Cultural Realms - Rossitza Ohridska-Olson's blog about the business of cultural tourism

The Day of Cyrillic Alphabet, Slavonic Culture and Enlightenment

One of the oldest cultural holidays in Europe

The “Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius” is celebrated as an ecclesiastic observance since the 11th century A.D., accordingly to old church chronicles. This holiday commemorates the work of the brothers who created a writing system for the Slavonic languages, known now as Cyrillic alphabet. For many of the people living in Western countries, including the USA, this alphabet is known as “Russian” writing. In actuality, there is nothing Russian in its history, except that from the 11th century (2 centuries after its creation), the Cyrillic alphabet was adopted as the official ecclesiastic writing system in Kiev Russia. (See my article on the Cyrillic alphabet history and its importance now by clicking here).

To my knowledge, there is not a culture related Saint in any other Christian to be celebrated by both Eastern Orthodox believers, Catholic devotees, and atheists alike for more than 10 centuries and across so many countries. Literacy and culture were so important in Eastern Europe during all these years, that portraits of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Cyrillic alphabet were painted over and over again in churches and cathedrals. Their icons received the same devotion as the ones of St. Mary and St. George, and their life stories were told and retold in numerous books.

Even before Bulgaria was free from Turkish domination, Saints Cyril and Methodius celebrations were the major cultural event of the year. In 1851, on May 11, a Bulgarian teacher and revolutionary fighter against the Turkish domination of the Balkans, organized the first secular celebration of these Saints. Since then, all people in Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Serbia, Czech Republic, etc. venerate Saints Cyril and Methodius who gave them access to written culture, vast sources of knowledge and cultural independence from Muslim and other religious or social invasions. 

Now, because of changes in the ecclesiastic calendar, the “Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius” is marked on May 11 by Christian devotees, and on May 24, secularly.

In many countries May 24 is also an official national holiday. Festivities are accompanied by parades, local and national cultural events, culture award ceremonies and many other expressions of respect to the achievements of society in the field of arts, education and enlightenment. In many countries this day is also celebrated as a day of education. That is why on May 24, teachers, students and alumnae gather together for all kind of events.

Why do I care about this? First, because I come from a country where, even in communist times, these were the only Saints to be celebrated officially, publicly and nationally. Second, because, as an expat, I miss celebrating a day of culture or education. A day on which the entire nation gathers together, not in stadiums or around barbecues, but in theaters, operas, libraries and schools to celebrate literacy, arts, and education. Not a day to sit collectively around a televised sporting event. Not a day jumping, screaming and  mindlessly applauding a celebrity with dubious reputation, trying to overcome a deafening sound system in a 100,000-seats arena.

I dream of a day when everyone from every culture in the United States would show off their cultural achievements, their heritage and their modern glory in arts, architecture, education and culture. A day, which will be an official, publicly recognized, national holiday of culture. A day, when nobody works and everybody goes to the streets to display their love for all cultural accomplishments of this great country.

Until then, I will continue to celebrate May 24, the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Photography: first image: icon of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Pirin Mountain village church, Bulgaria. Photography: Rossitza Ohridska-Olson. Second image: Monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius, sponsored by Bulgarian millionaires, brother Bobokovi, prepared to be sent to Odessa as a present to the Ukrainian city to remember the creators of the alphabet used in that country. Photography by Nedko Ivanov.

National Geographic Traveler Confirms Trends in Cultural Tourism

Rarely I like to say “I told you so…”, because it normally involves an advice I gave and somebody didn’t follow, in spite the money they paid to me to get this consultation. Or it is my husband for another reason – you know how it goes…

This time I am happy that Nat Geo Traveler confirms my forecast by choosing the “50 Tours of a Lifetime”. Here it is why (click on the picture for bigger size. Will open in a separate window):

As you can see from the table above, 32 out of the 50 featured trip are cultural tourism trips. From them, National Geographic Traveler classifies 22 as cultural, the rest are classified as cultural by the tour operator who organizes them. As I underlined, cultural and creative tourism, are recession resistant. In the 2009 edition of “50 Tours of a Lifetime”, National Geographic lists 22 trips. If we apply their criteria, there still be an increase of 100% over the last year.

