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Maya Cultural Heritage Tourism
There is an undeniable symbiotic relationship between cultural heritage tourism and a national identity (Palmer 1999). In the case of the Maya, the many national identities have been constructed because of the growing demands placed on them by cultural tourism. By focusing on of lifeways through the costumes, rituals, diet, handicrafts, language, housing, or other features, the identity of the economy shifts from the sale of labor to that of the sale of culture.

Global tourism is now considered one of the largest scale movement of goods, services, and people in history and a significant catalyst for economic development and sociopolitical change. Estimated that between 35 and 40 percent of tourism today is represented by cultural tourism or heritage tourism, this alternative to mass tourism offers opportunities for place-based engagement that frames contest for interaction with the lived space and everyday life of other peoples as well as sites and objects of global historical significance. In this production of tourism the use of historic symbols, signs, and topics form a new side that characterizes a nation and can play an active role in nation building.

With this type of tourism, people argue that ethno-commerce may open up unprecedented opportunities for creating value of various kinds. Cultural Tourists seeking authenticity, the touristic experience could sometimes be faced with the need to invent traditions of artificial and contrived attractions, often times developed at the expense of local tradition and meanings.

An example of this can be seen in “Mayanizing Tourism on Roatan Island, Honduras: Archaeological Perspectives on Heritage, Development, and Indignity.” Alejandro j. Figueroa, Whitney A. Goodwin, and E. Christian Wells combine archaeological data and ethnographic insights to explore a highly contested tourism economy in their discussion of how places on Roatan Island, Honduras, have become increasingly “Mayanized” over the past decade. As tour operators and developers continue to invent an idealized Maya past for the island, non-Maya archaeological remains and cultural patrimony are constantly being threatened and destroyed. While heritage tourism provides economic opportunities for some, it can devalue contributions made by less familiar groups. .