communist heritage tourism
DESCRIPTION
Presentation about hte opportunities to develop communist heritage tourism in BulgariaTRANSCRIPT
COMMUNIST
HERITAGE
TOURISM Stanislav Ivanov, PhD
International University College
Bulgaria
Email: [email protected]
DISCLAIMER
Current presentation has only scientific
goals. It does not aim at proclaiming
communist ideals or any communist party
or persons.
S.I.
COMMUNIST
HERITAGE TOURISM • A short geography lesson
• A short history lesson
• Communist heritage tourism defined
• Communist heritage tourism – good examples
• Analysis of communist heritage tourism supply in Bulgaria
• Analysis of potential communist heritage tourism demand in Bulgaria
• Perspectives of communist heritage
tourism in Bulgaria
• A short language lesson
• References
A short geography
lesson
• Bulgaria – located on the Balkan peninsula,
part of the European Union
• Size – 111 000 sq km, population: 7.5 mln
• Religion – 85% Christian Orthodox, 10%
Muslim, 5% other
• Capital: Sofia (app. 1.5 mln)
• Other major cities: Varna, Plovdiv,
Bourgas
A short geography
lesson
Tourism overview:
• Number of beds: 287423 * (2009)
• Number of accommodation establishments: 3533 * (2009)
• Number of arrivals: 7.9 mln (2009)
• Major tourist generating markets: Germany, UK, Russia, Romania, Scandinavia, Benelux, France
• Major types of tourism: 3S(+S+A), skiing, rural and eco, city breaks, balneology
A short history lesson
• 1848 – Karl Marks publishes the Communist manifesto
• 1867-1894 – published 3 volumes of Capital (“Das Kapital”)
• 1917 – Communist revolution in Russia led by Lenin and Trotsky
• 1922 – The Russian Empire
transformed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
A short history
lesson • 1939-1945 – World War II
• 1941 – Bulgaria joins the Third Reich’s allies
• 1944 – The USSR declares war to Bulgaria and invades. Military coup d’etat on 9th September – later portrayed as “Socialist revolution”
• 1946 – Bulgaria declared People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Monarchy was abolished
• 1989:
9th November – the fall of the Berlin Wall
10th November – the fall of the communist
regime in Bulgaria
• 1991 – the USSR ceases to exist
Communist heritage
tourism defined
• Heritage “may be viewed as taking on the
identity of an interest in the past, an interest
in cultures, buildings, artifacts and
landscapes of both the past and present”
(Boyd, 2002:212).
• It includes the cultural and natural
environment that people inherit from
previous generations.
Communist heritage
tourism defined
• Cultural heritage is usually associated with
built environment (Boyd, 2002) and material
artifacts but intangible elements like media
culture, religion, dances, songs, literature,
customs are also with great importance and
attract a lot of visitors (Gonzalez, 2008).
Communist heritage
tourism defined
• Heritage and heritage tourism are deeply interlinked with politics (Su and Teo, 2009) and “to speak of heritage is to speak of politics” (Allcock, 1995).
• Sometimes part of the national history and cultural heritage is considered inconvenient (slavery and segregation in America or South Africa, the Nazi period in Germany or communism in former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe) and politicians try, successfully or not, to stay away from it.
Communist heritage
tourism defined • Communist heritage tourism Red tourism
• Communist heritage tourism, as a subsegment of heritage tourism, has recently captured the interest of the academics and the available literature on the topic is very limited (compared to other types of tourism):
• Albania – Dujisin (2007)
• Bulgaria – Ivanov (2009)
• Romania – Light (2000a, 2000b)
• North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia – Henderson (2007)
• China – Li and Hu (2008), Li and Zhang (2010) – a lot of papers … but in Chinese
Communist heritage
tourism defined
Characteristics:
• Ideologically overburdened / Politically
charged type of tourism
• Controversial type of tourism – Nostalgia?
• Limited period of the history
• Representations of personality cult
• Concentration of resources in places
related with communist history in the
country
Communist heritage
tourism – good examples
Budapest – Szoborpark (http://www.szoborpark.hu)
Communist heritage
tourism – good examples Prague – Museum of Communism (http://www.muzeumkomunismu.cz)
Communist heritage
tourism – good examples Berlin – DDR Museum (http://www.ddr-museum.de)
Communist heritage
tourism – good examples
Forthcoming: Warsaw – Communist Memorial Museum (http://www.socland.pl)
Communist heritage
tourism
What about Bulgaria?
