Industrial tourism is tourism in which the desired destination includes industrial sites peculiar to a particular location. The concept is not new, as it includes wine tours in France, visits to cheesemakers in the Netherlands, Jack Daniel's distillery tours in the United States for example, but has taken on renewed interest in recent times, with both industrial heritage sites and modern industry attracting tourism.
Even if the concept is subjective, depending on a person's preferences, it has been noticed (through market researches) that people like to see and experience the present or historic (heritage) production processes of:
An attractions directory [1] for some Central SE European countries illustrates and includes this classification.
The attractiveness perception is also influenced by the cities' of destination ability to build touristic packages that reflect their industrial image and/or identity; respectively, in the case of tour operators, by mastering the industrial component in their attraction mix in the offered packages.
Presently, even on the mature markets, there are relatively few tour operators providing industrial tourism packages, completing other offers and almost always missing the specialized ones, as researched in a market study [2] conducted by one of the tour operators providing such specialized services.
The Society for Industrial Archeology and Association for Industrial Archaeology promote the preservation of historic industrial sites.
The most obvious industrial tourism destinations are cities and regions with a solid industrial base. For them, industrial tourism is a potential growth sector that matches with their identity: the sector offers opportunities to strengthen their distinctiveness and image, notably by building onto their already existing assets. [3]
However, successful achievements are few and mostly in the developed countries (in Western Europe [4] - especially Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands; as well as in the US and Japan) where a culture of leadership and collaboration between the different stakeholders at the community's governance level already exists. There is a positive trend and some remarkable achievements in Central Europe (Austria, Hungary, [5] the Czech Republic, Poland), China and India too.
Also, attention is being paid worldwide to reconvert economically collapsed mono industrial areas (especially mining and metallurgic ones) through industrial tourism: Krivoi Rog, Reșița [6] and Petroșani [7] ).
Wind farms and other energy generation facilities including dams and retired nuclear power plants are increasingly popular sites for educational tours. [8]
Some environmental and conservation activists, such as writer Edward Abbey, used the term Industrial Tourism to refer to commercialized tourism in protected natural areas, posing a threat to their ecology.
In his book, Desert Solitaire, Abbey wrote: "Industrial tourism is a threat to the national parks. But the chief victims of the system are the motorized tourists. They are being robbed and robbing themselves. So long as they are unwilling to crawl out of their cars they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of the urban-suburban complexes which they had hoped, presumably, to leave behind for a while."
In 2023, The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) highlighted commercial tourism as a threat to national parks. [9]
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments.
Ecotourism is a form of tourism marketed as "responsible" travel to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. The stated purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and human rights.
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement.
Industrial archaeology (IA) is the systematic study of material evidence associated with the industrial past. This evidence, collectively referred to as industrial heritage, includes buildings, machinery, artifacts, sites, infrastructure, documents and other items associated with the production, manufacture, extraction, transport or construction of a product or range of products. The field of industrial archaeology incorporates a range of disciplines including archaeology, architecture, construction, engineering, historic preservation, museology, technology, urban planning and other specialties, in order to piece together the history of past industrial activities. The scientific interpretation of material evidence is often necessary, as the written record of many industrial techniques is often incomplete or nonexistent. Industrial archaeology includes both the examination of standing structures and sites that must be studied by an excavation.
Poland is a part of the global tourism market with constantly increasing number of visitors. Tourism in Poland contributes to the country's overall economy. The most popular cities are Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, Szczecin, Lublin, Toruń, Zakopane, the Salt Mine in Wieliczka and the historic site of Auschwitz – a German Nazi concentration camp in Oświęcim. The best recreational destinations include Poland's Masurian Lake District, Baltic Sea coast, Tatra Mountains, Sudetes and Białowieża Forest. Poland's main tourist offers consist of sightseeing within cities, historical monuments, natural monuments, business trips, agrotourism, bicycle touring, qualified tourism, mountain hiking (trekking) and climbing among others.
Cultural tourism is a type of tourism in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the cultural attractions and products offered by a tourist destination. These attractions and products relate to the intellectual, spiritual, and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries as well as the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.
Tourism in Indonesia is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as a significant source of its foreign exchange revenues. Indonesia was ranked at 20th in the world tourist Industry in 2017, also ranked as the ninth-fastest growing tourist sector in the world, the third-fastest growing in Asia and fastest-growing in Southeast Asia. In 2018, Denpasar, Jakarta and Batam are among of 10 cities in the world with fastest growth in tourism, 32.7, 29.2 and 23.3 percent respectively. The tourism sector ranked as the 4th largest among goods and services export sectors.
Tourism in Mexico holds considerable significance as a pivotal industry within the nation's economic landscape. Beginning in the 1960s, it has been vigorously endorsed by the Mexican government, often heralded as "an industry without smokestacks," signifying its non-polluting and economically beneficial nature. Mexico has consistently ranked among the world's most frequented nations, as documented by the World Tourism Organization. Second only to the United States in the Americas, Mexico's status as a premier tourist destination is underscored by its standing as the sixth-most visited country globally for tourism activities, as of 2017. The country boasts a noteworthy array of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, encompassing ancient ruins, colonial cities, and natural reserves, alongside a plethora of modern public and private architectural marvels. Mexico has attracted foreign visitors beginning in the early nineteenth century, with its cultural festivals, colonial cities, nature reserves and the beach resorts. Mexico's allure to tourists is largely attributed to its temperate climate and distinctive cultural amalgamation, blending European and Mesoamerican influences. The nation experiences peak tourism seasons typically during December and the mid-Summer months. Additionally, brief spikes in visitor numbers occur in the weeks preceding Easter and Spring break, notably drawing college students from the United States to popular beach resort locales.