It is normal for National Geographic, a global company, to list trips all around the world. Still, emerging destinations are predominant with the most exotic taking leading role, as I predicted in the 2010 Cultural Tourism Trends. As per the geography of these destinations, I “struck gold” with 10, out of 50 – not too bad, view the fact that 22 were named “cultural tourism destinations”.

Creative tourism take a significant place, view it is a new approach to cultural tourism. It is often mixed with other activities – volunteering, cultural travel, etc. Which proves another of my statements: “The consumer demand for authentic experiences and more “to do at the destinations” will pressure change not only the geographies of the cultural tourism, but also the relationships local community- visitors.” That is why many of the tours winning the prestigious label of “50 Tours of a Lifetime” offer interaction with local people, traditions and cultures, independently the main reason for travel: adventure, wildlife, active or volunteering tours.

Europe got it right by offering tours off of the bitten pad and big city cultural tourism. The tour choice shifted, as forecasted to niche sub-destinations:  Italy with Piedmont wine tours, which are more cultural experience then typical wine tasting, Pompeii with archaeological tours – another trend of niche tourism that I predicted, etc.

The most surprising was my comment on religious tourism: from the only one religious trip, among the 50 of National Geographic Traveler, was my certainty that Spain with its Camino de Santiago will take its deserved place among pilgrimage trips.

As per the business of cultural tourist, I predicted correctly that small, concierge type agencies would satisfy better the shifting cultural traveler profile towards personalized, responsible travel. Thirty-nine out of 50 trips are operated by travel companies that have in place sustainable, eco- or responsible travel policy. Thirty-three are operated by small travel agencies, offering customizable and personalized, individually designed trips with flexibility in travel dates.

P.S.

While preparing this blogpost, I went and read about all 50 tour operators | agencies, their tours, destinations, their policies, explored their websites and decided to name my favorites among the National Geographic choices:

Best cultural tourism agency: Wilderness Travel: for its rich choice of destinations, a wide array of experiences offered to travelers and user-friendly website, full of information and possibilities for customization of trips.

Best creative tourism agency: Cultural Crossroads (http://culturalcrossroads.com) for its highly customized tours and unique creative activities, in addition to incredible insider access to many places and people that other agencies cannot even dream.

Best niche tourism agency: Andante Travels, UK – for archaeological tourism. In addition to cover almost all possible interests in archaeology travel – from amateur lovers of archaeology to professional researchers, the website of the agency is the only one that offers a search engine that permits the user to search by historic period, in addition to destination, date and other normal travel search criteria. They are the only agency, which gives back directly to the archaeological sites, which can apply for a award, independently if the agency has a tour to the site or not.

Best personal discovery: Go Native America  - for promoting tribal cultural tourism, preserving the identity and authenticity of the Native Americans across North America, and in the same time providing exciting, educative and spiritual tours.

If you want compare yourself both documents, for the National Geographic Traveler “50 Tours of a Lifetime” click here and for Cultural realms “Cultural tourism in 2010: trends, destinations and business outlook” click here.

If you want to name your favorite tour operator | travel agency (and say why), please post a comment here, after the blog. Needless to say that if you work for some of these travel company, you cannot name it – it is logical, isn’t it?

Photo: Basket weaving lessons in Jordan
Courtesy of Carrie McDougall, with special permission for Cultural Realms

The Cultural Tourism in 2010: Trends, destinations and business outlook

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Global economic and energy responsibility, new and exciting technologies, and drastic transformations in travelers’ profile will continue to shape the cultural tourism in 2010. As 2009 had proven, the cultural tourism is recession-proof. That is logical: cultural tourism exists to satisfy a need for discovery – heritage, new wine region, new old civilization, new artifacts, new exhibition, new concert. Cultural travelers don’t travel because they have 14 days vacation, they travel because they need to unveil something mysterious, something familiar, something…unexpected. They are driven not by prices, but by deep-rooted need for new experiences or nostalgic familiarity. That is why they spend more money and they travel more often. Their travels are longer in time and distance. This pattern will not change in 2010.

