Edinburgh Napier University

  The entry focusses on a central activity, not only for visitor attractions, but for other leisure, tourism and destinations environments. Interpretation involves a variety of tools and techniques used to communicate the significance of assets within a tourism experience. The rapid advancement of technology has widened scope of interpretative tools available to tourism managers and this entry seeks to provide a comprehensive categorisation of interpretative tools and techniques used within the tourism domain. The entry conceptualises both personal and non-personal forms of interpretation to categorise the wide variety of tools used to convey various messages. The advantages, disadvantages and applications of various techniques are considered to fit with the nature of the message, the audience and experiential environment. The entry provides a comprehensive, yet accessible overview of the tools used to communicate the significance of historical, artistic, environmental and cultural assets within tourism management.