Sporting national treasures:  living heritage and a boon for tourism.

Inspirational and high-achieving sports men and women evoke adoration amongst their global fan base.  Heightened further by their modesty, integrity and philanthropy, sporting treasures are seen as heroes in society.  Their amazing achievements are celebrated and preserved for future generations but do living sports legends truly represent bona fide heritage?

Living heritage has historically been connected to language, culture or music but not a living person.  Could sporting heritage evolve from significant sporting venues or artefacts to individual characters?  Most sporting heroes have a career peak when they are at their greatest.  Unlike inanimate objects, carefully preserved and suspended in their historical moment, sports men and women move onto a new path.  Some achieve continuing high status in the sports world like Seb Coe, others such as Lance Armstrong have their success undermined.  Either way, sporting greats are in such demand that they are “objectified” to become a commodity for an adoring public clamouring to experience them in the flesh and experience “what they are really like”.

So, can sporting national treasures be a living embodiment of heritage in their extraordinary physical feats?  They draw huge numbers of tourists to events such as the Masters or Wimbledon and indeed to special appearances with private audiences.  The author of 'Heroes as heritage: the commoditization of sporting achievement' in Journal of Heritage Tourism observes “demand to see and get close to them makes heroes a much desired commodity, and establishes many of them as an integral part of sports heritage and beyond.”

Media Contact: Iain Matthews, Senior Marketing Executive, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN    
Email: Iain.Matthews@tandf.co.uk   Website: www.tandfonline.com/ccsa

The Journal of Heritage Tourism ( JHT ) is a peer-reviewed, international transdisciplinary journal. JHT focuses on exploring the many facets of one of the most notable and widespread types of tourism. 

JHT seeks to critically examine all aspects of heritage tourism. Some of the topics to be explored within the context of heritage tourism will include colonial heritage, commodification, interpretation, urban renewal, religious tourism, genealogy, patriotism, nostalgia, folklore, power, funding, contested heritage, historic sites, identity, industrial heritage, marketing, conservation, ethnicity, education and indigenous heritage.

To find out more, please visit: www.tandfonline.com/rjht