Revitalisation of Cultural Tourism Through Folk Narratives

Folk narratives such as myths legends and folk tales are representative of the unique cultural heritage of an ethnic community. The inclusion of legends as a description of tourist attractions, projects their indigenousness thereby promoting oriental and otherness themes. Reports suggest that tourism plays a vital role in the revaluation and revitalisation of culture. [in-text citation removed] Destination managers across the world are projecting legends in their promotion attempts as they are confident that these legends have the power to attract tourists. As such, this present piece of research underlines the role of myths, legends and folk tales in revitalising and revaluating cultural tourism. It seeks to explore the link between myths, legends and folk tales of the Hynñiew Treps/Khasis, a tribal/indigenous community of Meghalaya in North-East India and tourism. The Hynñiew Treps/Khasi tribe of Meghalaya are a story telling people and have a strong oral tradition and practices. A constructivist methodology was employed in this study using 400 interviews with respondents which include both tourists 300 and local stakeholders 100. Numerous themes emerged after coding including a sense of curiosity about cultural heritage, heritage revaluation and revitalisation, which were the two dominant themes that emerged. It is then suggested that the valuing of oral traditions such as myths, legends and folk tales as a tourist resource should therefore be re-assessed to allow local people, to integrate this form of popular cultural expression as a cultural tourism strategy. Key words: revitalisation, revaluation, myths, legends, folk tales, culture, tourism