Page 123 - World Heritage and Tourism Innovation

Urška Starc Peceny, Tomi Ilijaš Matevž Straus Digital Innovation of Cultural Heritage

been a source of data and information, digitisation be introduced to people through (serious) play and
(transforming cultural heritage in digital formats) and practical experience.
digitalisation (using new business processes for man- Despite several advantages, tourism management
aging and presenting digitised heritage) enable new organisations are typically not engaged in creating
presentation experiences, such as virtual museums, new complex tourism products on cultural heritage
virtual tours, augmented reality and virtual reality ex- and are even less engaged in incorporating new dig-
periences, holograms, and interactive chatbots. They ital interpretation technologies. The tourism sectors
also present new collections management methods
and, most importantly, open these processes to exter- (tourism providers, tourism destination management
nal collaborators. (Open) access to digital collections organisations) and cultural heritage (GLAM and re-
provides an opportunity for new outreach, research gional offices of the Institute for Heritage Protection)
and innovation programmes that allow for play, al- have – despite having many touchpoints and com-
teration, and speculation without compromising the mon aims – very seldom cooperated in co-creative
physical artefacts, enabling simultaneous, collabo- processes. Moreover, digital interpretation technol-
rative, co-creative and remote processes. (Digitised) ogies – such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality,
cultural heritage could become a (digital) resource holographic projections, video mapping, and mobile
that allows for the experimentation, testing and piv- and web apps – have not been joined at leading tour-
oting that have become the mainstream approaches in ist destinations, primarily due to a lack of knowledge,
(social) business development, art and design. Digit- skills, and dedicated funding.
ising and digitalising cultural heritage open opportu-
nities for new co-creative and participative processes. The main obstacles can be identified in:
It offers opportunities for developing new narratives
within cultural heritage tourism, gives an impetus to • Understanding of DMOs’ role: DMOs in Slovenia
creative and cultural industries, and can be a source of have traditionally been engaged in promotional
new city/region marketing and branding. and advertisement activities (offline and online
About the intersection of tourism and cultural promotional presence, destination marketing and
heritage, new technologies can attract fresh audiences branding, promotional materials, organisation of
who have not shown any previous interest in cultural traditional festivals, informing visitors …) and
heritage, have overlooked it or considered it boring. much less in development activities (co-creating
Digital technologies present new methods for pre-
senting content — for example, in a visually more at- and operating tourist products).
tractive way — and offer better explanations or break- • Understanding of GLAM sector as non-tour-
downs of information that include the visitor. These ist: Among DMO, we have noticed a common mis-
solutions are also attractive for groups not considered understanding that museums, libraries, galleries,
drawn to cultural heritage. New interactive technol- and archives are not (also) tourist providers. Con-
ogies and digital storytelling methods are not meant sequently, GLAMs are often excluded from normal
only for those interested in cultural heritage but can co-creation processes and promotional activities.
also widen the circle of potential visitors. Moreover, • Understanding cultural heritage as a barrier, not
digital technologies enable communication and in- an opportunity: Cultural heritage is often seen as
teractive experiences that classic presentation meth-
ods (texts, articles, information boards, photographs, something to preserve, not to develop or build
videos…) do not allow. Through technology, learning upon.
about cultural heritage can become interactive, simul- • Absence of technical standards and widely accept-
taneously making it more educational, memorable, ed agreement on what is technically sufficient dig-
individualised, and experiential. Cultural heritage can itisation project.

Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference | 119