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Jane Clark Chermayeff

3/29/07
ICOMOS Presentation

Preservation by Interpretation: A Visitor-Centered Approach to Protecting

Heritage Sites

I. Introduction

In an interview with the BBC last year, I suggested the need for a new model of conservation⎯a
model for heritage sites facing unprecedented challenges of tourism. Speaking about my work with
the World Monuments Fund at the tenth-century Phnom Bakheng site in Historic Angkor Park, I
told British radio, "You can no longer act as if the visitor is a neutral situation. The visitor is either
someone who is going to support conservation efforts or destroy conservation efforts...[T]he
stewards of the site have to plan for the visitors."

Clearly this challenge applies to heritage sites along the Pacific Rim. What may not be so clear, even
among the distinguished ICOMOS membership of conservators and architects, is the vital role
interpretation plays in supporting conservation efforts by shaping the visitor experience. In my
remarks, I will present a vision for a comprehensive model of conservation that focuses on the
visitor. To elaborate key aspects of the new model, I have invited two colleagues to address the
tourist challenge from their own expert perspectives. Tim Winter of the Asia Research Institute,
Singapore, will present an in-depth profile of the heritage tourist, and Al Shacklett, a principal at the
ORCA Consulting Group, will describe a toolkit for operational planning and visitor capacity
studies. Together we will discuss why a comprehensive model is needed in response to the twenty-
first-century reality of heritage tourism in the Pacific Rim. Through our discussions, we should arrive
at a revived, sustainable approach to conservation.

II. Why a new model for conservation?

The prevailing conservation approach assumes preservation of a site's historic fabric to be the most
essential—and most urgently needed—step toward long-term preservation. Secondary priorities
likely include building local capacity, international consortia for decision-making, and maintenance
for long-term success.

This model for preservation, understandably, centers on the monument. Visitor management,
community and economic development, and the preservation of living heritage usually fall far lower
among priorities in the conservation process. These conditions often appear as rough wooden
decking over stones, orange plastic construction fences, and “keep off signs.” Interpretation, if
present, is usually an afterthought in this process—a sign, maybe in two languages—drafted and
installed only once conservation is complete.
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However expeditious this model may seem, unfortunately it cannot hold up against current realities.
Consider the example of Angkor: The archaeological park in northwest Cambodia has been
designated a “preservation success story” by UNESCO. From a structural point of view, this is apt
recognition. Angkor has experienced over a decade of conservation efforts that have stabilized
monuments and prevented looting. But rather than a sustainable “success story,” Angkor is
positioned to become a cautionary tale of tourists killing tourism.

Last year Angkor welcomed 2 million foreign visitors—a 100-percent increase over 2005. To date
the park has no visitor management program and no interpretive facilities. The nearby town of Siem
Reap is overgrown with 3-star hotels and tourist services, but the local population realizes little
financial benefit from this tourist influx—less than 1 percent according to some sources—while
profits flow to outside enterprises. Preservation efforts cannot be sustained when faced with two
million unmanaged visitors and a disenfranchised local population. We must realize that fifteen years
of conservation work can be undone in one year under such conditions.

Angkor is emblematic of the old, monument-centered approach to preservation. Its situation today
is indicative of threats faced by many heritage sites, including Teotihuacan, Chichén Itzá, Lijiang,
and even Venice. With no interpretation to engage visitors in the conservation process, tens of
thousands of tourists remain uninformed about the fragility of a site and the state of its materials.
Can visitors be blamed then, if their behaviors on site reflect this lack of understanding?

Tourism is arguably the world’s biggest business. According to one industry source, the London-
based World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism employs approximately 231 million people and
generates over 10 percent of global GDP. But while developing countries attract 35 percent of
international travelers, they see tourist profits drain back into other, more industrialized nations.
Looking at trends in the Pacific Rim and elsewhere in Asia, the tourism market is poised for
explosive expansion as the numbers of international travelers surge. In the next decade, several
hundred million people—mostly from China and India—are expected to travel abroad for the first time.
What we are seeing is what Laila Rach, associate dean of New York University's tourism school, has
called a "shifting axis of tourism in the world—a shift from the western, colonial-era slave-sugar-
rum route to the eastern, historic Silk Route."

Heritage practitioners are now custodians of a two-fold responsibility, to protect not only the
physical value of heritage, but the local, intangible heritage, at risk from mass tourism. To
responsibly act on this, we need a new model—a comprehensive, integrated approach to
preservation that takes into account the needs and interests of these new visitors.

III. A comprehensive approach for sustainable preservation

Conservation can ensure that the physical memory of a site is preserved. A comprehensive approach
to interpretation—with its multidimensional structure of defining site significance with all
stakeholders, incorporating scholarship, assessing visitor and user needs, selecting and implementing
strategies—can provide a framework for ensuring that the physical and the living heritage are
communicated and preserved in a meaningful way. Interpretation is powerful: It can shape history.
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It forms the basis of a visitor’s memory of a place and can reconfigure expectations set in the pages
of the Lonely Planet, Frommers, or (for the growing number of Korean tourists) Joongang M & B.
Interpretation can also manage visitors' behavior on site—perhaps the most important contributing
factor for today’s conversation.

