Tourism and sustainability in the evaluation of World Heritage Sites, 1980–2010

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Schmutz, V., & Elliott, M. A. (2016). Tourism and sustainability in the evaluation of World Heritage Sites, 1980–2010. Sustainability. https://doi.org/doi:10.3390/su8030261
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Description

At present, there are myriad concerns about tourism and sustainability at cultural and natural world heritage sites. Based on an analysis of 811 evaluations written between 1980 and 2010 by two official advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, this paper charts the timing and extent to which such concerns have become central to assessing the value of heritage sites. We find that, over time, issues related to tourism and sustainability expanded considerably in quantity and variety, and recommendations for managing and developing sustainable tourism became a routine feature of site evaluations. Despite the growing prevalence of such concerns, the conceptualization of sustainable tourism and related recommendations provided by the advisory experts remain somewhat ambiguous. Furthermore, our findings reveal regional disparities in the degree to which tourism is seen as a threat to the sustainability of heritage sites and in the likelihood that a state is considered a model of sustainable tourism

Details
Title

Tourism and sustainability in the evaluation of World Heritage Sites, 1980–2010

Author(s)

Schmutz, Vaughn
Elliott, Michael A.

UNC Charlotte Affiliate Type

Faculty

Publisher

MDPI

Extent

1 online resource

Date Published

2016

Date Created

2016

Material Type

Journal article

Genre

articles

Resource Type

text

Abstract

At present, there are myriad concerns about tourism and sustainability at cultural and natural world heritage sites. Based on an analysis of 811 evaluations written between 1980 and 2010 by two official advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, this paper charts the timing and extent to which such concerns have become central to assessing the value of heritage sites. We find that, over time, issues related to tourism and sustainability expanded considerably in quantity and variety, and recommendations for managing and developing sustainable tourism became a routine feature of site evaluations. Despite the growing prevalence of such concerns, the conceptualization of sustainable tourism and related recommendations provided by the advisory experts remain somewhat ambiguous. Furthermore, our findings reveal regional disparities in the degree to which tourism is seen as a threat to the sustainability of heritage sites and in the likelihood that a state is considered a model of sustainable tourism

Subjects--Topics

World Heritage areas
Sustainable tourism

Is Part Of

Sustainability

Volume

Vol. 8, issue 3

Language

English

Published Version (Please cite this version)

doi:10.3390/su8030261

Publisher's Version

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/3/261

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/work:151

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