Globalization Tourists and Heritage

Tourists in American Culture:

The Case of Latin American Historic
Districts
Joseph L. Scaipaci
Department of Geography
Virginia Tech

Introduction
The tourist population from the developed North Atlantic realm is hardly
ubiquitous in its sojourns throughout the less developed regions of Africa, Asia,
and Latin America. In broad terms, we can differentiate two distinct consumer
populations and venues that constitute worldwide tourism. On the one hand,
there exists globalization tourism that attracts mainstream customers in search
of secure, safe, and fairly predictable settings that include bargain-priced
and large facilities destinations. For U.S. tourists that means searching for a
destination that sparks something more exotic than what we might find in, say,
Florida or California. A comparable Latin American and Caribbean destination
might be Cancun, Mazitlan, Montego Bay, Rio de Janeiro, or Punta del Este
(Boxhill et al. 2002). Not surprisingly, fairly well known international chains
often administer these rather large, oceanfront properties. A list of properties
by Sheraton, Marriott, Super Clubs, Hilton, Melii, or Super Clubs afford the
globalization tourists (GTers) the familiar standard array of facilities that include
pool, multiple dining venues, on-ground entertainment, dish-network television
from around the world, and the normal host of credit-card affiliates noted at the
registration check-in. Anne Tyler (1990) richly portrays one of these GTers in
her novel, TheAccidental Tourist, an earnest individual perhaps more interested
in the standard checklist attributes of places and hotels than local variations
such places might afford the foreign visitor.
Another international group of tourists form a distinct consumer culture
in that they seek out the cultural landscapes and icons that represent historical
periods, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and distinct periods of art and architecture
etched into the cityscapes of towns and cities. These international tourists comprise
heritage tourists that are common among the ranks of Elderhostel goers, young
academics and students, and others with a keen interest in the preservation and
conservation of material and non-material culture. For them, small and quirky

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 1

scttings are preferable to larger and predictable oncs. This cohort constitutes what
I shall call heritage tourists (or HTers). In both instances, these consumers seek
certain predictability: A set of attributes and allures that constitute the marketing
of places that form what Urry (2002) calls the 'tourist gaze.'
The purpose of this paper is to discern the attributes of certain places in
the Latin American historic district (centro hist6rico) as they pertain to both
globalization tourists and heritage tourists. To be sure, the categories are not
necessarily mutually exclusive; each type of consumer may partake in the other's
consumption sphere. For instance, a tourist traveling to an international chain
hotel at Cancun's beaches may take a day trip to one of the nearby Mayan temples
and pyramids. A January tourist in Rfo's Copacabana beach might overnight at
Ouro Preito, Brazil, one of that nation's best preserved colonial center's. And a
Veracruz vacationer might be tempted to make a day trip to Puebla's UNESCO
World Heritage Site to break away from the beach scene.
I begin with a brief review of tourism and globalization that anchors the
subsequent discussion of the Latin American historic center (centro histirico).
Next, I explore the processes of globalization and heritage tourism in order to
fully differentiate the GTers from the HTers. I argue that, rightly or wrongly,
heritage tourism presents a seemingly unproblematic interpretation of the past.
The American consumer may be unaware of the debates surrounding whose past
is being presented, and whose memory is being preserved in the Latin American
historic district. I conclude that heritage tourism in Latin America and the
Caribbean will likely continue to attract an increasing number of Americans
as the unique attributes of heritage sites provide HTers with an alternative to
the banal landscapes that globalization tourism has imposed.

Tourism and Globalization

Heritage tourism and globalization have a long history in western literature
and they have revealed their uneasy tension in nuanced but pivotal ways.
Heritage tourism aims to celebrate a broad array of architectural, artistic, cultural,
curatorial elements of local culture. Globalization, on the other hand, aims to
homogenize, eradicate, and make sublime much of what is local and unique. I
argue that globalization provides opportunities and challenges that shape the
local contours of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Latin America. I suggest
that facile interpretations about globalization and cultural diversity need to be
anchored with detailed knowledge of leisure spaces. To set the stage we turn to
a brief discussion of urban heritage sites in Latin America.

On Defining the Centro Historico

Historic centers in Latin American towns and cities are anything but isolated
from the forces of change. Property owners and governments change buildings,
destroy them, and dictate which social classes shall use them. There is a consensus
that the major changes evident in these neighborhoods today began in the latter
part of the 19th century, and accelerated in the middle of the 20th century.

