Author: Peta Straiton
Straiton, Peta, 2022 Assessing the economic and sociocultural value of maritime cultural heritage sites: An interdisciplinary pilot study, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Perhaps due to its general inaccessibility, the maritime environment is uniquely mysterious and maritime archaeological practitioners across the world often rely on romantic rhetoric to promote their work. Mystery has given rise to obstinance, however, as the maritime archaeological tourism industry stagnates in South Australia. In particular, the perceived benefit of tourism engagements – once a heavy focus in South Australia, Western Australia, and Victoria – has become an assumed and apparently invariable quantity. It seems the adage ‘everyone loves a shipwreck’ is, for many, a sufficient summary of maritime cultural heritage’s economic and sociocultural value. This thesis proposes and tests a new model of inquiry designed to clarify the nature of maritime cultural heritage’s economic and sociocultural value in South Australia. The model adapts approaches and theoretical frameworks from other disciplines (including tourism, psychology, economics, and statistics) to augment common archaeological practises of community engagement.
The pilot study involved two major threads of investigation. The first was to measure economic value by applying an ‘attribution factor’ to estimated visitor spends. The second was to compare types of place attachment with potentially observable behavioural outcomes. Primary data was gathered through 609 surveys conducted across six South Australian maritime cultural heritage sites. Statistical analyses were used to develop a visitor profile of each site, and again to produce a snapshot of the South Australian maritime cultural heritage tourism industry. Further interpretation of the results led to the following conclusions:
1) Visitors to maritime cultural heritage tourism sites will often spend a significant amount of money to specifically experience the cultural heritage features at these sites, with a total targeted spend across sites of $5.8 million and a total collateral spend across sites of $5 million (based on an overall attribution factor of 54.39%).
2) The four place attachment types adapted for this study measure discrete and valid types of emotional attachment visitors can experience when visiting maritime cultural heritage tourism sites. In addition, they interact with behavioural intentions type.
3) The two behavioural intentions types adapted for this study measure discrete and valid types of behaviour visitors can engage in during and after visiting maritime cultural heritage tourism sites. In addition, they interact with place attachment type.
Though some of the observed variations in the latter conclusions may help develop better targeted engagements and on-site interpretation, further studies are required to expound the relevance of place attachment and its effect on behaviour in the maritime heritage context. Nevertheless, this study emphasised the importance of examining both the economic and sociocultural value of maritime cultural heritage sites and augmenting current archaeological practises with progressive methodologies.
Keywords: maritime archaeology, archaeology, cultural heritage, tourism, Australia, South Australia, economics, value
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2022
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Dr Gareth Butler