Reaching an increasingly diverse and sophisticated tourist population with an effective cultural message, realistically delivered, for those Queensland regions not advantaged by unique natural structures poses a real challenge. Although today cultural references are blurred due to rampant standardisation, globalisation and mass production, there is a growing desire by the tourist public to return to our origins, traditional know how and singularity which are values precisely concentrated in the arts and crafts professions. It is essential for those regions to define and rekindle a cultural uniqueness through their traditional skills thereby creating substantive opportunities for a sustainable future.
This session draws parallels between regional France (2003 Senate Report “Tourism and the Arts and Crafts Professions”, a discussion paper) and regional Queensland underlining the rich possibilities existing between cultural tourism and the arts. It also examines those factors likely to accelerate or impede the development of this concept by focussing on the successful contemporary examples of such relationships in regional France which argues that:
- This recognition influences cultural heritage priorities in different rural communities.
- The emphasis must be on human activities which encourage, maintain or revive artisanal and technical skills from the local regions.
- A recognition that cultural tourism allied with the art and craft professions, by emphasising the uniqueness of the cultural object through quality, authenticity and integrity, can offer regional/rural communities not just mere survival but a good quality of life as a cultural and economically sustainable alternative.