What will be different and what will stay the same in 2010?

Cultural Tourism Destinations 2010

Close to home destinations for the fiscally conservative and green conscious traveler will continue to be more and more important. Instead to visit Paris, London or Madrid, spend insane money and pollute the air with enormous kerosene emissions, the North-Americans will fly, take the train or the shuttle to NYC or Washington, DC to view the European Art in the Metropolitan Museum and the Smithsonian. Not that the visitations to the Louvre, the British Museum and El Prado will decrease – they will continue to augment thanks to European travelers, local public and new travel generating markets, such as Singapore, Thailand and Malasya (see news about ATOUT France).

Emerging destinations

Emerging destinations will be found close to home or very faraway for the more and more curious and always discovery-seeking cultural tourism traveler.

Destination with exotic cultures in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia), the Caucuses (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) and the Balkans (Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Serbia) will be the next big discovery and magnet for those who want to see it all.

With Istanbul being European Cultural Capital for 2010, Turkey will attract many tourists from around the world, not only history lovers, but also modern art, design and visitors to the great events planed to celebrate the culture of this millennial city.

Central and Eastern European destinations will offer a more economic alternative to the Western overpriced destinations, with similar cultural experiences: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Hungary offer the same 19th century grandeur and thriving modern art, with the spicing of local exotics and lower prices, compared to France, Britain, Italy and Spain.

Austria, Monaco and Switzerland, on the other side, are very well prepared to continue the tradition of luxurious and exclusive cultural tourism for the seekers of elegance and familiar Western culture settings.

In spite wars, politics and all kind of negative propaganda, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon will continue to attract the history lovers. Even Iraq will join the group of Middle Eastern cultural destinations for those who take risks or belong to the region. Dubai and the rest of the UAE, with their efforts to add cultural experiences to their super-luxurious offer, will remain a focal point for tourists from the region and the world.

Emerging destinations in North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) will continue to be the favorite destinations for lovers of the exotic Arabian cultures, without  the security risks of the Middle East.

Latin America’s Peru and Guatemala, will continue to attract both North-Americans and Europeans with their endless cultural discoveries found in pristine and undisturbed nature.

China and Vietnam, together with Cambodia and Bhutan will be the next big thing in for lovers of Asian cultures and exotic experiences.

Traditional Cultural Tourism Destinations trends

Damaged by the image lacking authenticity and being extremely expensive, France, Italy, Spain, Austria and Britain will extend their cultural tourism offer to micro-regions with specific local charms and will target niche cultural tourism generating markets. Big magnet cities, as London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna and Rome will be replaced with the cultural offer of Sicily, Loire Valley, Toulouse, Andalusia, and Catalonia, and villages around Salzburg.

Portugal will continue to grow its cultural offer and extend it beyond Lisbon, stressing the charm and history of little villages and religious centers.

Cultural tourism trends 2010

Creative tourism

With the engagement economy growing in full speed, expect significant growth in creative tourism offers across the globe. Cultural tourists are no longer satisfied observing cultural heritage and events – they want to participate in the creation or development of local cultures. Travel programs including carpet-weaving classes, painting on ceramics, or volunteer archeology travel will thrive on an unprecedented scale.

Responsible and eco-conscious travelers

Cultural heritage warnings and nature destruction around cultural heritage sites will have an enormous impact on the responsible traveler. Awareness and change of attitude will influence destination choice towards cultural attractions, which are non-destructive, eco-friendly and responsible towards the local cultures.

Major scandals about artifacts obtained by illegal antiquities trade will continue to damage important museums as Getty, the British Museum etc., and will be the cause of decreasing visitations. Responsible travelers will sign up more and more for initiatives such as this one of the of the World Monuments Fund to take a pledge for sustainable tourism (http://www.wmf.org/action/sustainable-tourism-pledge) or sign up for volunteering travel to save antiquities from looting and overcrowding with tourists, as SAFE/Saving Antiquities  for Everyone is promoting .

