What is the difference between the stone walls of Diocletian’s Palace in Split and the knowledge of how to build a wooden batana boat in Rovinj? Both are Croatian heritage. Both attract tourists. But only one of them will disappear if nobody practices it.
Which one – and why? Hold that thought as you work through this lesson.
Heritage is one of the most valuable resources inherited from the past. But not all heritage is the same, and mixing up the categories leads to poor management decisions. Let us map the terrain.
- Tangible Heritage: Tangible heritage is physical: you can see it, touch it, photograph it, and in some cases move it.
- Immovable tangible heritage: buildings, monuments, archaeological sites, historic landscapes, cultural routes. Examples: the Colosseum (Rome), Plitvice Lakes (Croatia), a 17th-century house in Rovinj used today as the Batana House. Key challenge: cannot be relocated; destruction is irreversible; requires in-situ management.
- Movable tangible heritage: objects that can be transported – tools, manuscripts, costumes, coins, artworks, traditional boats. Example: the batana boat itself (a flatbottomed fishing vessel unique to Rovinj), traditional embroidery from Hrvatsko Zagorje, archaeological finds. Key challenge: can be displaced from their community of origin; may lose meaning without context.
- Intangible Heritage (ICH) ICH is living: it exists only because people practice it, teach it, and choose to keep it alive. UNESCO 2003 Convention definition: “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.”
How tangible and intangible interact? These are not separate worlds.
The batana boat is a movable tangible object. The knowledge of how to build it (the tools, the wood-selection traditions, the boat-songs sung while building) is ICH. The Batana House in Rovinj is immovable tangible heritage. The community regatta and the fishermen’s bitinada music performed during it is ICH. Heritage management must handle both – together.
→ Look at the list below. Classify each as movable tangible, immovable tangible, or intangible.
- A set of traditional costumes
- A Gothic cathedral
- A fishing net-mending technique
- A manuscript cookbook
- A harvest festival
TOURISM AS A HERITAGE ACTIVATOR: OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS
Tourism has become one of the most powerful forces in the heritage sector. It can save traditions – or destroy them. Understanding this double edge is essential for anyone working in heritage management.
Opportunities tourism creates for heritage:
- Economic sustainability: ticket sales, cultural events, gastronomy, and crafts generate income that supports preservation (as seen in the Batana EcoMuseum, where revenues from cultural events and the traditional Batana House restaurant fund the museum’s operation).
- Community empowerment: when tourism values a tradition, local people gain pride in it and are motivated to maintain it.
- Intercultural dialogue: visitors from different countries learn about traditions they would never encounter otherwise.
- Documentation funding: tourism income can fund digital archives, oral history recordings, and craft workshops. • Intergenerational transmission: when young people see that their grandparents’ craft attracts interest, they are more likely to learn it.
Risks tourism creates for heritage:
- Commodification: reducing a living tradition to a product designed to please tourists rather than to serve the community. Result: staged authenticity – “performances” that look like traditions but have lost their meaning. •
- Over-tourism: excessive visitor numbers damage both physical sites (Venice, Machu Picchu, Dubrovnik) and social fabric. When tourists outnumber residents, community life is displaced.
- Loss of living traditions: when a craft is transformed into a souvenir industry, the original knowledge may be lost. Example: mass-produced “traditional” objects replacing authentic handmade goods.
- Homogenization: heritage is packaged to meet international tourist expectations, erasing local specificity.
- Economic leakage: profits leave the community through tour operators, hotel chains, and online platforms that are not locally owned.
The balance: Sustainable heritage tourism keeps the community at the centre. It ensures that:
- 1. The community benefits economically.
- 2. The community controls what is shown and how.
- 3. The heritage itself is not exhausted or distorted.
- 4. Tourists gain a genuine, meaningful experience.
Eco-museology: a model for community-led heritage tourism Traditional museums remove objects from their context and display them for visitors. Eco-museums do the opposite: they keep heritage in its territory and involve the community in managing and interpreting it.
The Batana Eco-Museum in Rovinj is one of the leading examples in Europe of this approach. Key eco-museological principles:
- Heritage stays in place – the boat, the shipyard, the fishermen’s quarter remain in Rovinj. • The community is the curator – local fishermen and residents actively participate in exhibits and workshops.
- The territory is the museum – tours take visitors through the city’s historic streets and out to sea.
- Living skills are demonstrated – workshops on net mending, rope braiding, and boat building. • Interpretation is multilingual and inclusive – exhibitions in the Rovinj dialect, Croatian, and Italian.
Case studies
Batana Eco-Museum (Rovinj) – a community-led initiative safeguarding maritime traditions through participatory practices.
