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Community engagement and interpretation are both recognized as integral components of ongoing strategic protected area planning and management, especially in the context of cultural heritage tourism. Whilst there is significant literature on both the planning and management of good practice community engagement and interpretation, there is little research exploring their complementary nature.
The aim of this research is to explore the beneficial links and existing gaps between the fields of community engagement and interpretation, as a basis for producing a model that will facilitate better integration across these two areas. This will be done through a review of several distinct bodies of literature and possibly through an examination of case studies of cultural heritage tourism in Australian protected areas.
The specific objectives for this study are:
- To examine the potential relationship between community engagement and interpretation and the benefits of an integrated approach to strategic planning and management of the two for selected protected areas in Australia .
- To explore the barriers and constraints to stronger links between community engagement and interpretation.
- To identify some of the successes and failures in attempting to integrate these two fields.
- To develop guidelines which encourage closer links between community engagement and interpretation and their successful implementation in cultural heritage tourism in protected areas.
This research is being funded through a Sustainable Tourism CRC top-up scholarship.
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