Religious travel

Political tensions will continue to damage travel to Israel and Mecca, but newly discovered or marketed routs, such as the route of St. Paul or the Santiago de Compustela route will thrive. Paganism travel related to old pagan cults, dedicated to different deities, will be the new trend for many emerging destinations and become a significant part of religious tourism.
 
Wine tourism

Expect more travel to local hidden wineries in the United States and Southern Europe, including emerging destinations. Organically and eco-responsible, local wine producers will see an increase of cultural tourists. Wineries with rich history, story telling and a combined offer of antiquities, impressive local culture, crafts and arts will attract the discovery-demanding cultural tourist.

Hopefully, a better overseas marketing will attract more tourist to the European Wine routes beyond France, Spain and Italy to extend to the origins of wine making: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia.

Business travel extensions

While business travel is ditching with head spinning speed due to fiscal responsibility and new virtual meeting technologies, the few travelers who must travel for business will use the occasion to extend their trip few days and see the local cultural offers. That combination also will help the decision making – if there is a short weekend trip to a cultural destination, the business travelers most likely will decide to go to the business trip versus business meetings set in purely industrial/working atmosphere destinations or videoconferencing. 

Luxury cultural travel

As in 2009, prices for private visits to museums, small yachts to archaeological sites and specialty designed tours for individuals with a vast array of cultural interests will continue to grow. Recession and fuel prices do not affect those luxury travelers who seek unique cultural experiences – at home or abroad. Just the opposite – more cultural sites and monuments are discovered yearly, more affluent travelers try to be the first to visit the newest and the closed to the general public place or event.

Niche cultural travel

Dark tourism, archaeological tours, special events tours will continue to grow, since neither the economy nor the energy concerns will stop the travelers obsessed with a hobby. And it is logical: if your only chance to discover the next Thracian treasure will be to pay $ 10,000 to participate in the excavation of a Thracian Tomb, or if you want to be on the Vienna Concert on January 1st, the money, distance and carbon emission footprint will not matter – what will matter is the experience only.

The business of Cultural Tourism in 2010

Technology impact on cultural tourism

Technology enhancements of the visitor experience through virtual and augmented reality will attract more and more travelers who want to immerse themselves in a different culture or historical time.

Social networks, photo and video sharing sites will continue to expand information for faraway destinations, thus increasing the reach of the cultural tourism geographies.

Travelers blogs, rating sites such as tripadvisor.com, virtualtourist.com, or gotsaga.com will proliferate and thanks to user generated content and many of the emerging destinations will start to play bigger and bigger role in the global cultural travel.

More and more OTAs will add cultural tourism to their offer, as did expedia.com.

Mobile technologies combined with geospatial data available through iPhone or other mobile apps will permit travelers to design themselves their own cultural tours and thus cut off the intermediaries. A great example for that is the recent agreement between UNESCO and Google Earth to provide a World Heritage layer in the application, which will compliment National Geographic layer, Roma Reborn project and other similar layers, and thus help individual travelers to create their own itineraries.

Consumer demand changes

The consumer demand for authentic experiences and for more creative activities while at a destination will pressure change not only the geographies of the cultural tourism, but also the relationships local community- visitors. Expect these relationships to become closer and closer and have a positive impact on both sides of the equation.

Personalization and tour design tailoring to these demands will shape the overall higher expectation towards tour operators and travel agencies.

Cultural tourism Tour operators and travel agencies in 2010

Big touroperators, such as Abercrombie & Kent  and Cox & Kings will loose ground to small boutique travel agencies who can provide concierge type of services - custom tour design, unique destination knowledge and local support throughout the travel.

Mono-destination tour operators will continue to thrive, due to their in depth knowledge and local focus, which will help them to cut through the noise of the enormous cultural travel offer on the Internet.

Specialization, concierge services and extremely detailed and greatly designed tours will help tour operators to survive during 2010. That will sometimes enforce elimination of destinations or adding new ones following the trends of emerging markets and creative tourism increase.