2 Material Culture
 Between 1930 and 1960, most Latin American historic preservationists
addressed single public and private buildings, or an occasional town square.
Rarely did they focus on a multi-block segment of the original colonial core.
While today there is general accord among municipal, national, and international
entities that these valuable places should be restored (Tung 2001; Hardoy
1992; Gutman 1992; Hardoy and Gutman 1992), the pace of change and the
quality of historic preservation remains uneven. What we ascertain from novels,
photographs, art, land-use studies, and ethnographic accounts of residents are
just a 'snapshot' of the evolution of these districts.
If Latin American architectural historians have elevated the discussion of
heritage sites, land use and zoning enforcement has lagged behind. The 196 0s
witnessed considerable interest in Latin American historic districts (the Brazilians
began well before WWII in selected towns and cities). Thought of largely as
a dilemma of architectural preservation, the decade saw legislative reform that
set out clear guidelines for urban renewal, building codes, and preservation
efforts. In 1964, protecting the isolated national monument expanded to include
"modest works that have, through time, acquired cultural significance (Carta
Internacional... 1974). By 1967, the Organization of American States' conference
in Quito (often called the Carta de Quito or Quito Letter) moved to link these
ideas more closely with legislation and urban planning. This produced a spate
of research on widely acclaimed historical places such as Antigua, Guatemala,
Cuzco, Peru, and Moquegua, Peru. The pivotal Quito Letter strengthened
historic preservation throughout Latin America. It sent a message to all nations
to address planning concerns for historical districts, and to capture the social
histories of these places. UNESCO, foreign governments (mostly Spain, Italy,
Holland and Canada), and philanthropic agencies helped to publicize World
Heritage Sites in the 1980s. However, the economic downturn in the late 1970s
and 1980s (known as the 'lost decade' in Latin America) made governments hard
pressed to allocate money to historic preservation, when other more 'immediate'
needs such as schooling, water, and health care required attention (Well and
Scarpaci 1992).
The Quito Colloquium defined historical districts as "those living settlements
that are strongly conditioned by a physical structure stemming from the past,
and recognizable as being representative of the evolution of a people" (PNUD/
UNESCO 1977, n.p., my translation). Primarily, people live in historic districts
today, unlike the archeological ruins of such pre-Colombian settlements as
Machu Pichu, Peru, Tikal, Guatemala, or Tulum, Mexico. Also inherent in this
definition is the idea that historical districts are not limited to the stock of their
built environments: building, town squares, fountains, colonnaded galleries,
sculptures, filigree ironwork, strectlamps, and arches. Rather, historic districts
include non-material culture such as the people, their lifestyles and traditions,
productive activities, beliefs, and urban rituals (saints' days, founder's days,
pre-Lenten carnivals).

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 3

 The Latin American centro hist6rico largely reflects a low population density
when compared to the metropolitan area. Its skyline is lower than the modern
Central Business Districts (CBD) and its accompanying skyscrapers. Carri6n
(1992) points out that the skyscraper-endowed central business district in the
Latin American city responded to the late demands of industrialization, unlike
the centro histSrico.
"If one reviews the historical processes of other centros histdricos in Latin
America... it is clear that [the historic centers'] demise stemmed from
the fast pace of urbanization, from import-substitution industrialization,
from the development of banking and commerce as well as strong waves
of migration" (Carri6n 1992, 59; my translation).

Clearly, the CBD and the centro histdrico are two distinct places and should
not be conflated in studying the Latin American city.
Streetscapes of the 'typical' historic district are inviting, and both the
street width and building height are captivating to the pedestrian. One can
appreciate pre-modern skilled work in the plasterwork, ironwork, balconies
(cantilevered and otherwise), rails, archways, pediments, doorways, columns
(Ionic, Doric, Corinthian and mixtures thereof), and a variety of roof tiles.
Architectural historians have written volumes on the origin and modification
of each element (Covo 1996), all which combine to make the centro histdrico
aestheticaly pleasing.

