Mine museums: a creative economics approach towards sustainable tourism

Nowadays, mine landscapes are known as new tourism destinations which attract educational tourists who are interested in adventure and new experiences. Mine museums pioneer the promotion of mining tourism and attempt to direct their activities toward a creative, green economy and sustainability. The major objective of this study is to consider how mine museums can contribute to sustainability and sustainable tourism. A systematic literature review method and a qualitative method (thematic analysis using MAXQDA) were used in this research. Analysis of the data indicated 18 sustainable sociocultural sub-themes from mine museum activities. Further analysis determined nine sustainable economic dimensions and six sustainable environmental sub-themes of the establishment of mine museums. The results clearly revealed that mine museums can contribute to sustainability.