The Batana Eco-Museum (est. 2004) is the first eco-museum in Croatia and an internationally recognised model for community-based heritage preservation. It safeguards the batana – a traditional flat-bottomed fishing boat unique to Rovinj – and the associated maritime traditions of the city.
Recognition: Inscribed in UNESCO’s Register of Best Practices for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Components of the museum:
- Batana House – a documentation and interpretation center housed in a traditional 17th-century Rovinj building; multimedia exhibitions, audio-visual recordings, archive of fishermen’s stories and music (bitinada).
- Mali Škver shipyard – active boatbuilding yard where new batana boats are constructed using traditional techniques; visitors can observe and participate.
- Thematic regattas and festivals – the Rovinj Traditional Boat Regatta; living heritage in action on the sea.
- Walking and sea tours – guided routes through the historic fishing quarter; experiential access to maritime culture.
Economic model: Revenues from ticket sales, cultural events, the traditional restaurant (Batana House Association), and crafts support the museum’s operation and innovation. A souvenir shop promotes local craftsmanship.
Social impact: Workshops on traditional skills (net mending, rope braiding); cultural activities by the Batana Visual Arts Center; intergenerational transmission through community festivals. Local fishermen and residents co-curate the exhibitions.
Digital innovation: Mobile apps and virtual tours enhance accessibility for global audiences; digital archives preserve oral histories and boatbuilding knowledge for future generations.
Partnerships: Member of European maritime heritage networks; projects Adriatic PorTLand and Sea Beyond (ocean sustainability and education).
Old Village Kumrovec (Croatia) – an ethnographic open-air museum preserving architecture and crafts while fostering local identity.
Staro Selo Kumrovec is an open-space ethnographic museum in Hrvatsko Zagorje, northwestern Croatia, that preserves the rural architecture and traditional craftsmanship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Context:
The region is known for its vernacular architecture (traditional wooden and stone houses) and rural customs. The museum has restored authentic farm buildings, artisan workshops, and domestic spaces to create a living representation of regional rural life.
Key features:
- Traditional crafts demonstrated and taught: weaving, blacksmithing, pottery.
- Interactive workshops: “Paper Flowers,” “Comb Making,” “From Grain to Bread,” “My Grandmother’s Easter Eggs,” “Make Your Own Doll” – designed for families, schools, and community groups.
- Centre for Traditional Crafts and Skills (est. 2007): revives endangered crafts through education and economic development.
- CRAFTATTRACT project: transforms traditional crafts into economic assets; collaborations with the Forum of Slavic Cultures and Croatia Nostra.
- Souvenirs: traditional toys, pottery, gingerbread figures – economic linkage between craft and tourism.
Economic impact: Thousands of annual visitors; increased demand for local accommodations, craft products, and hospitality services; craft revival as economic asset.
Social impact: Community workshops that engage local families, schools, and community groups; intergenerational bonding; cultural pride and ownership; long-term sustainability of traditions. Authenticity challenge: As visitor numbers grow, the museum faces the classic dilemma – how to maintain the authenticity of traditional practices while responding to increasing tourist interest. The museum’s answer: interactive, education-first programming that keeps the community at the center of interpretation
Applications:
Activity 1 – Heritage Typology Map (Component 01, Individual/15 min)
Choose a heritage site or tradition from your own region (or use Batana / Kumrovec). Create a visual typology that classifies its elements:
• Which elements are movable tangible? Which are immovable tangible? Which are intangible?
• Which elements are at risk of being lost?
• Which elements attract tourists, and which are invisible to tourists? Present your typology as a table or a simple diagram.
Activity 2 – Community vs. Tourist Perspectives (Component 02 , Pairs/ 15 min)
Read the two case studies again. Design a short interview guide (5 questions) you would use to interview:
a) a local fisherman at the Batana EcoMuseum, and
(b) a tourist visiting the museum.
What questions would reveal how differently they value the heritage? What might they agree on? What might they disagree on?
Activity 3 – Redesign a Promotional Material (Component 03, Group, 20 min)
Find a real tourism brochure or website for a heritage site in your country (or use the Kumrovec website: https://www.mss.mhz.hr/en/stranica/omuzeju).
Identify: Which heritage elements are highlighted? Which are invisible? What narrative is constructed? Redesign one section (a single page or homepage) to include: a community voice, an ICH element not currently mentioned, and a sustainability message.
Activity 4 – Sustainability Assessment (Component 05, Individual/ homework)
Choose ONE of the examples of over-tourism discussed in Chapter 4. Write 200 words: What heritage (tangible and intangible) is being threatened? What measures have been taken? What more could be done? Apply the “balance model” from this lesson: economic benefit + community control + heritage integrity
Reflection questions
- How does tourism reshape the meaning of heritage?
- What risks arise when heritage is seen mainly as a “product”?