Heritage as a “Resource” for Tourism
Placing Heritage at the Centre of City Strategy
Guy Redman
eThekwini Municipality
Parks, Recreation & Culture Unit
Outline
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eThekwini Structure and Strategy
Challenges of Heritage Tourism in eThekwini
Placing Heritage at the Centre of City Strategy
Some Positive Steps
Organizational Structure
Challenges of Heritage Tourism in eThekwini
• Sustainability of Heritage Sites
– Maintenance and Conservation
• Not in a position to cover the full cost of the repair and
conservation work to ensure the long term sustainability of
our assets
– Increase in visitors accelerates decay
• Some Historic Buildings are simply not designed to
accommodate thousands of visitors each year
• With a no-pricing policy gate takings cannot even be used
to address maintenance issues
– Domination of Economic values over Cultural values
Challenges of Heritage Tourism in eThekwini
• Lack of Policy
– Bureaucracy
• Unfunded Mandate – “why do want a policy on this if it is
not our mandate”
• The above debate resulted in the city loosing valuable time
in addressing matters Heritage
 We are now in the process of developing an
Arts, Culture and Heritage Policy
Challenges of Heritage Tourism in eThekwini
• Lack of alignment
– We believe that Heritage is not just a “resource” for Tourism
but rather it is the bedrock of tourism
– Tourism has a responsibility to Heritage considering the
relationship between the two
– Heritage is an afterthought and yet if Heritage fails, a
significant part of the tourism offering of our city is affected
– The tension between Authenticity and tourism product
development
• By selecting elements of the past and transforming them into
‘heritage/tourism product’ that can easily be consumed by the mass
market, today’s heritage tourism is gradually disinheriting future
generations from their own past
Challenges of Heritage Tourism in eThekwini
Working with the City can be a real challenge in the current setup….
• At present, the City’s enormous creative capital is constrained
because it necessarily forms part of different City
departments, agencies, boards etc.
• For example, arts and heritage are in the Libraries & Heritage
Department; Tourism lives in Economic Development alongside
fashion and design, while film is separate again.
• Public art tends to be driven from the City Engineers/Architects
Change
is here
The Mercury Tuesday, 24 April 2010
Re-thinking our city’s economic development drivers – Culture-led City Regeneration
CATALYTIC HERITAGE INVESTMENT
Placing Heritage at the Centre of City Strategy
UMKHUMBANE CULTURAL PARK
cultural park ● tomb ● heritage centre ● museum
UMKHUMBANE CULTURAL PARK
cultural park ● tomb ● heritage centre ● museum
Reburial of the Zulu Queen Mother during May 2011
UMKHUMBANE CULTURAL PARK
The Heritage Centre and Museum will
form the iconic hub of the development
and will deal with themes relating to the
complex and turbulent history of Cato
Manor and the heritage of the area.
The project is unique in that it integrates
communities, heritage, and economic
development in a planned and integrated
manner.
• Other projects on the go include:
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Central Library
Natural Science Museum
Cato Manor Museum
Gandhi Museum
Dube House
Dennis Hurley Centre
Cultural Precinct in the CBD as well as in townships
Conclusion
• eThekwini is on the right tack but needs a more deliberate
focus on Heritage which automatically translates into benefits
for tourism
• Meeting the Demand for high standards
• Issues of Authenticity must be prioritised
• Human demands upon the environment should not always be
met, and must sometimes be constrained in the interest of
our heritage
• Heritage is not just a resource for Tourism
Thank you