Maintenance Of Latvian Business Language, Culture, And Community Through Heritage Tourism And The Internet

• Published in: Global business languages 2009-01, Vol.14, p.55-72
• Main Authors: Kaupins, Gundars, Ray, Nina M, Berzins, Andris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1086-7627

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, cultural tourism involves "traveling to experience the places, artifacts, and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. It includes cultural, historic, and natural resources". It can include visiting one's ancestral home to discover the records, locations, and life experiences of living and deceased relatives from sources such as heritage tourism. Aleksandrs Feigmanis, author of Visit Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia, suggests that heritage tourism, defined as visiting one's ancestral home to discover the records, locations, and life experiences of living and deceased relatives, is the first listed reason to visit the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia. Such tourism can potentially enhance native language and culture as tourists could learn the language, help pay for the preservation of historic sites through their visits, and research and share the country's history. This article investigates heritage tourism in Latvia by first exploring the reasons why Latvian heritage tourists go to Latvia and why this tourism is important to the nation. The article then explores key Web sites that Latvian heritage tourists can use to investigate their ancestral homeland and finally looks at how popular heritage tourism-related words are in the Internet in Latvian and other languages. Adapted from the source document