Presentation and justification of the course
Objectives
Methodology
Student profile
Course structure and timing
Programme
Select Bibliography – Heritage Management
Select Bibliography - Goa
Presentation, justification and policy statement
Tourism, with around two hundred million workers, is the world’s largest industry. In the second half of the twentieth century it became the main economic driver for socio-economic development all over the planet, a tendency which, coupled with the revolution in transport, I.T. and the leisure industry, has steadily increased. Although tourism is primarily an economic activity, and as such is vital for local and social development, its repercussions go way beyond economics and affect also culture, education and even the very identity and spatial planning of an area.
India, in spite of having, perhaps, the richest, heritage, both natural and built, resources in the world, has never really successfully promoted its tourist industry and does not have the expertise or training to develop heritage (cultural) tourism, structure the industry and create a coherent sustainable, quality product, which differentiates its industry from competitors in the market. This differentiation comes from professional heritage management.
Heritage management is the term used to describe the value-addition (‘commodification’) processes involved in turning an intangible resource, such as identity or heritage, into a quality product and effective tool for creating wealth and wellbeing. It leads to an improvement in conservation of the resource, involvement of the local population, and an unleashing of its economic, educational and cultural potential. The benefits of professional heritage management are in the integration of the development of services and infra-structure both for the local population and in the visitor having a great experience. Good heritage management is not really a question of bringing the past back to life, but rather of engaging the public in the present.
In order to achieve this we must train, at university level, local teams of professional heritage managers who are capable of becoming true agents of change and implementing indigenous models of HERS (Heritage Economic Regeneration Schemes) Master Plans in their own villages and towns. Only then will it be possible to implement a totally revamped GTP 2001 (Goa Tourism Plan), with a special emphasis on Heritage, Eco and Hinterland (Rural) Tourism, along with other policies measures for Goa to become a model and Centre of Excellence in adopting a Green Economy and developing a Knowledge Society, as proposed in the Government of Goa Economic Survey 2005 and, more recently, the Goa 2035 Vision document.
At Fantastic Strategic Planning Pvt. Ltd. we have the expertise, experience and contacts for Chowgule College of Arts and Science to launch a first, ground-breaking, Goan Post-Graduate Heritage Management Course, with external assessment from the University of Lincoln, UK. We can combine our synergies so that the Government of Goa will benefit from the best input the UK and Spain can provide in developing the new, exciting, socio-economic growth sector of heritage management. The idea is to upstream the model in producing a Goan, then Indian, Institute of Heritage Management.
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2. Objectives
2.1 To launch an initial postgraduate, vocational training course in heritage management and aligned fields such as museology, in order to train a first generation of Indian professionals in fields which range from general theory of heritage to practice and implementation of innovative projects in Goa, the rest of the country, and abroad, using cutting edge teaching techniques.
2.2 To promote innovative, rational, endogenous, sustainable models of heritage management to open-up new avenues for the socio-economic development of the knowledge society.
2.3 To provide a new range of job opportunities for our young graduates and re-training, or life-long learning opportunities, for professionals within Government Departments, Tourism and other businesses.
2.4 To create a model for heritage management which can be used in other parts of India and exported to other developing countries.
To be the launching pad for the Goa, India, Asia Institute of Heritage Management.
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3. Methodology
3.1 The class will be treated as a ‘learning community’, with the focus on student-centred, accelerated learning. The faculty, under the guidance of David Escott, Course Director, and Alfonso Roura, Course Coordinator, will be facilitators of knowledge acquisition and implementation rather than mere information pumps for rote learning.
3.2 The course will be both on the theoretical level and, in parallel, tutorials for project work. Projects will be based on students’ ideas for HERS in their own town and villages in Goa.
3.3 Assessment will be externally monitored and validated by the University of Lincoln, UK. The granting of the diploma will depend on the standard of project work.
The Internet will be a major resource for assignments and project work, along with tutorial visits to natural and built heritage sites and museums around Goa. Teachers and tutors, the main resource people, will be drawn from local specialists (history, archaeology, architecture, oceanography, legislation).
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4. Student profile
The course is directed at post-graduate students, teachers and other workers of both sexes who have graduated in humanities (languages, education, psychology, journalism, history, tourism, sociology, anthropology and management), science and technology (especially IT and architecture) and workers in the Tourist Department. Applicants will gain points if they own a laptop, have home access to the Internet and a working knowledge of Microsoft Office (especially WORD, POWER POINT and EXCEL). They should also have excellent communicative skills and a high level of competence in English. They will be assessed on their networking and team work capabilities. Translation skills into Konkani and from Portuguese are also a plus.
