Global Tourism Practices as Living Heritage: Viewing the Norwegian Tourist Route Project

This article discusses the Norwegian Tourist Route Project (TRP) in relation to questions of heritage. It frames the TRP as a case of production of heritage, and as a practice that accordingly problematizes the concept of authenticity—all in the light of the global tourism industry. It explores the practices that structure the installations in the TRP and suggests that they perform an unwitting form of intangible heritage preservation by encouraging tourists to reenact viewing practices that are deeply founded in a nineteenth-century Norwegian—and European—tradition for viewing landscape. Thus the main dynamic of the project is the construction of space and experience. The TRP reveals a quite random blend of practices, where considerations of local heritage are mostly left to designers' choice and intuition. Still, it taps into historically defined social practices and a globalized design language.