'Where do heritage trails go to die?' stepping out at the British seaside

Heritage trails are an important route into accessing the histories of seaside resorts and communities. They are a multifaceted tourist product/experience, combining a series of complex tourism policy objectives around economic and cultural development. Trails are considered not just as a mechanism to historical learning about place but area located within a cultural politics of destination marketing and geographical imaginaries that spatialise the cultural heritage of place in different ways, emphasising local, transnational and global ‘claims to fame’. This chapter offers a critical overview of UK seaside heritage trails, based upon a mixed method qualitative study which included participatory research, site visits and a content analysis of trail brochures, leaflets, signage and web materials. A typology of seaside heritage trails is provided, to account for different social, political and economic objectives inherent in the proliferation of this significant coastal leisure product.