HERITAGE TOURISM CLASSIFICATION STUDY
(Underdeveloped Heritage Tourism Site)

Site Description
Often located in an old school or in the basement of a courthouse or city hall, the typical local history museum is open for only a few hours during select days in a month, usually when volunteers are available. Admission is free with a contribution jar near the entrance.

Heritage Resources
The resources at typical local history museums are marginally cared for. Usually they sit exposed to too much light and are improperly displayed. The resources are of possible value to the community, usually being donated by generous residents. Many of the same items are usually on sale at the local flea market on the weekend or possibly at the local antique store. There are usually army uniforms, dresses, an old typewriter, oil lamps and many historic photographs.

How Visitors Interact with Resources
In spite of the questionable conservation practices at these museums, they usually prohibit any touching of the resources. Labels may simply identify the resource, but often little more. The only smells at the local history museum are usually from musty artifacts, not evocative odors geared to tantalize or elicit any formal outcome. There is usually no sound at all. If other visitors are in the museum, they are usually simply strolling and glazing over the barrage of displayed artifacts. Visitors only interact with the resources by viewing them.

Visitor Experiences
Most visitors' experiences at local history museums are truly minimal. They may have had a relaxing experience, but little else. There is little discovery or learning, little stimulation, almost no emotional element to the visit and nothing inspirational about the experience. It is simply a place for locals to celebrate their heritage, but it is not a developed heritage tourism site.

Benefits
Benefits are as few as the visitor experiences. Other than some potential community pride, little is gained from the visitor's experience at the local history museum. Most visitors are only politely satisfied. They find little to bring back in the way of a memory. The community generates very little economic benefits from the visit to the site. This is mainly because the stay is rarely long enough to stimulate even a meal. And the resources get little or no benefit from their part in this experience either. The entrance fee is so minimal and the resources' conservation and interpretive needs are so profound that the revenue generated does not cover much other than cookies and punch for the historical society's monthly meetings.

Lessons to be Learned
The simple fact that a resource exists in a community does not make it a heritage tourism resource. These local history museums are for the locals first and foremost. They can be adapted to accommodate visitors in a more compelling way, but this potential is mitigated by the capacity of the volunteers and the members to truly do what is needed to provide memorable experiences and to structure benefits for the heritage tourism partners.