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Two Water Towns in the Qingpu District of Shanghai Semprebon

Institute, the Australian Heritage Commission, observers. The tourism industry was
ICOMOS International, ICOMOS China, and introduced as a developmental factor by Xu in
the State Administration for Cultural Heritage. 1999, portraying its theoretical and empirical
The experience blossomed in the backgrounds, the growth and structure of
Conservation and Management Principles of tourism demand, its infrastructural
Cultural Heritage Sites in China, development, and its economic effects [20] .
subsequently labelled “The China Principles” More recently, Mimi and Wu have provided a
[17] . These documents have embodied more updated picture of the tourism industry
remarkable advancement in heritage condition, remarking that case study analysis
stewardship, fixing canons to address still represents the main object of scholarly
concepts like historical condition, investigation.
authenticity, integrity, minimal interventions, The concept of commodification
cultural traditions, and appropriate epitomises the most visible link between the
technology [18] . tourism industry and local development. With
the term “commodification,” it is referred to,
2.2 The tourism industry as a using Goulding’s words, as “the process by
developmental tool which things (and activities) come to be
Chinese cultural resources have experienced evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange
alternating fortunes since the proclamation of value in a context of trade” [24] . This process
the People Republic of China in 1949. Su and has been addressed in plural ways by scholars:
Teo [19] provided a sharp picture of tourism’s as a sociocultural opportunity [25] , as a
condition under the leadership of Mao denigrating agent [26] , or as a mix of the two
Zedong, which was a “collective provision with commodification as an agent injecting
(…) that served mainly the domestic elite: new meanings into local cultures [28] .
namely Chinese compatriots or foreign Since the late 1970s, the tourism boom in
delegations from socialist countries” and was China has been seen by policy-makers also as
mainly a “top-down political task” deprived a “spiritual modernization” and “as a two-way
of market outlets [20] . civilizing tool, capable of producing positive
After the difficult days of the Cultural change in tourists as well as ‘tourees’” [29,30] .
Revolution (1966‒1976), when tourism Visitors’ agendas have influenced the
stagnated, the travel industry gained selection criteria of sites appetible for tourists
recognition as one of the market’s engines [21, [19] , making sightseers’ habits decisive in
22] , shifting from epitomising a political status, shaping tourism politics and related spatial
during Mao’s era, to an “integral part of settings [31] . In more recent years, the tourism
Chinese lifestyle” [19] . At the dawn of the industry has constantly diversified and
1990s, Oakes commented on how China was increased its impact on policy formulation
absorbing and reproducing modernity in his and heritage management, assuming several
book addressed as “false”, his word remarked roles in local developments, such as targeting
the tight ties running between tourism and poverty alleviation, building a historical
economy: “tourism remains one of the most narration, innovating the leisure sector, or
powerful forces through which the Chinese invigorating economic growth [32,33] .
state, and Chinese capital, seek to dominant
popular narratives of ‘modern China’” [23] . 2.3 Heritage tourism: A contested domain
The rising leisure industry never divorced Reciprocal influences between the tourism
from the task of fuelling a magnificent image industry and Chinese historical sites have
of the country and, at the same time, been widely examined, mostly in terms of
vigorously joined the opportunities offered by causal effects and socioeconomic outputs [34-
an expanding market. This strategy 39] . Most researchers have agreed that
contributed to building a selective narrative of heritage-led tourist development triggered
the past in front of both foreign and domestic lively debates among local players, where

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