Cultural Tourism Sites as Cultural Identity Makers: A Case Study of District Swat

Abstract

Being recalled as heritage heaven i.e. Swat, attracts purposeful and casual cultural tourists both domestic and international. Eventually, tourists and host community face each other with respective cultures exposed as well. This study has been conducted to look at this relationship. Qualitative strategy has been adopted to get exhaustive perspectives from the local populace. Three sub-locales including Bazira of Barikot, the Ghaznavid Mosque of Udegram and Swat Museum of Saidu Sharif, have been selected to see that how local make and remake their cultural identities with respect to these cultural tourism sites. Findings of this study reveal that there is significant role of cultural tourism sites of Swat in shaping the cultural identity of the populace.