Vikings - a living heritage

Destination Viking - a dormant initiative

Destination Viking

A lot of claims are generated when we talk about the benefits of planning and managing cultural routes. Culturel routes can secure development of national and international tourism, boost the economy in minor localities and move the tourist from the major downtrodden sights towards the lesser localities. But is it true?

Remarkably few hardcore surveys exist that try to measure the benefit of the programmes, be they instigated by UNESCO, The European Council or local agents.

El Camino
Some research has however been published concerning the development of the most famous route of them all: El Camino. This shows a remarkably development since the beginning of the program in 1987, when no more than a couple of thousand people went along the trail. In 2005 more than 5.1 mill people could be found on the road. Hotels have doubled and other local overnight facilities have exploded. It is crowded and it is getting worse.

The results are unquestionable, at least if measured by the arrivals of visitors or the increase in accommodations on offer. However, some facts cast a shadow over this bright perspective. The exhaustion of the formula used since 1993 -excessively based on promotion - the inability to generate dynamism in the territories along the different routes and threats of overcrowding and deterioration of the Camino itself are the most quoted issues and the ones to be dealt with in the years to come. To this should be added the need to preserve Santiago itself as a religious destination. It is indeed threatened with masses of visitors and trivialization.

Routes suffer from neglect
However, one of the preconditions for this success has undoubtedly been the persistence in the marketing effort and in the presentation of the route. Most cultural routes suffer from neglect as soon as the phase of general planning and the festivities at the inauguration are over. One example of this is the Viking Route which was based at the University of Gotland and financed here. The main result: a guide to all the significant museums, excavations and archaeological sights around the Baltic is out of print. The magazine, Viking heritage, was closed and parts of the homepage are currently inaccessible.

Professor Dan Carlsson who was the original instigator tells that the University stopped funding and the energy left the project.

- But a lot of people are still coming in order to volunteer for our excavations, he concludes. And it was inspiring, while it lasted.

Reference
El Camino de Santiago: Turistas Y Peregrinos Hacia Compostela. By Xosé Manuel Santos Solla
In: Cuadernos de turismo, no 18, 2006 p 135 -150
European Viking Themes festivals: An expression of identity. By Hannam, Kevin and Chris Halewood. In: Journal of heritage Tourism, 2006 vol 1. no. 1 
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