Antiques and tourism in Australia

✍ Scribed by Ewen Michael

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 134 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0261-5177
• DOI: 10.1016/s0261-5177(01)00053-x

✦ Synopsis

This paper reviews those commercial activities described under the labels of antiques, collectables, memorabilia, and oldwares that are undertaken in regional Australia. While it may not be strictly correct to call them an industry in their own right, they are substantial, at least in the Australian context, and appear to be particularly significant for regional economic development in some localities. This paper treats them as a single industry to evaluate their significance as generators of tourism demand and visitation, for they appear to create a range of economic and social benefits that adds value to existing destinations, and links sympathetically to other forms of cultural and heritage tourism. The paper is focussed on the antiques industry in non-metropolitan Victoria (Australia); nonetheless, it raises issues that may well be familiar to other regional environments where niche markets are component parts of the domestic tourism product capable of supporting sustainable and non-intrusive forms of economic growth.