Why Is It Important to Maintain Heritage Sites?

Running Head: ESSAY 1
Business & Tourism Management
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Running Head: ESSAY 1
Evaluate the Argument that it is Important for Modern Society to Maintain World
Heritage Site - Sydney Opera House
1. Introduction
To be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a location must be of exceptional cultural or
physical significance (Achebe, 2021). The United Nations component UNESCO was created in
1945. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee manages the World Heritage Program, which
monitors the listed sites. This committee, which is chosen by the organisation's General
Assembly every three years, comprises 21 state parties (Calhoun, 2018). In order to conserve
humanity's history, the initiative identifies and protects locations of high cultural or natural
significance.
Before proposing a site for inclusion on the World Resources List, a nation must ratify
the World Assets Convention, committing itself to protect its natural and cultural legacy.
Ireland's Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht produce a list of the nation's cultural
and natural resources (World Heritage Ireland, 2020). The State Party compiles tentative listings
of these locations. Sites on the Tentative List may only be evaluated by the World Heritage
Committee (UNESCO, 2018). The State Party is responsible for updating the Tentative List and
may do so at any time. In this approach, the sites on the Tentative List may be evaluated
regularly to see if any should be added, deleted, or nominated (Calhoun, 2018).
2. The History and Background of World Heritage Sites
Yellowstone National Park in the United States was the world's first national park,
established in 1872 and situated in the United States (Graham, 2021). One hundred years later,
during the presidency of Richard Nixon, the concept of a national park was proposed to the
World Heritage Committee or the World Heritage Trust, where it was accepted on a large scale
and now serves as the foundation for the global implementation of the national park concept
(Cameron, 2017). One hundred years later, under the Nixon administration, the World Heritage
Committee or World Heritage Trust was presented with the concept of a national park.
Unfortunately, the Egyptian government decided to construct the Aswan Dam, also known as the
Aswan High Dam, in 1954 (Graham, 2021). This option would result in flooding a valley

Running Head: ESSAY 1
containing ancient Egyptian artefacts, such as the Abu Simbel temples. After that, UNESCO
began a global preservation programme. In addition to the relocation of the Temple of Dendur to
New York, the temples of Abu Simbel and Philae were disassembled, relocated to a higher
elevation, and then piece by piece, restored there. In addition, the Temple of Dendur was
relocated to New York (Miller, 2020).
The project's expected cost was $80 million, with around $40 million coming from
donations from fifty countries. The initiative was recognised as a success and spurred future
preservation efforts, which helped rescue the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan and the
Borobudur Temple complexes in Indonesia, among many other cultural treasures all over the
globe (Hewryk, 2022). In addition, the Italian city of Venice and its lagoon were spared due to
these later preservation measures. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
then collaborated to draught a convention to conserve the common cultural past of all people.
This accord is the Convention for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of
Humanity (Hewryk, 2022).
As of 2012, 962 places have been featured on the list. Seven hundred forty-five cultural
sites, 188 natural sites, and 29 mixed assets are scattered among the United States 157 state
parties (Godfrey, 2019). Due to the inclusion of 47 different sites on the World Heritage List,
Italy holds the country with the most World Heritage Sites. UNESCO assigns each World
Heritage Site a unique identification number; nevertheless, new inscriptions sometimes include
older sites that are now included in more thorough descriptions (Jankowski and Swiezak, 2018).
Consequently, the identification numbers exceed 1200 even though fewer names appear on the
list (Jankowski and Swiezak, 2018). This is a direct consequence of the circumstance. Even
while each World Heritage Site is still regarded as part of the state's sovereign territory,
UNESCO believes that it is in the best interest of the global community to protect each site
(Miller, 2020). This is the case because UNESCO considers each World Heritage Site's
preservation to be in the global community's most significant interest.