Managing heritage resources as tourism products

In theory, treating cultural heritage assets as products for tourism consumption is reasonable and logical. In practice, though, it is much harder to achieve, for tourism and cultural heritage management embrace different management mandates and focuses. The fact that most of the cultural tourism attractions were not originally intended for tourism necessitates sympathetic product development and management strategies. The authors discuss some of the challenges in developing cultural tourism assets as products by using Hong Kong as a case study. Using secondary sources, results from various consumer surveys conducted by them and others, and interviews with heritage site managers, the paper illustrates the challenges inherent in cultural tourism development.