8/08/2006

Pioneering the new heritage tourism

If we think of Army museums at all, we think of them as passive institutions taking whatever visits come their way.

For some reason, the museum at Ft. Belvoir craves visitors and is about to decamp to a spot where private enterprise can build hotels an attractions around it. On federal land. Producing no benefit to the local economy.

It's a concept of heritage tourism that has broken free of the underlying economic drivers. In a cosmic twist, the local community actively opposes the plan.

Heritage tourism with no utility. The military as pure entertainment.

Heritage tourism as an idea has gained so much momentum, it has now broken through to hyper-reality. A represenation of heritage tourism has displaced functional heritage tourism.