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Capacity building through heritage tourism : an international perspective
\"Capacity Building Through Heritage Tourism: An International Perspective provides a comprehensive account of the valuable tangible and intangible benefits of the development of heritage tourism. Tourism development is widely acknowledged as a crucial tool to foster the development of rural and urban areas. To this end, this book presents nine case studies from international authors that reflect how tourism development is helpful-economically, socially, and otherwise-for community capacity building. The case studies from the countries of Spain, Portugal, Australia, Dubai, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and India demonstrate the uses of various management strategies and methods for rural and urban areas and cover some of the major topics related to community-based tourism, community capacity building, and community participation in developing heritage tourism. Chapters consider the conservation of heritage resources and tourism promotion of destinations that provide opportunities to local communities to strengthen their economies and social standards. Issues and topics addressed include: Water conservation in urban landscape as natural, cultural, and historic tourism resources Spiritual and religious heritage tourism Cultural tourism and the support of public and private funds Economic development and its effect on cultural and natural resources Public-private-partnership to ensure sustainable development Talent management challenges Tribal tourism and the tribal festivals, which are the mirror of their culture and could be major tourist attractions The methodologies and proposed management strategies discussed by book's researchers and professors will be valuable for policymakers, administrators, tourism promoters, researchers, and academicians who are involved with the tourism industry\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The Construction and Dynamics of Cultural Icons
Departing from the present need for cultural models within the public debate, this volume offers a new contribution to the study of cultural icons. From the traditional religious icon to the modern mass media icon, from the recognizable visual icon to the complex entanglement of image and collective narratives: The Construction and Dynamics of Cultural Icons offers an overview of existing theories, compares different definitions and proposes a comprehensive view on the icon and the iconic. Focusing in particular on the making of iconic representations and their changing social-cultural meanings through time, scholars from cultural memory studies, art history and literary studies present concrete operationalizations of the ways different types of cultural icons can be studied.
eBook
Artificial Intelligence for Dunhuang Cultural Heritage Protection: The Project and the Dataset
In this work, we introduce our project on Dunhuang cultural heritage protection using artificial intelligence. The Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in China, also known as the Grottoes of the Thousand Buddhas, is a religious and cultural heritage located on the Silk Road. The grottoes were built from the 4th century to the 14th century. After thousands of years, the in grottoes decaying is serious. In addition, numerous historical records were destroyed throughout the years, making it difficult for archaeologists to reconstruct history. We aim to use modern computer vision and machine learning technologies to solve such challenges. First, we propose to use deep networks to automatically perform the restoration. Through out experiments, we find the automated restoration can provide comparable quality as those manually restored from an archaeologist. This can significantly speed up the restoration given the enormous size of the historical paintings. Second, we propose to use detection and retrieval for further analyzing the tremendously large amount of objects because it is unreasonable to manually label and analyze them. Several state-of-the-art methods are rigorously tested and quantitatively compared in different criteria and categorically. In this work, we created a new dataset, namely, AI for Dunhuang, to facilitate the research. Version v1.0 of the dataset comprises of data and label for the restoration, style transfer, detection, and retrieval. Specifically, the dataset has 10,000 images for restoration, 3455 for style transfer, and 6147 for property retrieval. Lastly, we propose to use style transfer to link and analyze the styles over time, given that the grottoes were build over 1000 years by numerous artists. This enables the possibly to analyze and study the art styles over 1000 years and further enable future researches on cross-era style analysis. We benchmark representative methods and conduct a comparative study on the results for our solution. The dataset will be publicly available along with this paper.
Journal Article
Cross-cultural differences in adopting mobile augmented reality at cultural heritage tourism sites
Purpose
Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used in cultural heritage tourism sites for the enhancement of the tourist experience. However, behavioral intention to adopt AR is dependent on cultural traits, and close investigation is required on cultural differences. To explore these cultural differences and the effect on AR acceptance in cultural heritage tourism sites, this study aims to focus on the aesthetic and hedonic characteristics of AR applications.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in two countries with strong contrasts in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explore cultural differences in AR acceptance. In total, 145 questionnaires were collected in Deoksugung Palace, South Korea, and 119 questionnaires were collected in the An Post Museum, Republic of Ireland. Data were analyzed using PLS Graph 3.0.
Findings
The findings confirmed that the aesthetics of AR have a strong influence on perceived enjoyment. Furthermore, this study supported the notion that high power distance, collectivism and high uncertainty avoidance culture such as South Korea’s perceives stronger dependence on social influence and the hedonic characteristics of AR.