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5. Course structure and timings
Duration: 500 hours over 1 year
5.2 When:
5.3 Timings:
5.4 Where: Chowgule of College of Arts and Science
5.5 Structure: 2 modules, one theoretical (150 hours on heritage theory and issues, in yellow) and the other practical (250 hours in tutorials and in the field, for the design of viable projects)
6. Programme
Red = Proposed local lecturers, Black = David Escott or Alfonso Roura, Blue = International
6.1 General theory
6.1.1 Cultural and experience industries in the 21st century
6.1.2 Heritage:
Concepts and issues
Uses
The social dimension: stakeholders, service providers and the local population
Heritage, identity and dissonance (e.g. colonialism)
Local, national and international heritage
Heritage as the basis for cultural tourism
Legislation (Local)
Conservation of heritage (Local)
6.1.3 Heritage and Economic Regeneration (HERS) (DE)
6.1.3.1 Heritage as tool for the creation of value, wealth and wellbeing
6.1.3.2 Direct, Indirect and Induced Benefits
6.1.3.3 Heritage and sustainable development
6.1.3.4 Multi-source financing of heritage
6.1.3.5 Accounting for intangible assets
6.1.4 Heritage Management
6.1.4.1 Evolution of the concept of heritage management
6.1.4.2 Different management models: English Heritage (Private Sector driven versus the French model (Public Sector Driven)
6.1.4.3 The role of heritage in developing countries
6.1.4.4 Heritage Management and spatial planning (the new Regional Plan Goa)
6.1.5 Concept and evolution of Heritage/Cultural Tourism (Intl)
6.1.5.1 Heritage Tourism Management
6.1.5.2 Managing stakeholders’ issues
6.1.5.3 Ownership issues
6.1.6 Links between Heritage Tourism and: (Intl)
6.1.6.1 Eco Tourism
6.1.6.2 Creative Tourism
6.2 The Heritage Manager as:
6.2.1 A manufacturer of experiences (AR)
An agent for change and socio-economic development
An educator
A conservationist (Local)
6.2.5 An expert in marketing (Local)
6.3 Strategic Planning for Goa: from heritage resource to product
Analysis and diagnosis a region’s heritage
General lines of analysis of heritage and services
Techniques for categorising, documenting, cataloguing and filing: the resource record
Benchmarking heritage projects
Goa: history, heritage, identity and fusion
History 1: Pre-Portuguese Period
History 2: Goa as capital of ‘A India Portuguesa’
History 3: Post Liberation: the challenge of integration into India and opportunities as a model for harmonious development
Goan Houses
Goan Churches
Goan Temples
Goa’s Wild Life Sanctuaries
Goa’s folklore and cuisine
The Portuguese Civil Code: the common model to replace Personal Civil Law in India?
Project design and management
Processes
Setting up a project
Team work and networking
Communication techniques
Indicators and evaluation techniques
Interpretation
Concept and history of heritage interpretation
Target audiences and market segmentation
Interpretation models
In situ interpretation
Interpretation media
Museology: basic principles
6.3.3.7 Heritage exhibition techniques
Marketing and promotion
IT integration
How the Internet works
Back versus Front End functions
Server-based heritage site management
Data base filing and retrieval
Interactive, multi-media interpretation tools
eMarketing
Global Distribution Systems for the Tourist Industry
eCommerce
Social networking
Heritage and learning
The Education Sector as the main heritage stakeholder
Heritage as a classroom
Material design for school visits
Heritage conservation
Policies and institutions for conservation
Conservation techniques
Multi-source financing
Local, national and international grants
Private sector sponsorship
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Company Profile
We are a KPO (Knowledge Processing Organization), Social Enterprise, dedicated to the management of change in the socio-economic development of a Knowledge Society and Green/Clean Economy. Fantastic Strategic Planning Pvt Ltd is our operating company here in Goa. We can leverage the necessary knowledge, financing and technology, and offer the Government consultancy, strategic planning and benchmarking for policy definition, along with coordination and effective, sustainable implementation programmes, training and capacity building, with full ICT integration, for Goa to become an eHub, benchmark and Centre of Excellence in the following strategic sectors and drivers:
• Tourism: the economic driver, with heritage management the spatial planning driver
• Education: the knowledge and social driver
• English as a Second/Foreign Language: the medium of communication, along with ICT-based materials and teacher training for other languages
• Waste and Water Management: a basic necessity
• Renewable Energy: clean energy source for offsetting carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependency
The eInfrastructure is already in place with the Goa Broadband expert network. Through the re-launch of our Software Factory and Back-end Office (formerly registered with STPI, the Software Technology Parks of India), we can provide the key enablers for these drivers in a Fantastic eGoa Programme covering:
• eBusiness
• eLearning
• eHealth
• eIndicators and benchmarking
• eGovernance
Tourism
Our proposed starting point is to revamp the GTP (Goa Tourism Policy), which was drawn up in 2001 and due to be revamped last year. It is frankly a pathetic document, with the department still in the dark ages when it comes to regulation, ICT, digitalization, creation of new products, branding, marketing and most importantly, what should be its core activity: information providing. Goa does not have the experience or training to develop Cultural and Heritage Tourism (an objective set by the Government of Goa in its Financial Report 2006), Hinterland or Eco Tourism. There is no structure or proper promotion of the industry.