Globalization and Heritage Tourism

The close of the 20th century quickly secured a place for the term
'globalization' in the world's languages. Once an isolated term confined to
policy analysts and scholars, the term has practically become a household word,
thanks to a dizzying array of 'gee whiz!' technologies. One way to gauge its
use in academic circles is the number of citations in the Library of Congress
Card Catalog. In 1987, there were no entries for 'globalization' as a keyword
in the library's database. In 1994, Waters (2000) found 34 entries in the card
catalog. In August 2000 I found 884 entries, and by August 2001 there were
1,384 entries; a 57% increase in eleven months (excluding the British spelling
'globalisation', n= 213). While the use of the term is on the rise, its precise
meaning is less clear.
Globalization is a slippery concept that has come to mean everything
simultaneously. The World Bank defines it as "the growing interdependence
of countries resulting from the integration of trade, finance, people, and ideas
in one global marketplace. International trade and cross-border investment
flows are the main elements of this integration" (Soubbotina 2000, 66). I use it
mainly to refer to a shrinking of time and space through the rise of information
technologies. We can theorize the economic, political, and cultural dimensions
of globalization to make our review of world problems more precise (Lerner
and Bohli 2000).

4 Material Culture
 As firms and individuals exchange information and commodities at a
quickening pace, the abilities of the nation-state and its regulatory agencies
diminish. That means nations slowly lose control over the flows of information,
capital, and technology that pass through their boundaries. Some argue that
these 'new spaces of globalization' represent a victory of post-Fordist capitalism
(Dicken 1999) because new types of investment are no longer based on the
traditional components of economic development that included natural resources
and cheap labor. Because labor unions and the conventional blocs of voters are
made increasingly powerless in a globalized world, transnational capital can
more easily circumvent the traditional coalitions who looked to the state for
protection and support (Mishra 1999; Afshar and Pezzoli 2001; Korten 1995;
Mander and Goldsmith 1996).
These reasons highlight how globalization is inextricably tied to the
transformation of the centro histdrico.Whether the changes stem from remittances
sent by Ecuadorian dishwashers in New York and New Jersey; European jet-
setters or narco money-laundcrs in Cartagena; or European multinationals
in Habana Vieja, the evidence is clear: those who live in the historic quarters
must articulate their needs in a policy arena that is increasingly dominated by
international capital.

Towards a Heritage Geography of the Latin American Historic

District: Whose Landscape? Whose Memory?
The study of historical landscapes is fundamentally a geographic inquiry
because of the concern over location and the milieu of social, economic and
political forces that alter those landscapes. Interest in landscape has risen
enormously in recent years (Muir 1999). Historians, archeologists, landscape
architects, and especially geographers, drive this interest. How scholars approach
landscape is nearly as varied as the number of studies in the field. Geographers
Daniels and Cosgrove (1988, 8) approach the study from a post-modernist
perspective, arguing that "landscape seems less like a palimpsest whose 'real' or
'authentic meanings can somehow be recovered with the correct techniques...
[like] flickering text displayed on the word-processor screen whose meaning can
be created, extended, altered, elaborated and finally obliterated by the nearest
touch of a button." Rose (1992, 10) notes that in human geography, "pleasure
in the landscape was often seen as a threat to the scientific gaze." Mitchell (1994,
14) reminds us that "landscape is itself a physical and multi-sensory medium
(earth, stone, vegetation, water, sky, sound and silence, light and darkness, etc.)
in which cultural meanings and values are encoded."
Not all of geography's recent history celebrates the study of landscape.
Richard Hartshorne's seminal work, The Nature of Geography (1939), rejected
landscape as the central feature of geography because it derived from the
narrowly defined German term, Landschaft, meaning a "restricted piece of land."
But since at least the mid-1980s, geographers who were disillusioned by the
positivist movement found a new theoretical space for the study of landscape:

