LT5091 - Cultural Tourism Management (2026/27)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2026/27 | ||||||||
| Module title | Cultural Tourism Management | ||||||||
| Module level | Intermediate (05) | ||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 15 | ||||||||
| School | Guildhall School of Business and Law | ||||||||
| Total study hours | 150 | ||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2026/27(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) | No instances running in the year |
Module summary
‘International tourist arrivals reached 1.5bn in 2019, and the proportion of these said to be cultural tourists is 40% and rising. Many more are incidental cultural tourists, engaging with culture on a more casual level. Most governments have specific cultural tourism strategies and are looking to develop their cultural tourism offer and find new ways of communicating that to potential visitors.
Cultural Tourism Management explores the growth and increasing diversity of this cultural tourism market, and the governance of cultural tourism at different spatial levels from the global to the local. It examines critical issues related to the cultural tourism product, including tangible and intangible cultural heritage, contemporary culture, contested meanings, authenticity, identity, and the commodification of culture. It identifies the current trends in creative and experiential tourism and how this impacts communities. It considers how many cities have reinvented themselves as leisure and recreation consumption centres, using cultural infrastructure investment, heritage commodification, events, and festivals to boost cultural and creative industry investment and the potential for cultural tourism.
This module provides an understanding of the key role that tourism plays in the cultural and creative industries, how culture is turned into tourism products, and how destinations attempt to package those products for the growing cultural tourism market.
This module aims to:
1. Equip students with a basic understanding of the interplay of culture and tourism, the motivations of cultural tourists and trends in their patterns of consumption and the cultural tourism product
2. Demonstrate how the arts, museums, galleries, heritage sector, contemporary and local cultures are mobilised for the leisure economy and international tourism
3. Increase awareness of the sensitive issues surrounding the commodification of culture
4. Provide an understanding of the practical problems of ‘managing’ cultural tourism in dynamic urban and semi-urban contexts
5. Develop skills in practical research, observation, creative thinking, and fieldwork, recording and communicating findings
Prior learning requirements
No prerequisites. Available for Study Abroad? YES
Syllabus
• Defining cultural tourism and the cultural tourist LO1
• From UNESCO to local partnerships – the key institutions and agencies and their role in managing cultural tourism LO1
• Commodifying the past – tangible and intangible cultural heritage, contested heritage, social memory, and commemoration LO2
• Ethnoscapes, identity, the commodification of the everyday, authenticity, the invention of tradition LO2
• The contemporary cultural and creative sector as a tourism product LO3
• Analysing tourism landscapes LO4
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
This module comprises weekly lectures followed by seminar sessions to develop, explore, and apply the ideas developed in the lectures. Group and individual tasks in class will allow students to work with the key concepts developed in the module. The seminars will also be used to support students in the development of their assignment task (the photo essay).
A group exercise takes place in week 4 when students explore a London tourism landscape and record their observations photographically. This forms the basis of an informal presentation analysing the landscape. The exercise is aimed at developing skills required for the photo-essay assignment.
The module makes extensive use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in order to post material from the lectures and supply additional teaching resources.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Identify the ways in which cultural tourism is managed at different geographical scales (LO1)
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts and theories underpinning contemporary cultural and creative tourism (LO2)
3. Explain how cultural tourism functions in local tourism landscapes (LO3)
4. Select, plan, and manage field research in a tourism landscape (LO4)