Attractiveness:
– Goods with symbolic character for a region (e.g., coal and energy in Ruhr, bananas and coffee in Guatemala)
– Branded luxury goods like cars, watches, and jewels
– Technologically demanding innovative goods like computers and airplanes
– Handcrafted goods like porcelain and blacksmith products
– Drinks and foods
Destinations:
– Industrial tourism potential growth sector for cities and regions with solid industrial base
– Successful achievements mostly in developed countries like Germany, UK, US, Japan
– Positive trend in Central Europe, China, India
– Attention to reconvert economically collapsed mono industrial areas
– Wind farms and energy generation facilities popular for educational tours
Other uses for the term:
– Term used by environmental activists like Edward Abbey to refer to commercialized tourism in protected natural areas
– Threat posed by industrial tourism to national parks’ ecology
– United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity highlighted commercial tourism as a threat to national parks in 2023
References:
– Marius Hegedus on industrial and creative tourism attractions
– Alexander H.J. Otgaar, Leo van den Berg, Christian Berger, Rachel Xiang Feng on industrial tourism development in cities
– Lajos Boros, Zita Martyn, Viktor Pal on industrial tourism trends and opportunities
– Nicolae Hillinger, Martin Olaru, David Turnock on the role of industrial archaeology in conservation
– Florentina-Cristina (Merciu) Iancu, Ilinca-Valentina Stoica on tourist capitalization of industrial heritage elements
External links:
– Wikimedia Commons related to industrial tourism
Industrial tourism is tourism in which the desired destination includes industrial sites peculiar to a particular location. The concept is not new, as it includes wine tours in France, visits to cheesemakers in the Netherlands, Jack Daniel's distillery tours in the United States for example, but has taken on renewed interest in recent times, with both industrial heritage sites and modern industry attracting tourism.
