Abstract:
Many famous battles have left legacies and these have often created a sense of
nostalgia motivating people to visit associated sites. Battlefields and other sites of
“death and decay” have increased as a popular sub-sector of the fast growing
heritage and cultural tourism industry. Battlefields, and other sites associated with
war, have been studied by scholars from a variety of disciplines. In more recent
times, tourism professionals and academics have begun to study battlefields and
their associated histories for the purpose of developing and promoting them as
tourist attractions. This has resulted in a distinct link between the historical and
tourism sectors. In this paper, the Battle of Spioenkop (KwaZulu-Natal) will be
discussed as an example of how history and a battle site in particular can
contribute to the development of tourism.