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 5

"gcographcrshave sought to reformulate landscape as a concept whose subjective
and artistic resonances are to be actively embraced" (Cosgrove 1985, 45). Part
of this reformulation stems from the recognition that landscapes are socially
constructed: "the study of landscapes offers "geographers a means of analyzing
and organizing the surrounding material environment... [and for understanding]
the relationship between landscapes and human beings" (Kobayashi 1989,
165). All of these justifications (cf. Hartshorne 1939) underlay my interest in
the cultural heritage of specific Spanish American landscapes: centro histdrico,
plaza, and barrio.
Heritage means using the past as an economic resource for the present.
Historic districts and monuments allow countries to create national identity,
forge ideologies and "ground" abstract notions of history and heritage in tangible
forms (Hobsbawm 1990; Hall 1995; Woolf 1996). The wish to preserve relics of
past environments is often tied to influential elite. However, the tension created
over what is to be preserved, whose collective memory should be celebrated, is
often ignored in official public circles. A bewildering array of places and objects
determines what gets included in the web of historic preservation projects
(Graham, Ashworth, and Turnbridge 2000).
The many forces that create these landscapes are not unique to either market
or centrally planned economies. For example, economic place images drive
the present construction boom in the United States. Walt Disney Corporation
created Celebration, Florida - a planned community - as a theme to embrace the
pre-automobile era that characterizes Disney's Main Street boulevard at Disney
World. Public demand in the United States is strong for neo-traditional design
structures such as Seaside, Florida and related projects of Andres Duany and
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of DBZ Associates (Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck
2000). Not so many years ago, Eastern European, Soviet, and Cuban public

Figure IA and IB. Trinidad's main town square (Plaza Mayor, left) and Three Crosses
Square (Plaza Calvario or Plaza Tres Cruces, right) reflect the 'duality of heritage' idea. Just five
blocks apart, the main square of Trinidad preserves a mid- to late nineteenth plaza in very good
structural shape. The Palacio Brunet, the Architectural Museum, the Anthropological Museum,
and an art gallery flank it. Tourists visit the town square because it displays the decorative arts
and accoutrements of the mid-1800s that make heritage tourism so inviting. Yet, four blocks away
in Las Tres Cruces (The Three Crosses) neighborhood, there is another town square. A Holy Week
procession through the town culminated in this unpaved town square (the Cuban leadership ended
the procession until 1998, thanks in part to the visit of Pope John Paul II). For the locals, this 'low'
culture public space attracts more than ten thousand trinitarioson Good Friday and holds more
meaning than the main town square even though the latter brings in millions of dollars to Trinidad.

6 MaterialCulture
 Figure 2. The "sefora de la chalupa"
symbolizes the street vendors' dilemma in
Puebla and other historic centers. While many
pedestrians want her products (the chalupa,
a corn tortilla served with meat or cheese and
various chili or chocolate (poblana)sauces).
Others, especially shopkeepers, object to their
nominal payment of taxes and fees, and their
'cluttering up' of sidewalks and parks. Here,
this vendor works next to a plaza in Puebla, just
off the sidewalk, in the entrance of a building.

housing brandished banal high-rise

housing units to impose a stamp of
equality on all its citizens. In centrally
planned economies, modest shelter,
uniformity, and equality often take
priority over building aesthetics.
These problems highlight the
'duality of heritage.' By the duality
of heritage, we can conceptualize
the Latin American centros histdricos sources of cultural and economic capital.
Within cultural capital, we can differentiate 'high' and 'low' levels; the former
refers to the major pubic buildings, cathedrals, town halls (cabildos), fortresses,
jails, hospitals, convents, churches, and chosen monuments. As well, there
may be grand private residents (casonas, mansiones, palacios, casas-almacenes),
usually European imports, but undoubtedly adapted and changed by Creole
vernacular tastes (Segre 1994; Weiss 1950; Early 1994). Such edifices attract
First World-tourists to Third World-heritage tourist destinations and proffer
postcard backdrops of unique places. Niche marketing within globalization
tourism has carved out a place for heritage tourism.
The domain of 'low' cultural capital in the Latin American urban core
includes a variety of vernacular architecture and public spaces other than
principal town squares. It may range from huts and cabins, small houses, medium
houses, and even less-than-palatial large houses (Buisseret 1980, ch. 1). It also
includes corners of bona fide (nationally recognized historic districts) houses
that are close together, but not as well maintained, promoted, or frequented by
tourists. Nonetheless, these secondary 'low' culture spaces serve important local
functions (Figures la and 1b).
We know that the residential composition of most centros histdricos shifted
from an elite neighborhood to a mixture of upper-income with sprinkled
concentrations of poor (Griffin and Ford 1980; Gilbert 1994; Caplow 1949;
Stanislawski 1950; London 1982). This same corpus of research suggests that
tourism in the urban centers of most Latin American and Caribbean cities
never figured as major source of land-use or economic development. For the
tourist uninterested in witnessing penury, most abject urban poverty in the