My firm, Jane Clark Chermayeff & Associates, takes a comprehensive approach to interpretation,
comprised of three critical elements: scholarship, tourism, and stakeholders.

• An emphasis on scholarship grounded in multidisciplinary research ensures intellectual

integrity. By including community members in the research process, diverse voices shape the
stories told onsite. Scholarship also informs conservation and is informed by conservation.

• A focus on tourism ensures the visitor experience is carefully situated within a greater
framework of tourism trends and economic development. Consideration of tourism enables
site stewards to

- Deliver strategic messages prior to the visit and refine these throughout the visit.
- Increase tourism income to communities, while curbing problems associated with
mass tourism
- Conduct audience research to shape varied visitor experiences with appeal to a
range of audiences and nationalities
- Develop mechanisms for tourist revenue to flow back to the sites to support
ongoing preservation and improve visitor experiences
-Develop resources that encourage extended stays and repeat visits

• Engaging stakeholders at all levels, from policy-makers to community members,

throughout the interpretive planning process provides a meeting ground for public and
private partnerships and helps local communities realize and plan for the financial benefits of
potential tourism.

Through this approach, visitors have the opportunity to be informed, to feel comfortable, and to
have an experience supported by the local community. Together these factors can persuade tourists
to become stakeholders and to engage them as site stewards as well. If they are not an engaged
force, they can be a destructive force.

IV. Applications in principle and practice

Taken together with conservation, an early focus on interpretation—using this comprehensive

approach—can produce sustainable benefits for the World Heritage site, the local communities, and
visitors. Successful examples of this approach exist in both principle and practice. On the policy
side, ICOMOS has created the Ename Charter, now in its third draft, to convey the importance of
integrating a program of interpretation into preservation approaches. The charter states,
“Interpretation of the meaning of sites is an integral part of the conservation process and
fundamental to positive conservation outcomes.” Two practical examples of projects-in-progress
demonstrate this new approach: the Statue of Liberty and, returning again to Angkor, the Preah
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Khan Visitor Center.

First, the Statue. Some 18,000 visitors regularly arrive on Liberty Island each day, with the aim of
climbing the Statue for views of Manhattan and New York Harbor. Post-9/11 security constraints,
however, have restricted access to the monument’s interior. At present only the Statue’s pedestal is
open to the public, and then only by prior reservation to a very limited number of people. As a
result, most visitors to this World Heritage site leave in frustration, having experienced a scenic
round-trip ferry ride and perhaps a Ranger-led tour of Liberty Island, but little direct connection to
the Statue itself. Acknowledging the need for a richer visitor experience, the National Park Service–
U.S. Department of the Interior is working with us and a team of landscape architects and media
specialists to create an interpretive plan for the 0.9-mile island as a whole. The aim is to enhance
pre-visit information and to create a “discovery trail” that will deliver interpretive content to tens of
thousands of tourists outdoors.

Finally, the Preah Khan site in Angkor. Recognizing that public understanding of Angkor’s
significance is crucial for long-term preservation, the local governing body, the APSARA Authority,
together with the World Monuments Fund and my firm, JCC&A, formed the Interpretation
Advisory Committee last year. The committee is charged with developing a managed visitor
experience throughout the archaeological park. With the twelfth-century walled complex of Preah
Khan as its pilot site, this collaborative effort will create a new visitor center, the first dedicated
interpretive center in all of Angkor. The new Preah Khan Visitor Center is planned to serve as a
model for future centers in Angkor.

The primary goals of the Visitor Center are to present the story of Preah Khan, inform and manage
visitor flow through the site, and support Cambodian efforts to sustain and present the site. The
center also will help to encourage local support, transforming tourists into supporters—making it a
truly sustainable model for heritage sites. It will incorporate a mechanism for income generation
(with programs, special tours, and guide sales) that supports ongoing conservation, interpretation,
and maintenance of Preah Khan. Public awareness of the site's preservation legacy will create a
sense of advocacy among visitors In addition, pre-visit orientation, an audio tour, signs, and exhibits
will be designed to heighten understanding of the site as a sacred space, minimize intrusions on the
landscape, and engage the full range of visitors to this popular destination.

V. Conclusion

As World Heritage sites face growing numbers of tourists, preservation concerns are shifting from a
strict focus on material conservation to a view that encompasses the monument as situated in a
living cultural landscape. This holistic outlook embraces the goals of sustainability and requires an
interpretive approach that encourages site stewardship and promotes enhanced visitor experiences.
A comprehensive interpretive approach is based on the critical elements of in-depth research, the
requirements and effects of tourism, and the active involvement of the local community at all levels.
This approach allows for myriad voices and diverse methodologies that create engaging content
derived from authentic sources and rich personal histories. When interpretation is carried out in
collaboration with stakeholders there is an opportunity for capacity-building programs with the local
population that can provide a structure for continued site interpretation, maintenance, and
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improvement. Public and community understanding of the significance of World Heritage sites is
crucial for the long-term preservation of our shared global patrimony.