Boards of tourism, DMOs and other macro-destinations bodies

With the increasing demand for unique experiences, boards of tourism, country ministries of tourism and DMOs will be forced to re-examine and correct, if necessary, the brand image and presence on different markets. Emerging destinations will have to come up with strong country branding for cultural tourism in order to be able to compete. Destinations such as USA and Spain, otherwise great tourism destinations both in their financial and number of tourists numbers, will have to do more about country branding for cultural tourism outside of their territories to attract more visitors to their endless cultural attractions and events.

Photo: Istanbul Museums of Archaeology. © 2008 Stevan Olson

Country Branding From A Global Cultural Tourism Perspective

A comparison between different countries based on Future Brand Country Branding Index (CBI) and the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index  (NBI)

Finally my (im)patience is generously rewarded: the Country Brand Index of Future Brand is here. That, on the top of the 2009 edition Nation Brands Index (NBI) by Anholt-GfK Roper, made me jump of joy. They encompass information, which will be my  “food for thought” for the weeks to come. You might say that I am partial to the CBI, since I was one of the experts for the 2009 edition. In fact, I will try to prove that I see objectively both Indexes as sources of very valuable information. This combined  “sea of knowledge” for professionals like me, is precious when it comes to create strategies for tourism development and destination management.

Both in NBI and CBI confirmed that the undisputed winner is the United States of America, thanks to its charismatic President Barack Obama. As per the geographies of the top 10 countries, in both indexes the winners are the European Countries: five out of 10 countries in the CBI are in Europe, and 6 out of these taking the highest positions in the NBI.

Otherwise the two Indexes vastly differ in their methodology, results and approach. Nevertheless, I am happy because in spite of their dissimilarity, they have one goal in common: to serve as a departing point for increasing countries’ brand equities. Both Indexes are the most valuable resource for policy makers, DMOs and travel companies in their efforts to convert their countries in more profitable destinations. I will continue to post my views and analysis from the global cultural tourism perspective on this blog. For the moment, I have in mind 6 parts, which are:

Part Two: Economy and Country Branding
Part Three: History, Arts & Culture and Country Branding
Part Four: Countries Tourism Brand Aspects
Part Five: Country Brand Trends – detected common trends and differences
Part Six: Conclusion: The overall value of the Country Brand Index and Nation Brands Index for cultural tourism strategists, destination management and travel practitioners

The information used in this reports comes from copyrighted materials by Future Brand and Anholt-GfK Roper.

To download the Country Brand Index Executive Summary, please click here or visit the official Index website.

To download the Nation Brands Index, please click here or visit the official website of Simon Anholt

A slide share presentation on the main findings:

Country Branding From A Global Cultural Tourism Perspective

View more documents from Rossitza Ohridska-Olson.

Cultural Tourism Promotion – the right way

The year 2009 is the Year of Bulgaria in Russia. The purpose behind this initiative is to promote Bulgarian business, and above all – the Bulgarian tourism in Russia. After the fall of the communism in Bulgaria and the government-contracted Soviet groups of blue collar workers crawling the Bulgarian beaches, the organized visits to the “sister” cities and all kind of other propaganda-in-mind designed tours, the Russian tourists forgot about Bulgaria. Now they are more interested in visiting the prohibited for them before 1990 resorts and cities in Turkey, France, Switzerland and Egypt. This lost for Bulgaria is calculated in millions of dollars, which are very hard to compensate with the budget travelers from UK, Germany and Sweden, counting their dimes to the next welfare check.

It is clear that the wealthy Russians cannot be attracted back to the already ruined Bulgarian beach resorts, to the concrete of Golden Sands, the crowded discos in Sunny Beach and the run-down hotels from communist times Albena. They will continue to relax on the French Riviera, to ski in the Swiss Alps, or to go shopping in the US malls.

Bulgaria hopes although, that both wealthy and curious intellectuals, might return to the country to see the remains of 7 civilizations, which left precious artifacts and impressive buildings across the country. At least, this is the idea of promoting the cultural tourism with the events and exhibitions during the Year of Bulgaria in Russia.