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 7

Latin American city becomes more 'disguised' than it does in North America.
Chilean geographers have termed this more subtle urban squalor the pobreza
desfrazada (disguised poverty) (CED 1990). Behind the tall walls surrounding
many lots and city blocks, and within voluminous 19th and 20th century
structures, lay a disenfranchised class that is out of view, and usually out of
the urban policy realm. Unlike the ghetto found next to the Central Business
District in the United States, the penury of the centro histdricocannot always be
seen during a cursory stroll through its streets and alleys. 'Low' cultural capital
rarely makes it into the travel guides, web sites, and marketing brochures, yet
is an important dimension of inner-city life. It is, moreover, on equal footing
with the growing number of street vendors who ply their trades on sidewalks,
parks, and open spaces.
Class conflicts can simmer in historic districts in subtle ways. Authorities
in Puebla, Mexico have determined that ambulate vendors (ambulantes)detract
from the 'dignity' of the centro histdrico, the ambulantes may be banned altogether
or moved (Figure 2). "This ideological shift is found out in the built environment
and the use of public space in Puebla. Asserting the past, drawing parallels
with a 'golden age,' serves to evaluate Puebla's profile in national consciousness
(note award of UNESCO recognition before Mexico City)" (Jones and Varley
1994; Conner 1999). These tensions point out the potential tax-base historic
preservation, which can build and raise questions about whose heritage and
whose past is being preserved
A second dimension of the duality of heritage entails economic capital.This
refers to the 'consumption' of culture through museums, art galleries, and
architectural appreciation. Taken at its broadest level, some analyst's claim
that all buildings are historic and are economic capital until proven otherwise
(Morton 1992; Lash and Urry 1994; Douglas and Isherwood 1979; Ewen
1988). In Europe, the task of serving this economic capital to the public falls
to ministries of culture or quasi-nongovernmental organizations (QUANGOs)
such as national trusts. Economic capital used in heritage tourism includes re-
enactments of the past. These events have become popular on both sides of the
North Atlantic, ranging from Colonial Williamsburg (USA) and showing the
life of a daily colonial town, to the operation of feudal and medieval villages
of the Old World. Because the authenticity is suspect and tends to be elitist
(slaves and serfs are never deprecated, raped, or beaten), re-enactments of the
past are "largely a pastiche with no higher purpose than popular entertainment"
(Graham, Ashworth and Turnbridge, 2000, 222).
In Havana at Cuba's World Heritage Site of La Cabafia Fortress, one can
experience a re-enactment of the closing of the gates to the walled city and to
hear the cannon blast (el cafionazo). Soldiers don wigs and colonial garb for
the 18th century ceremony as they march from the barracks to the cannon
overlooking Habana Vieja. At $5.00 USD per person (versus 25 cents USD or
five Cuban pesos for locals), it steadily feeds the public till. La Cabafia, though,
was also where the revolutionary tribunals under the charge of Ernesto 'Che'