Practical implications
AR innovation and marketing within the hospitality and tourism industry requires an understanding of cultural differences to ensure successful implementation. In addition, tourism and hospitality managers need to ensure that the needs and requirements of different target markets are met.
Originality/value
This study applied Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explore the differences between two very distinct countries with regard to AR acceptance. The findings provide important implications for the implementation of tourism AR applications for different countries, especially considering international target markets.
Journal Article
Devil on the cross
\"The great Kenyan writer and Nobel Prize nominee Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo's powerful fictional critique of capitalism One of the cornerstones of Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo's fame, Devil on the Cross was written in secret, on toilet paper, while Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo was in prison. It tells the tragic story of Wariinga, a young woman who moves from a rural Kenyan town to the capital, Nairobi, only to be exploited by her boss and later by a corrupt businessman. As she struggles to survive, Wariinga begins to realize that her problems are only symptoms of a larger societal malaise and that much of the misfortune stems from the Western, capitalist influences on her country. An impassioned cry for a Kenya free of dictatorship and for African writers to work in their own local dialects, Devil on the Cross has had a profound influence on Africa and on post-colonial African literature\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Location-Based Augmented Reality for Cultural Heritage Communication and Education: The Doltso District Application
Location-based Augmented Reality applications are increasingly used in many research and commercial fields. Some of the fields that these applications are used are recreational digital games, tourism, education, and marketing. This study aims to present a location-based augmented reality (AR) application for cultural heritage communication and education. The application was created to inform the public, especially K12 students, about a district of their city with cultural heritage value. Furthermore, Google Earth was utilized to create an interactive virtual tour for consolidating the knowledge acquired by the location-based AR application. A scheme for evaluating the AR application was also constructed using factors suitable for location-based applications: challenge, educational usefulness (knowledge), collaboration, and intention to reuse. A sample of 309 students evaluated the application. Descriptive statistical analysis showed that the application scored well in all factors, especially in challenge and knowledge (mean values 4.21 and 4.12). Furthermore, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis led to a model construction that represents how the factors are causally related. Based on the findings, the perceived challenge significantly influenced the perceived educational usefulness (knowledge) (b = 0.459, sig = 0.000) and interaction levels (b = 0.645, sig = 0.000). Interaction amongst users also had a significant positive impact on users’ perceived educational usefulness (b = 0.374, sig = 0.000), which in turn influenced users’ intention to reuse the application (b = 0.624, sig = 0.000).
Journal Article
Cutting it short and The little town where time stood still
\"In the 1930s Europe is tangoing to the tune of a new age, but in rural Czechoslovakia golden-haired Maryska dances to a rhythm all her own. Not even her husband, Francin the brewery manager, can control her as Maryska shocks the populace with her scandalous behavior, and incurs the disapproval of a sheltered little town that is blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic world events that are about to engulf it. As World War II draws to a close, Maryska and her neighbors appear to have survived unscathed, but the new Communist political order creates tensions that tear through the social fabric in previously unimaginable ways. The Little Town Where Time Stood Still is Bohumil Hrabal's poignant, hilarious evocation of the passing of an era and the sweetness of love, lust, and life\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Virtual Restoration and Virtual Reconstruction in Cultural Heritage: Terminology, Methodologies, Visual Representation Techniques and Cognitive Models
Today, the practice of making digital replicas of artworks and restoring and recontextualizing them within artificial simulations is widespread in the virtual heritage domain. Virtual reconstructions have achieved results of great realistic and aesthetic impact. Alongside the practice, a growing methodological awareness has developed of the extent to which, and how, it is permissible to virtually operate in the field of restoration, avoid a false sense of reality, and preserve the reliability of the original content. However, there is not yet a full sharing of meanings in virtual restoration and reconstruction domains. Therefore, this article aims to clarify and define concepts, functions, fields of application, and methodologies. The goal of virtual heritage is not only producing digital replicas. In the absence of materiality, what emerges as a fundamental value are the interaction processes, the semantic values that can be attributed to the model itself. The cognitive process originates from this interaction. The theoretical discussion is supported by exemplar case studies carried out by the authors over almost twenty years. Finally, the concepts of uniqueness and authenticity need to be again pondered in light of the digital era. Indeed, real and virtual should be considered as a continuum, as they exchange information favoring new processes of interaction and critical thinking.
Journal Article