The Setting

More than half the states in the country have dedicated cultural heritage tourism programs at the state level. Most are housed in state tourism offices, but some states have found innovative ways to spearhead cultural heritage tourism efforts from less traditional agencies. State arts councils and historic preservation offices are somewhat typical. But a humanities slant in Arizona has given that state its own breed of cultural heritage tourism to promote.

Arizona. The name evokes images of sun-drenched golf courses, desert retreats, and the Grand Canyon. Not for lack of trying, the state of Arizona has become, over the last century, an oasis of warm relaxation and recreation. And a few large cities, resorts, and natural wonders have profited greatly from this tourism ideal.

But Arizona is a large state with several distinct regions and a wide range of vegetative, geographical, and climactic offerings. What’s more, Arizona contains hundreds of treasures unique to its cultural heritage and evolution into a modern state. From the Wild West of renown to the Spanish heritage introduced by explorers such as Coronado, from the ancient indigenous peoples whose lives define the past and intersect with the present to the 20th-century automotive legacy of Route 66, Arizona is replete with cultural and historic attractions.

It is the job of the Arizona Humanities Council (AHC) to preserve, maintain, and interpret all aspects of this rich culture and heritage. As an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), AHC has supported cultural heritage product development for more than 25 years, funding or directing literally thousands of activities.

The organization’s goal in the mid-1990s was to help Arizona’s cultural heritage sites become stronger tourist attractions while maintaining their authenticity and simultaneously becoming fiscally sound. In many states, cultural heritage tourism programs come out of the state tourism office. But, as Dan Shilling, AHC executive director, points out, “Tourism agencies are often just marketing programs. They advertise the state but they don’t actually build or enhance the products they market—just as they market the Grand Canyon, but depend on the National Park Service and other agencies to actually maintain and enhance the product.” AHC, he continues, “...is in the product development game, so the Arizona Office of Tourism supports our efforts because we will give them a better product to market.”

“We’re a tremendous cultural heritage market with all our assets,” continues Shilling. “But many of our heritage-based sites are small and struggling. They recognize that they have unique attractions to offer visitors, but they don’t know how to develop them into viable tourism products, nor do they have the funds.”

In a conservative state like Arizona, arguments to preserve and promote culture and arts are not as effective as ones that address economic recovery. AHC needed to find a vehicle to make a stronger case to the legislature. Cultural heritage tourism is one that has potential because it talks about economic development, not just culture.

Having stumbled on an old cultural tourism study from the late 1970s, Shilling realized that if the state’s economic development entities and legislature were aware of the huge economic potential just waiting to be tapped, they would be more likely to get behind the idea of funding and promoting cultural heritage tourism sites and activities. It was time to gather the facts and take them to the people.

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