Romania's tourism sector had a direct contribution of EUR 5.21 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018, slightly higher than in 2017, placing Romania on the 32nd place in the world, ahead of Slovakia and Bulgaria, but behind Greece and the Czech Republic. The total tourism sector's total contribution to Romania's economy, which also takes into account the investments and spending determined by this sector, was some EUR 15.3 billion in 2018, up by 8.4% compared to 2017.
Cultural heritage tourism is a form of non-business travel whereby tourists engage with the heritage, tangible and intangible, moveable and immovable, of a region through activities, experiences, and purchases which facilitate a connection to the people, objects, and places of the past associated with the locations being visited. As opposed to natural heritage tourism, which focuses on visitors' interaction with the unimproved environment of the area being visited, including outdoor sports and recreation, hiking, diving, fishing, and naturalism, and pleasure tourism without any heritage interest, such as indoor recreation, gastronomy, and hospitality without any significant precedent in the history and heritage of the region, cultural heritage tourism can include activities such as tours of immovable cultural sites, such as historic house museums, historic fortifications, human history museums, and library documentary heritage collections, opportunities for purchases of moveable cultural property, such as antiques, antiquarian books, and other works and ephemera associated with the locations being visited, and opportunities for admission to or purchase of intangible heritage experiences associated with the tourism region, including gastronomic heritage and admissions to performances such as theatre, opera, ballet, indigenous dances, and storytelling.
Tourism in Israel is one of the country's major sources of income, with a record 4.55 million tourist arrivals in 2019. Tourism contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy in 2017, making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, natural sites, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism, adventure tourism, and ecotourism. For practical reasons, this article also covers tourism in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the occupied Golan Heights, since it is closely interconnected with the mass tourism in Israel. Over the millennia, the Holy Land has been amongst the most visited lands in the world.
Montenegro is one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations. In 2007, over a million tourists visited Montenegro, making some 7.3 million overnight stays. This accounted for some 480 million euros in tourism revenue in 2007. In 2015, tourism realised over 1.7 million arrivals, with a further increase in 2016. In the same year, the coastal town of Kotor was named the best city to visit by Lonely Planet, whereas the country itself is continuously included in touristic top lists. With a total of 1.8 million visitors in 2016, the nation became the 36th most popular country to travel to in Europe. Montenegro was further visited by over 2 million tourists in 2017. The Government aims to attract greenfield investments, which should make best use of undeveloped parts of the coast, such as Jaz Beach, Velika Plaža, Ada Bojana and Buljarica.
Tourism in Wales makes up a significant portion of the Welsh economy and attracting millions of visitors each year. The tourism industry in Wales was worth around £5bn in 2017. The tourism industry also makes a significant contribution to the Welsh economy, supporting over 100,000 jobs and more than 8% of the Welsh workforce. Wales attracts visitors from overseas, particularly from the United States, Australia, Germany and the Republic of Ireland.
Geotourism is tourism associated with geological attractions and destinations. Geotourism deals with the abiotic natural and built environments. Geotourism was first defined in England by Thomas Alfred Hose in 1995.
Tourism in Namibia is a major industry, contributing N$7.2 billion to the country's gross domestic product. Annually, over one million travelers visit Namibia, with roughly one in three coming from South Africa, then Germany and finally the United Kingdom, Italy and France. The country is among the prime destinations in Africa and is known for ecotourism which features Namibia's extensive wildlife.
Since the 2000s, Tourism in Peru makes up the nation's third largest industry, behind fishing and mining. Tourism is directed towards archaeological monuments, ecotourism in the Peruvian Amazon, cultural tourism in colonial cities, gastronomic tourism, adventure tourism, and beach tourism. According to a Peruvian government study, the satisfaction rate for tourists after visiting Peru is 94%. Tourism is the most rapidly growing industry in Peru, growing annually at a rate of 25% over the past five years. Tourism is growing in Peru faster than any other country in South America. Iperú is the Peruvian national tourist office.
The tourism assets of Mozambique include the country's natural environment, wildlife, and cultural heritage, which provide opportunities for beach, cultural, and eco-tourism.
Slum tourism, poverty tourism, ghetto tourism or trauma tourism is a type of tourism that involves visiting impoverished areas, or in some cases, areas that were affected by disasters, such as nuclear fallout zones like Chernobyl or Fukushima. Originally focused on the slums and ghettos of London and Manhattan in the 19th century, slum tourism is now prominent in South Africa, India, Brazil, Kenya, Philippines and the United States.
Heritage commodification is the process by which cultural themes and expressions come to be evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange value, specifically within the context of cultural tourism. These cultural expressions and aspects of heritage become "cultural goods," transformed into commodities to be bought, sold and profited from in the heritage tourism industry. In the context of modern globalization, complex and often contradictory layers of meaning are produced in local societies, and the marketing of one's cultural expressions can degrade a particular culture while simultaneously assisting in its integration into the global economy. The repatriation of profits, or "leakage", that occurs with the influx of tourist capital into a heritage tourist site is a crucial part of any sustainable development that can be considered beneficial to local communities. Modern heritage tourism reproduces an economic dynamic that is dependent upon capital from tourists and corporations in creating sustained viability. Tourism is often directly tied to economic development, so many populations see globalization as providing increased access to vital medical services and important commodities.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to tourism:
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