Mindful visitors - Heritage and tourism

This paper begins with the premise that interpretation is the key to ensuring the quality of the tourism experience and argues that successful interpretation is critical both for the effective management and conservation of built heritage sites and for sustainable tourism. The paper introduces the concept of mindfulness and outlines its use in developing a model for designing effective interpretation at built heritage sites. A supporting set of principles for this design is provided. It is argued that mindfulness is an integrating concept that can be used to enhance the quality of visitor experiences and create a sustainable link between tourism and built heritage.