Dallen J. Timothy of Arizona State University will give a free presentation at a meeting of the Maricopa Historical Society on April 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Maricopa Public Library. All are invited.

Throughout most of history, the tourism industry has focused on selling mass experiences, including those associated with heritage sites and historic places. The world’s biggest and most iconic heritage attractions have been at the center and forefront of tourism’s mass marketing and branding efforts. Yet, do these large, tangible, and ancient heritage attractions really represent the history and heritage of everyday people, or even the majority of the world’s population? I argue that it does not, and that specialized (niche) forms of tourism are now beginning to recognize that the ordinary heritage of everyday people is important, worthy of being protected, interpreted and visited. In fact, the majority of the world’s heritage is small, ordinary, intangible and not very ancient. It is time for tourism industry workers and researchers to accept a more balanced and truthful heritage narrative that more closely and accurately represents the heritage of everyday people, not just the historical elites. Examples of this new way of looking at heritage will be provided, and the differences in this perspective between cultural viewpoints will be discussed as well. Ordinary heritage, together with extraordinary heritage, has the potential to make heritage tourism stronger, more meaningful, and share its benefits with more communities.

Dr. Dallen J. Timothy is professor of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. He is also currently a visiting professor at the American University of Rome, Italy; the University of Girona, Spain; Luoyang Normal University, China; Beijing Union University, China; University of Johannesburg, South Africa; and Indiana University, USA.

He is a geographer and environmental scientist by training and has many research and teaching interests, including heritage management and conservation, religious tourism, food as cultural heritage, international borders and their effects on tourism, migration and globalization processes.

Professor Timothy is the editor of the Journal of Heritage Tourism and serves on the editorial boards of 22 scientific journals. He has published 28 books and more than 200 research articles on many aspects of geography and tourism. He is currently finalizing two more book manuscripts that are both due to the publishers by the end of April. He has worked in various capacities in more than 100 countries and has ongoing research projects in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East on various aspects of heritage, borders and religion. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences and in the media. At ASU, he teaches courses on an introduction to tourism, heritage tourism, and the geography of international tourism.