One of these events is the opening today exhibition in the State Museum of the East “Rescued treasures of Ancient Thrace from the Vassil Bojkov collection”. In the most expensive city in the world, few things can impress the local petroleum oligarchs and the visitors from around the world to the ancient capital of Russia. A feast for the eye, the exhibition is featuring treasures of gold, silver, marble and bronze, which visualize mystic rites and secret Orphic rituals. I believe this is the right way to promote cultural tourism among the affluent and well-educated Russians.

For those who don’t read Russian, I have prepared a brief article in English about the exhibition in the context of the history of Thracian Civilization.

Note: All pictures are from the website of the State Museum of the East, Moscow and from the Bojkov Collection catalog. Copyright belongs to “Thrace Foundation” and photographs are published with the kind permission of Mr. Bojkov.

The Thracian Civilization Orphaned Again

Dr. Georgi Kitov – In Memoriam

You can find the Bulgarian translation here. Тази статия на български.

He was the king of the Bulgarian archaeology and a slave of it. Trying to save the Thracian Civilization heritage, almost alone against all treasure hunters, against the bureaucracy of the government and the spiteful critiques of his jealous colleagues. He was one of the last remaining believers in the importance of the science of Thracology and the magnitude of the Thracian Orphism. Together with Prof. Alexander Fol, who passed away in 2006, and 2-3 surviving Thracologists, Dr. Georgi Kitov was one of the few left defending this great civilization against the intents of the Greek government to melt down the significance of the Thracians’ cultural heritage into a small contribution to Magna Graecia.

With more than 200 publications and books about the Thracian culture, he became famous after discovering the gold mask of Seuth III in 2005, together with a rich burial and cult tomb of the great Thracian King. National Geographic featured him in a sad article about the Bulgarian Gold Rush as the savior of the remaining treasures. Discovery channel filmed him while unearthing the next gold mask in 2007 in a typical Orphic burial. Sites as Alexandrovo Tomb, Kosmatka, Svetitzata, Starosel Cult Complex, and others in the Valley of the Thracian Kings owe him not only the discovery, but also the documentation, publication and preservation of the finds. The Kazanluk Museum of History owes him half of its artifacts, and the most valuable ones.

Because of the immense value of the gold artifacts and the monumental and artistic significance of the discovered Thracian tombs, Dr. Georgi Kitov became a star. Everybody from Russia to USA and from Sweden to Spain knows that. Only he didn’t know it. When I asked him for an autograph, he looked at me as if I was crazy and said “I am not a star”. I tried to argue that he is, that Prof. Dr. Marazov. Prof. Dr. Valeria Fol and he, Dr. Kitov are the stars of a science, where few succeed and fewer are left.

All Thracologists in Bulgaria can be fit in less than a 50 seats room – that includes archaeologists, who are specialized in the period, the Institute of Thracology (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), and the ones from the Archaeological Institute of Bulgaria (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). For these handful of people, Dr. Kitov was the only one with private funding who didn’t totally depend on the miserable support of the Bulgarian government, neither from foreign government funds with their correspondingly attached political agendas.

Who will follow Dr. Georgi Kitov and who will be next star of the Thracian archaeology? Nobody in the horizon yet. In the meantime, the treasure hunters will have a field day (textually) digging out cultural heritage from this great civilization and exporting it to richer countries. In the meantime, Bulgarian archaeologists paid by foreign governments will try to dismiss the importance of the Thracian Civilization (as they were trying during the communist times) in favor of Magna Graecia (Greek paid), Scythia (paid by Russia) or Anatolian cultures (paid by Turkey).

This way, a civilization surviving 3 millennia will be thrown into oblivion again for who knows how many years. And instead to admire its remnants in the Bulgarian museums, we will have to make the tour of Christies and Sotheby’s or Louvre, the Metropolitan and British Museums.

The Thracian civilization orphaned again today. We, the Bulgarians too – since we are the grandsons and granddaughters of this glorious people, the Thracians, known to the history since the down of times.

© Rossitza Ohridska-Olson