st ud ia universitatis he re d it at i Članek tematizira koncept marketinga dediščine. Osnovna ideja marketinga dediščine je, da se med po- nudbo in povpraševanjem doseže »poštena« izmenjava, ki zadovolji potrebe oz. želje obiskovalcev/tu- ristov in interese upravljalca/ponudnika dediščine, obenem pa se ohranja fizično in simbolno vrednost dediščine. Ključne besede: trženje dediščine, kulturna dediščina, turizem, turistična ponudba This paper addresses the concept of marketing in heritage. The basic idea of heritage marketing is to achieve a “fair” exchange between the supply and demand, which meets the needs/wishes of visitors/ tourists and the interests of managers/providers of heritage, while at the same time preserving the phys- ical and symbolic value of the heritage. Keywords: heritage marketing, cultural heritage, tourism, tourist offer Heritage Marketing in Tourism Gorazd Sedmak, University of Primorska, UP FTŠ Turistica 99 Although heritage marketing as a concept has already been present in the world for at least thirty years,1 in the last dec- ade I have met several humanities experts who were rather suspicious of the very idea of heritage marketing. “Heritage is something that needs to preserved for future generations, studied and in- terpreted, and certainly not exploited for mak- ing profits!” In principle, I agree. I am also aware that inappropriate use of heritage by the tour- ism industry, which often happens in practice and which leads to distortion, loss of authentic- ity, physical or symbolic degradation or even de- struction, is harmful. However, sensible and pro- fessional valorization of heritage in tourism can be a source of revenue, which can be invested in preservation and protection of heritage and of- fers opportunities for new jobs for local people. In many cases, tourism even helps intangible heritage to survive or even resuscitates already 1 E. g. Church, Marketing. forgotten heritage.2 And, last but not least, who are the “future generations” who will be entitled to fully enjoy the heritage, and whether tourists are also among them? In everyday life, people often equate mar- keting with promotion or advertising. Thus, in the present time, when we are “bombard- ed” with advertisements at every step, market- ing is perceived as something negative, aggres- sive. However, promotion is only a part (and not even the most important) of marketing. Marketing is (according to American Market- ing Association; https://www.ama.org/About- AMA/Pages/Definition-of-Marketing.aspx) »the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and ex- changing offerings that have value for custom- ers, clients, partners, and society at large«. It is a process of searching information, designing and implementing a product concept, pricing poli- 2 Cohen “Authenticity and Commodization,” 382. doi: ht t ps://doi .org/10. 26493/2350-54 43.5(1)99- 102 st ud ia universitatis he re d it at i st u d ia u n iv er si ta t is h er ed it a t i, le t n ik 5 (2 01 7) , š t ev il k a 1 10 0 cy making, market communication and the dis­ tribution of ideas, services and goods in order to achieve the individual goals of customers / users (usually by meeting their needs) and the goals of the organization. It should be stressed that these goals are not necessarily of financial nature. To the above, »socially responsible marketing« adds also the consideration of the interests of other stakeholders (local communities, employ­ ees) and concern for the natural environment. As Hannahs (2003) establishes in the context of underwater architectural heritage: »It is not a part of archaeological discipline to provide the general public with more and better opportuni­ ties to access cultural resources«, nor they have been trained to do it. That is the task for other ­ marketing ­ professions. DiMaggio (in Rent­ schler, 2010) similarly claims that nonprofit in­ stitutions are not non­market institutions. Chhabra (2010) in her book »Sustainable Marketing of Cultural and Heritage Tourism« defines marketing as: “The process sought to ex­ change ideas, relationships and products with various public stakeholders and stakeholders with goals to enhance attendance, income, edu­ cation and interactive engagement with custom­ ers while promoting sustainable environments and society interests at large for the enjoyment of both current and future generations.” Of course, there are some specifics of herit­ age marketing comparing to the marketing of or­ dinary market goods. Heritage bears an impor­ tant cultural value for the local community, and is quantitatively and spatially, in some cases also time­limited. It is vulnerable ­ both in physical and symbolic terms. However, taking into ac­ count these specifics, we can benefit much by us­ ing marketing tools, such as market segmenta­ tion, targeting and positioning, marketing plan, branding, etc. for tourism valorization of herit­ age.3 Let us look for example just the market­ ing plan. Despite its apparent banality, this tool can constitute a good basis for reflection and de­ cision­making. The stages of the plan are analy­ 3 Veverka, “Marketing Basics.” sis of the internal and external environment, de­ termination of objectives, selection of marketing strategies, implementation and monitoring, re­ spectively assessment of the performance of the activities. Thus, we should begin with the analysis of our organization and its resources. We need to ask ourselves where are we currently, and where we would like to be, what resources represent our strengths and what are our weaknesses (is that the personnel or their competences, financ­ es or anything else)? It may be the heritage it­ self ­ not all heritage can be developed into the tourist attraction.4 Or, if we go one step further: “worth of seeing” does not always mean “worth of visiting”. The visit is related to some finan­ cial and non­financial costs (time, stress, etc.), which can discourage potential visitors from visiting our site. In the second phase, we need to examine our market and non­market exter­ nal environment. Who are our potential visi­ tors, how many are they, and what their charac­ teristics are (where do they come from, how can they be segmented, what are their motives, “pur­ chase” habits, etc.), who represents our compe­ tition, with whom we can connect/collaborate, what the legal framework of our organization is and how the local community perceives us. Next comes the goals setting. They should not be too many, they must be clearly set (if possi­ ble quantified) and time­defined. Some possi­ ble goals are: increase in the number of visitors, restriction of visits, better informed local com­ munity, more income, changed structure of vis­ itors, de­seasonalization, etc. In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary to specify the opera­ tors, the necessary resources and activities (e. g. joining some associations, collecting the fee, ad­ vertising, merchandising, etc.). The final stage is, of course, controlling/assessment and possi­ ble corrections/adaptation of the plan. The key stage of the marketing plan is goals setting. They must not be contrary to the interests of any of the relevant stakeholders. With (possibly) neces­ sary adjustments, such an approach enables effi­ 4 Apostolakis, “Convergence Process in Heritage Tourism.” st ud ia universitatis he re d it at i h er it a g e m a r k et in g in t o u r is m 10 1 cient and holistic action in all forms of heritage valorization in tourism. To conclude, I would like to draw attention on some often­overlooked facts from the field of heritage valorization in tourism. If local people do not know that something is their heritage, in the eyes of tourists this is not heritage but histo­ ry.5 Most tourists want to get to know the her­ itage only superficially in a funny way;6 motives for visiting heritage attractions are very hetero­ geneous (in addition to the basic four Es ­ enter­ tainment, escape, aesthetics, education, these are also “an opportunity to socialize”, “to kill time”, “random” visit, nostalgia ...).7 Heritage market­ ing is mainly about being able to see the heritage (also) through the eyes of tourists. Povzetek Čeprav se o marketingu dediščine govori in piše že vsaj trideset let, ga humanisti (če že) sprejemajo dokaj zadr- žano. Del te zadržanosti gre gotovo pripisati nerazume- vanju vloge marketinga pri turistični valorizaciji dediš- čine. Marketing ni aktivnost, ki bi imela dediščino za surovino, iz katere se kujejo dobički. Gre za znanja in veščine ter nabor orodij, s pomočjo katerih se dosega- jo različni cilji, povezani z vključevanjem dediščine v tu- ristično ponudbo. Pomembno je, da te cilje, ki so lahko zelo raznoliki (in nikakor ne samo finančni), določa tisti, ki upravljala z dediščino. Osnovna ideja marketinga de- diščine je, da se med ponudbo in povpraševanjem dose- že »poštena« izmenjava, ki zadovolji potrebe oz. želje obiskovalcev/turistov in interese upravljalca/ponudni- ka dediščine, obenem pa se ohranja fizično in simbolno vrednost dediščine. Summary Although the concept of heritage marketing has been already present for at least thirty years, the humanists (if they do) accept it quite suspiciously. Partially, this reti- cence can be ascribed to the lack of understanding of the role of marketing in the tourism valorization of her- itage. Marketing is not an activity that would use herit- 5 Poria, Butler and Airey, “Links between Tourists.” 6 Brezovec et al., Srce Istre. 7 Sedmak, Brezovec, “Visitorś preferences for museum interpreta- tion.” age as a raw material for making profits. It is about knowl- edge and skills and a set of tools that help in achieving different goals related to the integration of heritage into the tourist offer. It is important that these goals, which can be very diverse (and by no means only financial), are determined by those who manage the heritage. The ba- sic idea of heritage marketing is to achieve a “fair” ex- change between the supply and demand, which meets the needs/wishes of visitors/tourists and the interests of managers/providers of heritage, while at the same time preserving the physical and symbolic value of the her- itage. Bibliography Apostolakis, Alexandros. “The Convergence Process in Heritage Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 30 (2003): 795–812. 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