Analysis of communist heritage
tourism supply in Bulgaria
Resources related to communist leaders and partisans
Birthplaces of
communist leaders
Kovachevtsi (Pernik district) – Georgi Dimitrov
Pravets (near Botevgrad) – Todor Zhivkov
Gabrovo – Mitko Palauzov (the youngest partisan)
Monuments,
commemorating the
demise of partisans
and communist leaders
Sofia – the place where the Georgi Dimitrov’s Mausoleum was
located before its demolition in 1999
Yastrebino – a place where 6 children were killed by the police
during the partisan movement in Bulgaria in 1943. A national
children complex is established and still functional
Eremia – the “Tulip” monument, dedicated to the partisans killed
by the army in 1944
Sofia and Pleven – Bratska mogila monument, dedicated to the
partisan movement
Statues / busts / low
relief of communist
leaders and partisans
(outside the places of
their birth or death)
Varna – Alley of the antifascist heroes in the city’s sea garden
Bourgas – monuments of partisans in the sea garden
Belovo, Bratsigovo
Smaller sculptures in nearly every city and town in Bulgaria
Analysis of communist
heritage tourism supply in
Bulgaria Resources related to the Bulgarian Communist Party
Monuments,
commemorating specific
moments in communist
history of Bulgaria
Buzludzha – a complex on the mount
Buzludzha in the Balkan mountain on the place
the socialist movement in Bulgaria was
established in 1891
Stone engraved inscriptions commemorating
the establishment of a local Communist Party
organisation (e.g. Koprivshtitsa)
Stone engraved inscriptions and monuments
commemorating the Socialist revolution on 9th
September 1944 (e.g. Strelcha, the Liberty Arch
on Goraltepe peak near Troyan)
Monuments, commemorating the communist
uprising in September 1923 (e.g. Maglizh,
Pazardzhik)
Analysis of communist
heritage tourism supply in
Bulgaria
Communist architecture and iconic buildings
Specific architecture of the
buildings in the town centre
Dimitrovgrad – “Stalinist baroque”
Sofia – the “concrete blocks”
architecture – Mladost and Lyulin
quarters
Sofia – the buildings of the Presidency,
Council of ministers and the former
Communist Party house (now hosting
offices of the Parliament)
Former Communist Party houses in
every major city – Varna, Plovdiv,
Bourgas, Russe among others
Other monuments and iconic
buildings related to communism
Sofia – Assembly “Flag of peace”
Analysis of communist
heritage tourism supply in
Bulgaria
Resources related to the Soviet Union
Red Army / Russian soldier /
Unknown soldier monuments
Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas, Pleven,
Russe, Sliven
Monument, dedicated to the
Bulgarian-Soviet friendship
Varna
Memorabilia
Memorabilia Coins, Medals, Military uniforms,
Photos, Posters, etc.
Arts and media culture
Arts and media culture Songs, poems, novels, films, paintings
devoted to communism, communist
leaders and heroes, and the Soviet
Union (the Red Army)
Analysis of potential
communist heritage tourism
demand in Bulgaria
Potential market segments of communist heritage
tourism in Bulgaria
Age in 1989
Unborn-<6 7-18 19-45 46-55(60) 55(60)+
Bulgarians A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
Foreigners (former
socialist countries in
CEE)
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
Foreigners (Western
countries)
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Perspectives of
communist heritage
tourism in Bulgaria • Inclusion of communist monuments in the
itinerary of currently offered tours
• Dedicated half-day tours
• Museum of communist heritage of Bulgaria – Sections: Bulgarian communist party, Youth, Communist culture, Communist economy, Science and technology, Common people, International relations, The dark side of communism, Communist memorabilia
A short language
lesson
БЛАГОДАРЯ ЗА ВНИМАНИЕТО!
(BLAGODARYA ZA VNIMANIETO)
THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION!
References
• Allcock, J. B. (1995) International tourism and the appropriation of history in the Balkans. In M.-F. Lanfant, J. B. Allcock and E. M. Bruner (eds.) International Tourism: Identity and Change, pp. 101–112. London: Sage Publications
• Boyd, S. (2002) Cultural and heritage tourism in Canada: Opportunities, principles and challenges. Tourism and Hospitality Research 3(3), pp. 211–233
• Dujisin, Z. (2007) Forget communism … or sell it. Global Perspectives, August-September 2007, p. 19. Available online at URL: http://www.global-perspectives.info/download/2007/pdf/ausgabe_08-09_07.pdf (Accessed on 08.02.2009)
• Gonzalez, M. V. (2008) Intangible heritage tourism and identity. Tourism Management 29(4), pp. 807–810
• Henderson, J. C. (2007) Communism, heritage and tourism in East Asia. International Journal of Heritage Studies 13(3), pp. 240–254
• Ivanov, S. (2009) Opportunities for developing communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria. Tourism 57(2), pp. 177-192
• Li, J., E. Zhang (2010) Red Legacies in China. China Heritage Quarterly, No. 22, June 2010, URL: http://www.chinaheritagenewsletter.org/scholarship.php?searchterm=022_conference.inc&issue=022 (Accessed on 17.11.2010)
• Li, Y., Z. Hu (2008) Red tourism in China. Journal of China Tourism Research 4(2), pp. 156–171
• Light, D. (2000a) An Unwanted Past: contemporary tourism and the heritage of communism in Romania. International Journal of Heritage Studies 6(2), pp. 145-160
• Light, D. (2000b) Gazing on communism: heritage tourism and post-communist identities in Germany, Hungary and Romania. Tourism Geographies 2(2), 2000, pp. 157–176
• Su, X.., P. Teo (2009) The politics of heritage tourism in China: A view from Lijiang. Abington: Routledge