. However, these actions ought to be taken into considerations separately and on their own right. Other benefits are of particular relevance to the site manager. One of the advantages is that the site manager gains the understanding of the main attributes and aspirations and the satisfaction needed by the visitors. The approach to site management reduces the amount of time and the efforts used in the routine approach to the management of visitors and their impacts on the site sustainability (Page & Connell, 2010). The site management leads to the justification of the spending on the visitors and their management. The approach also helps in the provision of adequate solutions to conflicts that may ensure between the site owners and the visitors by aligning the interests of the two groups of people. The site management is beneficial to the manager since it leads to the overall increase in the community and users interests. The overall good may exist even if there are some factions of the users that may feel that their interests in the site are not well represented, as they would have anticipated. The general community gains from the site management by the provisions of economic and marketing benefits for the area. The site management can make the community benefit from enhanced visitor management (Barwick & Barwick, 2001). There is also a sense of general ownership of the site since the members of the local community feel that they are involved in the management activity. Finally, proper management of the cultural sites leads to the creation of the best approaches towards the needs of the visitors; both the majority and minority visitors. The understanding of the above benefits is important for the creation of a sustainable approach towards the management of the site. The maintenance of the tourist sites in the United Kingdom follows a set of guidelines that aim at the protection of the sites and the attainment of the level of visitor management that allows sustainable use of the sites for posterity. In the management of the heritage sites, the site management authorities seek it use a systematic approach. The issue of the attainment of the level of sustainable management is increasingly turning out to be a systems approach. The organization and the management have assumed a systematic approach. The senior management is involved in the site management just as the junior management (Page & Connell, 2010). The senior management has adopted the systematic approach since the approach has a decision-making value for the site at the end of the day. The management of the cultural heritage sites using the systematic approach is a method that has come to attain the best usage of the sites over the time The other approach that the management uses is the setting of clear objectives. Just like in the management of the other aspects of modern business, the site managers have come to adopt the setting of clear-cut objectives. This is an approach to the management of the sites that is central to the attainment of the proper and sustainable site management. The objectives play the role of the goals of the organizations that are involved in the management of the sites. The organizations set the goals also to act as the standards of performance. At the end of the day, the originations come up with a review of the activities that they have engaged in the year and evaluate how far they were able to attain the goals for that period. This approach to the cultural site management has led to the creation of the best practices for the attainment of the correct performance levels (Barwick & Barwick, 2001). The goals also help in the creation of an ordered way of running the sites since the goals are often set in a continuum. The objectives also lead to the formation of the right approaches to the management of the heritage sites due to the attainment of continuous improvement of the process used in the site management (Page & Connell, 2010). The objectives provide the management with the rend data that leads to informed decision-making. In the event that the objectives of the organization and the society or other stakeholders are in conflict, the management of these sites often uses zoning and prioritizing of the activities in order to determine the order of implementation or even tradeoffs between the conflicting objectives. The management of the sites also acknowledges the need of involving the entire stakeholder in the management process (Barwick & Barwick, 2001). The stakeholders involved in the sites must have some opportunities that arise from the fact that the site exists. The very issues that lead to the classification of a site to be a heritage site are the very ones that attract the tourists. The management of the sites therefore has different impacts on the stakeholders that have come to rely on the site. The perspectives of the management may not augur well with the ones held by other stakeholders. Since the sites are created to benefit all the people, it is important for the management to involve the stakeholders (Page & Connell, 2010). The management must consider the interests held by the internal stakeholders and the external ones. The selection of the people that will be involved in the site management and how the actual management of the site will happen is crucial to the success of the sustainability drives. The approach ought to balance the time of the people involved with the potential gains of the management approach. The management of sites in Scotland uses the approach of including all the people in the management of the sites. The site managers use panels made up of experts and site management committees that integrate the views and suggestions of all the stakeholders. The time invested by the staff in the management of the sites follows an already laid down systematic planning and management approach. The systematic approach to the site management calls for the spending of more time and resources in the meetings, visits to the sites and continued monitoring of the activities undertaken in the cultural heritage sites. The resources that the site management officials employ in the systematic planning and management are often optimized such as the management of the site does not end up spending most of its resources on the systematic and procedural undertakings (Page & Connell, 2010). It is proper for the management to consider the reality that some of the approaches that is has been using are not productive (Barwick & Barwick, 2001). The review of the performance of the site management means that the organization has to discard and reassess the effectiveness of the site management approaches that it uses. The management does not adhere to the strict expectations of working with a universal approach since the management of the sites is a contingent to many other factors (Page & Connell, 2010). The management of the heritage sites has to ensure that it follows the needs of the particular site. The management of the major cultural sites applies the tenets of strategic planning in all that it does. This means that the collection and analysis of the data are a key aspect that the management uses. The data are important in that it leads to the creation of a model of analysing the performance of the organization (Page & Connell, 2010). The data that the organizations collect touch on the issue of the quality of the environment which the site management seeks to foster the recreational effects of the site management and the general levels of satisfaction among the visitors. This approach to the management of the resources means that the management can develop a set of objectives and approaches to site management that has all the issues that are at stake put into consideration. The measurement of the level of quality in the sites uses cost effective approaches. There are fundamental concerns on the acceptable approaches to the ascertainment of quality and the level of visitor satisfaction. The approach that the management uses in the management of quality must be effective. The site management officials have to consider all the aspects of quality. However, in the undertaking of the assessment of quality, the management has to ensure that it balances the credibility of the scientific data with the resources that the attainment of such data has to employ. The current management practices of sites in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom follow different levels of management. The management approach adopted for the sites are not the same. Each site is managed in a different manner depending on the site size. In some of the cases, the sites are not even managed on a daily basis, but they are placed under a commission that oversees their operations using the hands off approach. On the sites that have active management, the direction of the management of such sites depends on a number of factors (Walker & Harding, 2006). The individual views of the site manager towards his role and that of the site affects the approaches the manager uses on the day-to-day operations of the site. The imperative of the income generation of the site affects the approach used in the site management. The sites that are deemed to have a high potential of returns means that the approaches used in its management incorporate this aspect (Page & Connell, 2010). This makes the site management approaches in the United Kingdom to have a business-oriented approach that often superseded the stakeholder’s interests. References Barwick, J. & Barwick, J. 2001. Tourism. Abbotsford, Vic.: Echidna. Messenger, P. M. and Smith, G. S. 2010. Cultural heritage management. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Page, S. & Connell, J. 2010. Tourism. Los Angeles: SAGE. Timothy, D. J. 2011. Cultural heritage and tourism. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Walker, R. & Harding, K. 2006. Tourism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More