Heritage Interpretation Centres: an intelligent communication strategy for cultural tourism in cities and historic sites

Considering the importance of creating objective and motivating conditions to promote cultural tourism in Brazil, which goes beyond the mere tourist promotion that has been a current practice produced, when it occurs, taking into account the cultural resources existing in the localities, especially those with an evident heritage load, such as historic cities and historical sites located in large cities, I bring for reflection some premises that can help in proposing initiatives that will promote intelligent communication for cultural tourism in these territories.

Heritage Interpretation Centers: understanding the concept and its premises

In recent years, the so-called digital media have been increasingly used in the area of culture (museums, galleries, archaeological sites, etc.) and educational institutions. Traditional media, such as animated illustrations and audio guides, together with interactive exhibitions using digital multimedia, have allowed the transfer of knowledge to a completely new level. New possibilities for the presentation and experimentation of knowledge, in an attractive way for the audience, have emerged from this fusion.

So are the Heritage Interpretation Centers that act as spaces to welcome visitors who present and interpret these places in language accessible to both adults and children, preparing and ordering the visit to these places, as an inducing element for the management of visitor flow (BRITO, 2019). Its conformation depends on the object interpreted, and may refer to monuments, historic centers, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes and cultural itineraries, constituting, therefore, typologies corresponding to the nature of the heritage cultural site. It is important to say that the origin of the interpretative experience is based on the management of natural parks (SANTAMARINA CAMPOS, 2008).

The Interpretation Center is the space where the tourist offer associated with the place can be promoted, providing the visitor with new ways of approaching tourist-cultural information, using interactive technological resources and making it more permeable to the public to transmit the content that is intended to be disseminated.  In this sense, it is a matter of generating objective conditions for the promotion of quality cultural tourism, less passive, intelligent and more instigating.

Considering the existence of various forms of perception, they can also be understood as "structured spaces to support interpretation, mediating objects as diverse as monuments, territories, experiences, traditions, sociocultural phenomena, historical events or personalities" (SEBASTIÁN, 2019, p.07) in relation to a given place.

Thus, in order to promote knowledge, dissemination and appreciation of a heritage cultural asset, a Heritage Interpretation Center is the main support for the development of a methodological approach to interpretation as a form of communication (TILDEN, 2006), in order to encourage the visitor to explore and interact with heritage (DIPUTACIÓ BARCELONA, 2005). This methodological approach – interpretation – plays a fundamental role in assisting these processes mentioned above, and the interpretation centre is, therefore, an equipment to integrate the necessary tourist reception services, taking into account the potential existing in tourist destinations of heritage dominance and the corresponding tourist flows (BRITO, 2009).  Thus, to evaluate the Tourist reception capacity (GARCIA HERNANDEZ, 2003) that these destinations have, it is necessary to consider the following dimensions (TROITIÑO VINUESA, 2008, P.28):

a) "A Physical reception capacity , from whose overcoming the environment and cultural resources are very negatively affected, they lose quality, authenticity and attractiveness. The visitor's experience is also impoverished as he begins to suffer the effects of congestion;

(b) A Cost-effective reception capacity , once overflowed, causes mismatches with the other functions of fate, and functional balances begin to suffer negative effects and multifunctionality begins to be impaired. These are the risks of monoculture tourism plantations;

(c) A capacity for social acceptance , when, faced with an excessive number of visitors, residents perceive tourism as an invasion and relations with local society begin to be tense and conflictive. Tensions intensify and residents may abandon traditional spaces;

d) The capacity for cultural reception , when, due to excessive pressure or incorrect marketing and management strategies, local culture and heritage become trivialized, emptying themselves of meaning and losing their identity."

Thus, the Interpretation Center must be formalized based on the history of the place. Its exhibition elements must be designed only for the Centre in question. It is a fundamental factor that they bring exclusivity, personality and quality to the visit. It is an equipment designed with one objective: a place to welcome visitors – tourists and residents – as well as to inform the history of the place in an intelligent, simple, direct and thought-provoking way, providing, from a sensory experience, the interpretation of existing cultural values and the transmission of a message about this heritage.

On the other hand, the Interpretation Centre should not be confined to the building where it is installed, but invite and guide visitors to get to know the place, the territory where the heritage cultural site is located, to experience the daily experiences of the local population, in its most authentic tradition. As a gateway to get to know the locality and, from there, develop educational, cultural and tourist activities linked to historical testimonies and existing cultural manifestations, it must reveal in the place the meaning of the cultural legacy that the cultural asset in question has, and is therefore not a mere tourist service center.

Unlike museums, they do not need collections for their existence, although they can make use of them and do not propose their study, research and conservation, even though it is possible to carry out some activity in this sense. This is, in practice, the primary difference between this tourist reception facility and the museum.

Interpretation , in this sense, constitutes a central premise for the Intelligent communication between cultural heritage and visitors – tourists and residents – making it an accessible tourist attraction, considering that (TILDEN, 2006):

a) Any interpretation that in any way does not relate what is shown or described with something that is in the personality or in the visitor experience it will be barren;

b) Information, in itself, is not interpretation . Interpretation is an information-based revelation, although they are completely different things. However, every interpretation includes information;

c) Acting is an art that combines many other arts , regardless of whether the materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art, in a certain way, can be taught;

d) The main purpose of interpreting it is not to instruct, but instigate ;

e) The interpretation must try to present a whole rather than a part of that whole, and should be directed to conveying a message to the human being as a whole, not to a specific aspect of it;

f) The interpretation directed at children (say, up to 12 years old) should not be a dilution of the presentation for adults, but should follow a basically different approach. To get the most out of it, you'll need a specific program, which signals audience management in communication .

Thus, in a succinct and focused way, I highlight these essential points for technical, managerial and political decision-making in the field of interpretation of cultural sites, with a view to favoring the process of planning the formulation and implementation of this Cultural equipment with a strong tourist functionality .

REFERENCES

BRITO, Marcelo. Interpretation Centre in Cultural Heritage Sites. Brasília, IPHAN, 2019.

BRITO, Marcelo. Historical Cities as heritage destinations. Una mirada comparada: España y Brasil. JUNTA DE ANDALUCÍA/CONSEJERÍA DE CULTURA/IAPH. Sevilla, 2009.

DIPUTACIÓ BARCELONA. Heritage Interpretation Centers. HICIRA Manual. Barcelona, 2005.

GARCIA HERNANDEZ, María. Tourism and Monumental Complexes: tourist accommodation capacity and visitor flow management. Tirant lo Blanc, Valencia, 2003.

SANTAMARINA CAMPOS, Beatriz. From education to heritage interpretation. Patrimonio, interpretación y anthropology. In fashion: Xerardo Pereiro , Santiago Prado Conde , Hiroko Takenaka (Coord.). Cultural heritage : education and interpretation: crossing boundaries and producing alternatives. San Sebastian, 2008, pp. 39-56.

SEBASTIÁN, Luis. Editorial. IN: Coleção Patrimónios a Norte. Interpretive Centers: Techniques, Spaces, Concepts and Discourses. Edition Regional Directorate of Culture of the North (DRCN)/Ministry of Culture, nº 3, 2019, November, Porto.

TILDEN, Freeman. La interpretación de nuestro patrimonio. Asociación para la Interpretación del Patrimonio - AIP. First edition in Spanish. Seville, 2006.

TROITIÑO VINUESA, Miguel Ángel. Tourism, Heritage and Urban Recovery: interpretation and management procedures. IN: UINA. Cities Heritage of Humanity: Heritage, Tourism and Urban Recovery. Sevilla, 2008.