Michael J.G. Parnwell

World heritage sites and domestic tourism in Thailand: social change and management implications.

This study examines some of the tensions inherent in the mobilization of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for tourism in Thailand, set against the imperatives of conservation management. The authors look at two cultural sites (the Historic City of Ayutthaya and the Historic Town of Sukhothai) and one natural site (the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex). They focus particularly on domestic tourism emanating from the urban middle class in Thailand, which has contributed significantly to the recent rapid growth of domestic tourism in Thailand and for which cultural and natural heritage sites have a particular attraction as tourist and excursionist destinations. The authors consider both the ways in which metropolitan-generated physical development brings pressure to bear on heritage sites and how rapidly changing lifestyles, consumption and leisure patterns and cultural values serve to redefine the use made of and attitudes towards national heritage.

Business and Culture in South-East Asia: Its Relevance for Britain

This paper introduces various elements of the relationships between business organisations and practices and cultural values and behaviour with reference to the Asian and particularly the South-East Asian region. It then summarises findings on the perceptions and evaluations of British business people of the role of culture in doing business in Asia as these were revealed in a study conducted on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry in 1992. A major conclusion is that British business people tend not to assign a significant role to culture and language and that the business community experiences problems in finding suitable materials on this dimension of their dommercial activities in Asia. The low priority given to cultural undertstanding presents a barrier to Britains commercial success in this economically dynamic region of the world.

Whale worship and tourism development in the Hoi An-Da Nang corridor, Viet Nam.

This paper uses a case study of the Hồi An–Da Nang corridor inQuảng Nam province, Việt Nam, to examine some of the pressuresthat whale worship – a traditional cultural practice of coastal fishingcommunities in central and southern Việt Nam – has faced since the̶Dồi reforms of 1986. Whale temples, the physical manifestation ofthe veneration of the whale as an ancestor of fishers, are coming underincreasing pressure as tourism development displaces coastal communities fromthe shores and as the younger generations turn their back on the sea as a sourceof livelihood. The paper seeks to draw attention to a locally importantmanifestation of intangible cultural heritage, the existence of which isthreatened even before the countrys first tentative efforts at culturalheritage conservation come into full swing.