8 MaterialCulture
Guevara judged the hcnchmen of Cuban dictatator Fulgencio Batista (1952-58).
Many of the accused were jailed and executed there. The same fortress was a
jail for homosexuals, 'counter-revolutionaries,' and other politically incorrect
persons as portrayed in the autobiographical book, Before Night Falls (Antes de
que Anochezca) by the late exiled writer Reinaldo Arenas (and the basis of the
Julian Schnabel-directed film of the same name). However, sorting out historical
meanings for a single building or public space is a complex task and is often ill
suited to government agencies.
This example of La Cabafia brings into focus the GTer versus HTer
experience. Given Cuba's relative isolation from the American travel market
(except for select religious or long-term academic travel), the entire complex
exemplifies the niche-marketing aspect of heritage tourism. However, should
the trade and travel embargo suddenly end, La Cabafia canon ceremony might
become as commonplace as the fireworks that highlight Disney World each
evening at 9 p.m. in Orlando, Florida. The Cuban Ministry of Culture believes
it is more remunerative to present 'high-brow' aspects of earlier landscapes than
plebian or 'dark' venues. While the historical accuracy of these and similar
events may be secondary to the scenery, they are visually striking spectacles
that attract audiences. This is not to suggest that low economic capital events
in Latin America are simply the result of backwardness, underdevelopment, or
Latin American culture. For example, Vilagrasa and Larkham (1995) highlight
this uneasiness between high and low culture in their study of Worcester, one
of Britain's 'historic towns.' Worcester's "historic core consists of several pseudo-
Georgian structures superficially resembling the predominant character.. .but
by default rather than by conscious planning decision" (Vilagrasa and Larkham
1995, 170). Summing up, despite the veracity or debate that determines what
is built and what is restored, there is a growing tourism market that seeks these
places (Tung 2001; Serageldin, Shluger, and Martin-Brown 2001).
The nation-state and municipal governments are, at best, willing accomplices
in promoting change in their centros histdricos. Simply stated, local authorities do
little to enhance residential buildings either through direct repair, subsidies, or
tax incentives. Rather, public efforts go to promoting tourism and commercial
enterprises of all sizes. Many of these enterprises are internal, and though
globalization is somewhat imprecise, it remains a useful conceptual tool in
understanding the nuances of how transnational processes impact at the local
level. For example, how does the French hotel chain Sofitel retrofit the Santa Clara
Convent in Cartagena and demonstrate its relationship with the centro histdricoat
the local level, and its allegiance to international capital (Scarpaci 2000a)? What
are the restrictions that international capital indirectly imposes on tourist workers
who labor in Habana Vieja's tourist industry (Scarpaci 2000b)? These tensions
highlight the need for a global and theoretically informed perspective that connects
the centro histdrico to local, municipal, national, and international factors. It also
suggests that the consumer choices available to HTers are highly segmented and
are subject to numerous choices in a dizzying area of tourist destinations.

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 9

 Finally, we should remember that not all heritage tourism is widely accepted,
nor are all culturally valuable spaces and monuments always appreciated. In
Afghanistan in 2001, the militant Taliban forces in power destroyed priceless
Buddhist cliff statues because they found the objects an affront to Islam and the
Q'uran. The Taliban threatened the destruction for weeks, and that provoked
international outrage, especially since the Japanese government offered to remove
them and bring them to Japan. UNESCO officials also pleaded because the
artworks earned World Heritage status, but it was all to no avail. Their destruction
was a harbinger of the madness the Taliban helped unleash on September 11,
2001. In the Americas, slave quarters in Brazil and Cuba are controversial when
preservationists try to restore them. Does restoration herald the dominant culture,
victimize the enslaved people, or faithfully recreate history? In recent decades,
we have seen how war destroys heritage sites, especially along the Iranian and
Iraqi border during the 1980s even though both nations were Muslim (Broadway
1999). Therefore, consensus on identifying and safeguarding heritage sites is
problematic, rife with tensions that defy facile interpretations.
Latin American tourism has long been a major source of economic
development and although data are difficult to obtain, it appears that HTers
form a small subset of the larger tourist industry. Perhaps as much as a half
trillion dollars is generated by tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean
if we use the $476 billion U.S. dollars spent in 2000 as a benchmark. These
revenues were generated by 689 million international tourists to the region (Jafari
2002). Many nations in the region realize that if cultural and economic needs

Dynamic Tourism Demand Trends

(Source: Buhalis 2000, p. 70)
Sea, Sun
Sand Sea
Sangria

Technology Segmentation
E cology Specialization
Enter-tainmen Environment m- Sophistication

Satisfaction
Multi-cultural Seduction

Sightseeing
Shopping
Short Break
Shows
Scotch Whiskey

Figure 3.

10 MaterialCulture
arc taken into account, tourism can contribute substantially towards social and
economic development.
Recently, a few countries registered higher than annual growth rates of
international tourist arrivals. Central American destinations, including Belize
and Panama, witnessed a remarkable growth rate of 13% between 1995 and
2000; nearly four times the world average. The Dominican Republic and Cuba
experienced more than one million arrivals and had growth rates of 18 and
11%, respectively. In 2001, the First Ibero-American Tourism Summit in Cuzco,
Peru gave tourism a priority role in economic development programs. A joint

Dynamic Heritage Tourism Demand Trends

Applied to Spanish American Centros Hist6ricos
(Source: Modilied.from Buhalis 2000, p. 70)

