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The purpose of this article is to expand the discussion pertaining to Vimy beyond traditional historic and military circles and to illustrate that the site is a significant tourism attraction featuring evolving management and interpretation approaches. This is achieved by describing the commemoration of First World War sites and the evolution and transformation of visitor typologies at these sites. The conversation is framed within a discussion of the role of heritage dissonance in management. Since this article was written at the onset of the centennial of the Great War, an examination of the management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which includes a tourism perspective, is timely.

Consisting of participation observations and a review of literature, documentation, government reports and Web sites describing the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, this analysis is complemented by site visits and discussions with key personnel involved in the management of the site.

Because this article precedes the upcoming centennial of the Great War, an examination of the management of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which includes a tourism perspective, is timely. The discussion and conclusion sections provide a suggestion of how dissonant heritage can be addressed, and present an argument for the inclusion of new technologies in the management and interpretation of First World War memorials and the celebrations associated with the centennial of 2014-2019 in order to embrace new visitor types.

This is a conceptual paper examining past and current management strategies of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. No participants or manager was interviewed or surveyed.

Strategies to improve future management through the engagement of tourism researchers, new technologies and by addressing dissonant heritage are provided through literature review and on-site visits.

Currently, the management of the Vimy Memorial caters largely to a certain segment of Canadian population. The findings suggest that by addressing other components of Canadian society and even other combatants, the management and interpretation of the site could be greatly diversified and could eventually become a battlefield like Gettysburg or Gallipoli, where all combatants are recognized and honored.

This is the first paper examining the management of the Vimy Memorial from a tourism perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to retrace past developments that occurred in the Alaskan and Canadian North as of result of the Second World War and illustrate the ramifications of these events in the Canadian and American political landscapes as it pertains to warfare tourism. The paper also intends to initiate a discussion on how certain narratives pertaining to warfare tourism are promoted, while others are overlooked.

This paper analyses the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that resulted in tourism growth or the lack thereof in the Canadian and American Norths.

Warfare tourism, like most types of tourism, is expected to grow. Through this growth comes opportunities to expand and integrate the discussion pertaining to warfare tourism in the Canadian and American Norths while also providing a starting point for discussion about potential solutions to address warfare tourism and cultural dissonance.

This viewpoint is dependent on literature reviews.

The relationship between Indigenous peoples and other marginalized populations in the Second World War and warfare tourism is a relatively new research area. For warfare tourism to become integrated into tourism policies and developments, a willingness to address cultural dissonance and integrate populations formerly marginalized in the Second World War will be required. This paper examines how northern and other marginalized voices can be integrated in future commemoration and interpretation strategies.

The paper provides an opportunity to examine the growth and healing that can result from warfare tourism.

This interdisciplinary collaboration conducted by a military historian, a northern historian and a tourism research researcher provides one of the first examinations of the impacts of the Second World War in North America, and the relevance of these impacts to the interpretation of warfare tourism in Canada.

The aim of this paper is twofold: to provide empirical evidence of the knowledge-sharing process within virtual communities interested in war heritage sites and to compare user-generated content (UGC) in virtual communities with destinations’ official communication about war heritage sites to identify, original and consumer-oriented narratives.

This study uses field research to investigate selected war heritage sites and to assess the destinations’ on-site communication; in-depth interviews to learn about the destination marketing organizations’ approaches to communication; and netnography with content analysis of text and pictures to evaluate the online knowledge shared within virtual communities on the investigated war heritage sites. A comparison between users-generated content and official destination management organizations’ (DMOs) communication was carried out.

The results show that the destinations under investigation have invested significantly to develop war heritage tourism, but they still struggle to attract tourists. The comparison between DMOs communication narratives and users-generated content shows that DMOs fail to use emotional involvement and accurate historic knowledge which seems to be at the basis of UGC narratives. Indeed, history passionates posts, pictures, comments and exchanges are emotionally engaging and DMOs could benefit from the user-generated content approach to improve institutional communication on war heritage sites.

Further studies could survey history passionates, both online and offline, as to better explore the relationship between contributing to virtual communities’ content and visitation patterns of war heritage sites. Incorporating more emotionally engaging narratives, DMOs could enhance their communication and create virtual spaces where knowledgeable tourists can share information and experiences.

This paper contributes to the understanding of online knowledge sharing in the context of war heritage tourism. The comparison between UGC in virtual communities and official destinations’ narratives shows the potential of spontaneous knowledge sharing versus structured online communication and how the latter could benefit UGC.

This chapter explores how military landscapes have been conceptualised and understood. The chapter starts by defining what is meant by the terms ‘landscape’ and ‘military’. The chapter then proceeds with an exploration of a range of examples from a variety of disciplinary origins in order to support the argument that military landscapes constitute a diversity of sites and have a ubiquity of occurrence. Such examples include battlefields and other sites of conflict, the interconnections between landscapes and the pursuit of specific campaigns and conflicts, the issue of environmental impacts of military activities and the interpretation of these with reference to the specificity of landscapes, and landscapes of memory and military memorialization. The chapter then goes on to consider how military landscapes can be viewed, raising questions about the visibility and invisibility of such sites. The chapter concludes with some observations about the imperative for sustained scholarly attention to military landscapes, in order to inform debates about militarism as a social force.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the omission of Indigenous narratives in battlefields and sites of conflicts while also highlighting how certain battlefields and sites of conflicts have attempted to address dissonant heritage by diversifying interpretation strategies and implementing elements of collaborative management approaches, thereby addressing Indigenous erasure.

The study uses a content analysis, field studies and case studies to examine dissonant heritage in warfare tourism sites involving Indigenous peoples in Australia and North America.

The content analysis reveals that aboriginal erasure is still prevalent within the literature on warfare and battlefield tourism. However, the case studies suggest that dissonant heritage in warfare tourism is being addressed through collaborative management strategies and culturally sensitive interpretation strategies.

The content analysis is limited to tourism journals. The case studies highlight sites that are using adaptive management and integrating Indigenous peoples.

The study of dissonant heritage and warfare tourism, while relatively young, is beginning to address aboriginal erasure and cultural dissonance; this study is a contribution to this area of research.

Addressing the impacts of aboriginal erasure and heritage dissonance in colonial settings heals the hurts of the past, while empowering communities. It also provides Indigenous communities with opportunities to diversify current tourism products.

This is a collaborative international paper involving Indigenous and non‐Indigenous scholars from Australia, Canada, and the USA.