Gregory Willson

Heritage Buildings and Tourism Gregory Willson

Experiences are now viewed by many authors as being the core offering of tourism. As a result, increased attention has been given in the tourism literature to experiential perspectives in tourism, especially with regards to heritage tourism. However, there remains a lack of research exploring the experiential relationship between heritage buildings and tourism. This book discusses the nature of experiences gained by international tourists from the heritage buildings in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Specifically, it discusses that a tourism townscape is not a passive space. Heritage buildings render the townscape an experiential space filled with emotion, mindfulness, engagement and personal meaning. These findings have important implications for destination promotion and product development and can aid preservation groups in their goal of protecting valued heritage.