The remarkable success of the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage is borne out by the fact that nearly 1,000 properties have now been designated as possessing Outstanding Universal Value and recognition given to the imperative for their protection. However, the remarkable success of the Convention is not without its challenges and a key issue for many Sites relates to the touristic legacies of inscription. For many sites inscription on the World Heritage List acts as a promotional device and the management challenge is one of protection, conservation and dealing with increased numbers of tourists. For other sites, designation has not brought anticipated expansion in tourist numbers and associated investments. What is clear is that tourism is now a central concern to the wide array of stakeholders involved with World Heritage Sites.

Not all World Heritage Sites have people living within or close by their boundaries, but many do. The designation of World Heritage status brings a new dimension to the functioning of local communities and particularly through tourism. Too many tourists accentuated by the World Heritage label, or in some cases not enough tourists, despite anticipation of increased numbers, can act to disrupt and disturb relations within a community and between communities. Either way, tourism can be seen as a form of activity that can generate interest and concern as it is played out within World Heritage Sites. But the relationships that World Heritage Sites and their consequent tourism share with communities are not just a function of the number of tourists. The relationships are complex and ever changing as the communities themselves change and are built upon long-standing and wider contextual factors that stretch beyond tourism. This volume, drawing upon a wide range of international cases relating to some 33 World Heritage Sites, reveals the multiple dimensions of the relations that exist between the sites and local communities. The designation of the sites can create, obscure and heighten the power relations between different parts of a community, between different communities and between the tourism and the heritage sector. Increasingly, the management of World Heritage is not only about the management of buildings and landscapes but about managing the communities that live and work in or near them.

The remarkable success of the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage is borne out by the fact that nearly 1,000 properties have now been designated as possessing Outstanding Universal Value and recognition given to the imperative for their protection. However, the remarkable success of the Convention is not without its challenges and a key issue for many Sites relates to the touristic legacies of inscription. For many sites inscription on the World Heritage List acts as a promotional device and the management challenge is one of protection, conservation and dealing with increased numbers of tourists. For other sites, designation has not brought anticipated expansion in tourist numbers and associated investments. What is clear is that tourism is now a central concern to the wide array of stakeholders involved with World Heritage Sites.

This book offers new approaches and insights into the relationships between heritage tourism and notions of modernity, identity building and sustainable development in China. It demonstrates that the role of the state, politics, institutional arrangements and tradition have a considerable impact on perceptions of these notions. The volume contributes to current debates on tradition and modernity; the study of heritage tourism; the negotiated power between stakeholders in tourism planning and policy-making and the study of China’s society. The approach and findings of the book are of value to those interested in the continuities and changes in Chinese society and to graduate students and researchers in tourism, cultural studies and China studies.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive account of cultural and heritage tourism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the many complexities that heritage sites and tourist attractions face. The MENA region has long been regarded as the cradle of Western and Arab civilisation and is the home of many of the world’s major religions. Because of this, the region is rich in heritage sites that serve as major tourist attractions and as icons of national, cultural and religious identity. However, as this book examines, heritage in the region is simultaneously highly contested and has even become a target for terrorism creating a situation that brought major challenges for heritage management and sustainable tourism development. Many of the region’s innumerable cultural sites are threatened, in some cases by overuse, in others by neglect and, in many, simply by the pressures of economic development. This book is therefore of interest not only to heritage managers and policy makers but those academics who seek to address the delicate balance between tourism development, communities and the tourists who visit such sites in a turbulent but highly significant region of the world.

Cultural heritage is one of the most important tourism resources in the world. This book provides a comprehensive theoretical overview and applied knowledge of the issues, practices, current debates, concepts and management concerns associated with cultural heritage-based tourism. The second edition has been updated to include timely and emerging topics such as geopolitics, conflict, solidarity tourism, overtourism and climate change. It also expands on important areas such as environmental change, technology, social media, heritage economics, Indigenous knowledge and co-created experiences. This edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material, figures and pedagogical tools. It remains an important and accessible text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of cultural and heritage tourism, cultural resource management, and museum management.

As one of the world's fastest growing industries, heritage tourism is surrounded by political and ethical issues. This research explores the social and political effects and implications of heritage tourism through several pertinent topics. It examines the hegemonic power of heritage tourism and its consequences, the spectre of nationalism and colonialism in heritage-making, particularly for minorities and indigenous peoples, and the paradox of heritage tourism's role in combating these issues. Drawing from global cases, the study addresses a range of approaches and challenges of empowerment within the context of heritage tourism, including cultural landscapes, intangible heritage and eco-museums. The research argues that heritage tourism has the potential to develop as a form of co-production. It can be used to create a mechanism for community-centred governance that integrates recognition and interpretation and promotes dialogue, equity and diversity.

Cultural heritage attractions are, by their very nature, unique and fragile. It is therefore important that tourism authorities study how best to develop such sites, whilst at the same time preserving them for the long-term. The aim of this conference was to provide a forum for countries from all over the world to present case studies on successful policies, guidelines and strategies that would help the Asia-Pacific region take advantage of its cultural heritage in developing its tourism industry.

This book explores how the mere designation of World Heritage sites can achieve UNESCO's goal of creating lasting worldwide peace. Drawing on ethnography, policy analysis, and a sophisticated fusion of anthropological theories, Di Giovine convincingly reveals the existence of a global heritage-scape and provides a detailed yet expansive look at the politics and processes, histories and structures, and the rituals and symbolisms of the interrelated phenomena of tourism, historic preservation, and UNESCO's World Heritage Convention.

Cultural Heritage and Tourism in the Developing World is the first book of its kind to synthesize global and regional issues, challenges, and practices related to cultural heritage and tourism, specifically in less-developed nations. The importance of preservation and management of cultural heritage has been realized as an increasing number of tourists are visiting heritage attractions. Although many of the issues and challenges developing countries face in terms of heritage management are quite different from those in the developed world, there is a lack of consolidated research on this important subject. This seminal book tackles the issues through theoretical discourse, ideas and problems that underlay heritage tourism in terms of conservation, management, economics and underdevelopment, politics and power, resource utilization, colonialism, and various other antecedent notions that have shaped the development of heritage tourism in the less-developed regions of the world. The book is comprised of two sections. The first section highlights the broader conceptual underpinnings, debates, and paradigms in the realm of heritage tourism in developing regions. The chapters of this section examine heritage resources and the tourism product; protecting heritage relics, places and traditions; politics of heritage; and the impacts of heritage tourism. The second section examines heritage tourism issues in specific regions, including the Pacific Islands, South Asia, the Caribbean, China and Northeast Asia, South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America. Each region has unique histories, cultures, political traditions, heritages, issues and problems, and the way these issues are tackled vary from place to place. This volume develops frameworks that are useful tools for heritage managers, planners and policy-makers, researchers, and students in understanding the complexity of cultural heritage and tourism in the developing world. Unlike many other books written about developing regions, this book provides insiders’ perspectives, as most of the empirical chapters are authored by the individuals who live or have lived in the various regions and have a greater understanding of the region’s culture, history, and operational frameworks in the realm of cultural heritage. The richness of this ‘indigenous’ or expert knowledge comes through as each regional overview elucidates the primary challenges and opportunities facing heritage and tourism managers in the less affluent areas of the world.