Digging Up the Past in Gwynedd: Heritage Research Tourism in Wales

Abstract

While volunteering is quite popular in the UK already it is not so common in other parts of the world, with the result that many tourists are interested in spending their holiday in the UK as a team member of an archaeological fieldwork project. In this chapter Möller and Karl look at voluntourism in archaeology and provide a summary of heritage research tourism in Wales. Projects which offer opportunities for the public to participate in archaeological research are introduced as case studies and used to examine the role of volunteers who are not only interested in spending their free time visiting heritage sites or museums, but are actually looking for opportunities to take part in hands-on research, in many cases even paying for the privilege.