The department does not have its own line of design or promotions tools. Poorly designed brochures are made by different empanelled agencies for different Road Shows. Marketing outlay on 3 Road Shows last year in the US was a whopping 1.35 crores, with the outcome of three couples thinking of holding their weddings in Goa. There is no proper evaluation, marketing audit or follow-up activities. The department’s website is very badly designed and is not linked in to any on-line booking facilities. There were hardly any buyers at the two Goa Tourism Meets held to date and there was no delegation at this year’s FITUR (the second largest tourism fair in the world after Berlin) in Madrid, Spain. Kerala Tourism won the prize for best International Stand last year.
The main area for capacity building is effective heritage management. Goa, and India, has the resources, but not the expertise for managing and ‘commodifying’ them, so that they become quality tourism products and unleash their value addition and educational potential, so enhancing the local population’s pride in their heritage and identity, the two differentiating factors of a local tourism industry. ‘Commodification’ is the term used for the conversion of heritage resources into a successful tourism and educational product, and an effective tool for creating wealth, value and wellbeing. This is a basic process in building a knowledge economy, where the emphasis moves away from tangibles, like immovable property, towards intangibles such as knowledge and wisdom.
The economic benefits arising from successful commodification are usually classified as:
• Direct: from sales of entry tickets, services, publishing and image rights
• Indirect: accommodation, souvenirs, restaurants, transport
• Induced: creation of infra-structure, employment opportunities arising from increased demand for service providers
The people of Goa, at the moment, are obsessed with the negative impacts of tourism, as its development has been separated from local needs and social services. We have designed a strategic framework, called HERS (Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme), as an adaptation programme to a Green/Clean Economy and GDP, with CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) indicators, in line with the Kyoto Protocol, and Tourism Department’s drive for Heritage, Eco and Hinterland Tourism.
Education
Capacity building and training for HERS will be done through our:
• Post-graduate Heritage Management Course, so that a first group of talented, enthusiastic young Goans can be at the centre of regenerating their towns and villages. The course is based on the first EU funded course held in Barcelona in 1991, attended by our Heritage Manager, Alfonso Roura. We can provide the outside expertise to facilitate Goa, and then up-streaming to the rest of India, coming up with its own model for HERS. We are considering external assessment through the University of Lincolnshire in the UK. Our Post-graduate Heritage Management Course will be a platform to launch:
• Goan/Indian Institute of Heritage Management, with three departments:
1) The Training Department
2) The Business Centre for Project Development
3) The Research Department
Objectives of the Institute:
a) To launch a basic postgraduate, vocational training course in heritage management and aligned fields such as museology, in order to train a first generation of Indian professionals in fields which range from general theory of heritage to practice and implementation of innovative projects in Goa, the rest of the country, and abroad, using cutting edge teaching techniques.
b) To promote innovative, rational, endogenous, sustainable models of heritage management to open-up new avenues for the socio-economic development of the knowledge society.
c) To provide a new range of job opportunities for our young graduates and re-training, or life-long learning opportunities, for professionals within Government Departments, Tourism and other businesses.
d) To create a model for heritage management which can be used in other parts of India and exported to other developing countries.
• Heritage Data Base: the listing of heritage is the first stage of its management. The HDB project is an exciting initiative to eventually to have full information on India’s heritage online in order to reach a general public and promote interest in Indian culture, architecture and art.
Macaulay’s Minute on Education in India set a trend for inclusive education, with English as the MOI as a uniting element in the multi-cultural subcontinent. It was part of his three L’s: Language, Law and Liberal Democracy, with an empire that would end dissolving itself and become a free-trade area. His ‘trickle down’ effect though did not happen for various reasons, one of which was that he did not have Internet for distribution! More recently, Sam Pitroda’s NKC (National Knowledge Commission) did not find an implementation agency for his recommendations for building an Indian Knowledge Society and there are numerous challenges in applying the RTE 2009 (Right to Education Act).
To go ahead we need clearance from the Government of Goa. If totally satisfied with the new GTP, we propose the formation of a Special Vehicle in the form of a PSPP (Public Social Private Partnership) to work with the government as an interface to facilitate total transparency, efficient delivery and public involvement in SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely/Time-bound) Master Strategic Plans in the other areas.
Labels: Goa, heritage tourism, India