Benign
Climate Segmentation
(heritage)
Specialization
Technology (architecture)
Eu
Edu- cySophistication
•,cology :". (eladetd:
Enter-tainmenEnte-taimen
Envionmnt
Enronment
____(well-educated
Western tourists)
S\ / • ="Satisfaction
/• Multi-cultural (desandin
~(demanding ,

'high' culture
Sightseeing urban attributes
Shopping Seduction
(alternatives
Short Break to modern
CulturalShows MetropoiiS))

Figure4.

declaration, The Cuzco Commitment, stated that tourism could provide an edge
against poverty, especially when indigenous and cultural elements factor into
tourist programs (Franginalli 2002, 2). All this bodes well for re-examining the
role of heritage tourism in the historic Spanish American neighborhood.
Buhalis (2000) has shown how dynamic tourism demand trends derive from
globalization and pose both challenges and opportunities (Figure 3). Applied
to the Latin American centro histdrico,we see that these old corners of the Latin
American city afford specialized, segmented, and seductive amenities that draw
international tourists to them (Figure 4). While the challenges remain about
teasing out 'high' from 'low' culture, and 'authentic' from 'artificial' heritage
elements, the potential for this niche marketing is formidable.
There is good evidence that most Americans may not be that interested
in unique consumer experiences. De Graaf et al. (2002) are part of a growing

Vol. 39 (2007) No. 2 11

group of scholars who documented the rise in consumerism in the United
States (see also (Schor 1999). In Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, De
Graaf et al. define the current affliction of America's affluenza as "a painful,
contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and
waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more" (De Graaf et al 2000, n.p.).
The need for discerning inimitable place destinations may also be moot as the
authors note:
Middle-income Americans seldom ventured more than a few hundred
miles from home [half-century ago], even during two-week summer
vacations. Now, many of us (not just the rich) expect to spend occasional
long-weekends in Puerto Vallarta, or (in the case of New Yorkers) in Paris.
Everywhere, humble motels have been replaced by elegant "inns," humble
resorts by Club Meds" (De Graafet al 2002, 28).
Based on the attributes of Latin American historic quarters, coupled with
proximity to the U.S. market, we should anticipate greater differentiation among
GTers and HTers in the years ahead.

Conclusions
Heritage tourism focused on the Latin American centro historico that serves
as what Leiss, Kline and Jhally (1986) call a 'lifestyle within modern consumer
culture.' These historic corners offer visual dimensions that afford a unique
public gaze into the American tourist. Conceptualized as a sort of 'open air
museum,' these historic corners of the Latin American city do not require
extensive historical contexts so that the visitor can interpret them (Mills 2003).
Garrisons, ramparts, cathedrals, plazas, and barrios unfold as one walks through
them at a pedestrian-friendly pace (Scarpaci 2005). International travel in the
industrial nations of the 'north' has increasingly brought remote destinations
of Africa, Asia, and Latin America into the consumer's reach.
This paper has discussed two distinct consumer populations. Globalization
tourists (GTers) include those who want predictable and secure destinations.
A plethora of international hotel and resort chains operate large, oceanfront
properties catering to these needs. Another second, but growing consumer group,
desires cultural features that make up smaller corners of Latin American towns
and cities. These heritage tourists (HTers) are often associated with ranks of
Elderhostel travelers, university students, and others with a vested interest in
cultural preservation. To show how such travel is segmented, I reinterpreted a
model posted by Buhalis (2000) that segments the GTer from the HTer. While the
latter isrelatively small in comparison, it is likely to afford an alternative setting as
globalization homogenizes the tourists' spaces of the world's growing leisure class.
Even though heritage tourism displays an unproblematic interpretation of the
past, many consumers may be unaware of the polemics attached to how historic
landscapes are packaged for consumption, nor does it matter about whose memory
of the Latin American historic district is being preserved. American consumers,
due to proximity and relative cost, will likely continue to seek out heritage tourism

12 MaterialCulture
in Latin America and the Caribbean - particularly in the centro hist6rico - precisely
because their landscapes and venues are just a bit less predictable than the 'sun n'
surf' venues that globalization tourism so aggressively promotes.

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TITLE: Globalization Tourists and Heritage Tourists in American

Culture: The Case of Latin American Historic Districts
SOURCE: Mater Cult 39 no2 Fall 2007

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