Preserving traditional marketplaces as places of intangible heritage for tourism

Tourism is one of the world's most important growth industries, and much of this growth is based upon cultural heritage. The increasing number of tourists who are interested in discovering different lifestyles and the cultural features of other places has led to some cities and villages becoming new tourist destinations that previously were not recognized as such. While there are many diverse elements of urban heritage, one that has not been well examined from a tourism perspective is traditional bazaars, or marketplaces. These often represent permanent exhibitions of living culture and are becoming increasingly valuable attractions for culture enthusiasts. This paper describes how the spatial changes in a bazaar can change the local sense of place, the marketplace's identity, current activities within it, and in some cases, its historical functions. Urban managers make changes to accommodate growing numbers of tourists and must be cognizant that changes to traditional urban landscape elements, including bazaars, can affect the tourist experience and should be done only after conducting analyses regarding their role in the intangible cultural heritage of the region.