World Heritage Sites: History, Importance, and Adverse Impacts on Tourism Industry

This essay discusses the history, background, types, and processes of World Heritage Sites. It explains the importance of preserving such sites and their social, cultural, and economic significance. It also covers the adverse impacts of tourism on these sites and provides recommendations to minimize them.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
History, background, inception of the idea, types and process:..................................................3
Importance of preservation and advantages of a place being declared a World Heritage Site:. .4
Adverse impacts of World Heritage Sites on tourism industry and the recommendations:........5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
A site recognised by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) as a cultural or natural landmark is called as a World Heritage Site. The UNESCO
recons these sites to be worth preserving acknowledging their universal value to the humanity of
both the present as well as future generations. Such sites are held in collective trust and being
given legal protection by the international treaty with a motto of their belongingness to the
people of the whole world instead of the territory in which they are erected and standing.
The followed essay will be discussing the history and background of these world heritage
sites and explaining the idea of how these sites started to form. Also, the process of how these
sites are created, selected and nominated will be explained. Then the importance of such
preservation will be discussed and their respective advantages are enlisted. Lastly, the adverse
impacts of these sites in relation to the tourism industry will be discussed and steps for
minimizing the adverse impacts will be recommended.
MAIN BODY
History, background, inception of the idea, types and process:
History of world heritage sites dates back to 1954 when the government of Egypt planned
to build a new Aswan High Dam whole reservoir was a threat to the cultural treasures of the
ancient Egypt and Nubia in Nile valley. Therefore, on request by the governments of Sudan and
Egypt the director general decided to save those monuments and such campaign which ended in
1980 was a grand success and such success led to safeguarding of other sites and finally the
International council on Monuments and Sites of UNESCO commenced a draft for protection of
such heritage sites (Mariani and Guizzardi, 2020). Such draft was signed on 16th November,
1972 in Paris. This idea of safeguarding of such sites was initiated by United States in 1965 by
establishing “World Heritage Trust”.
Now, there are three different types of World Heritage Sites namely – cultural, natural
and mixed. Cultural sites include historic buildings, archaeological sites, sculptures and
paintings. Natural sites include natural sites of excellent geological process, evolutionary
processes, etc. Mixed sites includes elements of both cultural and natural sites.
It shall be noted that only those countries who have signed the World Heritage
Convention are eligible to submit proposal for nomination of a property in their territory to be a

World Heritage Site as per UNESCO (World Heritage List Nominations, 2022.). The nomination
process can be explained as follows:
 Tentative List – A country must make a list of all of its important sites which is called as
Tentative List along with forecast of other sites by State Party. Such list is considered by
World Heritage Committee for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
 The Nomination File – The State Party decides when it will file a nomination file along with
the assistance of World Heritage Centre. Once the file is reviewed and completed it is sent to
appropriate Advisory Bodies for evaluation by World Heritage Centre.
 The Advisory Bodies – Two advisory bodies mandated by World Heritage Convention
namely ICOMOS and IUCN will evaluate the nominated property. ICCROM will provide
expert advice and relevant training.
 The World Heritage Committee – The intergovernmental World Heritage Committee will
take the final decision. Such inscription will be done once a year and has the right to defer
the decision and ask for additional information on such sites from the States Parties.
 The Criteria for Selection – Criteria includes exceptional universal value and meeting of at
least one criteria of the ten criteria enlisted.
Importance of preservation and advantages of a place being declared a World Heritage Site:
These historical sites mirror the era or time in which they were constructed. Each such
site will exhibit the history of the city in which it is present (Woosnam and et.al., 2018).
Therefore, following are some of the importance of preserving such sites:
 Value – The historical sites allows the communities to connect with their past and maintain
their sense of stability. The long forgotten history can be revived and preserved to be shows
to the world the value and heritage they possess.
 More than just saving – The preservation of such sites is much more than mere saving and
restoration of these old and out of the time erect buildings. There are cultural, economic,
environmental and educational importance of such preservations (Panzera, de Graaff and de
Groot, 2021). The tourism is enhanced providing more job opportunities and reawakening the
communities towards their culture.
 Connection with the past – The communities are kept vibrant, pretty and liveable and
induces the people to acknowledge the precious history that they are part of. The architecture
tells about the culture, traditions and events which encircled such sites in their young days.

 Environmental impact – Non-preservation of these sites and buildings will lead to their
destruction and thus the valuable material and architecture will end up being a valueless
waste somewhere in a landfill causing pollution of land and air.
Now when a site is declared as a World Heritage Site, such declaration entails various
benefits along with it. Such listing positively affects the site, the environment and the resultant
interactions between such site and its environment. The site also gains recognition internationally
and an added legal protection from the World Heritage Fund which provide for its conservation
and preservation (Porter, 2020). Such declaration as a World Heritage Site also benefits the
society around it from the revenue obtained through its tourism also allows the people to interact
with the natural environment also called as cultural landscapes. Such revenue from the tourism
benefits the hosting country and the local area in which the heritage site is located. The
maintenance of such sites will also result in the maintenance of the environment and the area in
and around these sites and thus will prevent pollution and degradation of the nature. Lastly, such
sites contain cultural and natural heritage which is communicated around the world and is the
source of rich value to the humanity.
Adverse impacts of World Heritage Sites on tourism industry and the recommendations:
Despite having numerous benefits to the tourism industry of the World Heritage Sites,
there are certain adverse impacts of such World Heritage Sites. There are equal or even more
chances that the preservation and conservation of such heritage sites will cause harm to the
nature. The tourism associated with these heritage sites will lead to deterioration of the sites and
localities around these sites and it is a well – known concept that the more will be the
intervention of humans in the nature, more will be the destruction and deterioration the nature
will be facing (Cigna, Tapete and Lee, 2018). Natural heritage sites will get destructed by the
carelessness of the tourists as they wander off the designated paths assigned for their excursion
and destroy the naturally preserved sites and locations for mere want of a good photo location.
It can also be observed that once the revenues start accruing from such heritage sites the
authorities responsible for preservation neglects such preservation and are more indulged in the
activities related to the tourism (Mugobi and Mlozi, 2021). Such commercialization of these
heritage sites will lead to damage of such heritage sites for the mere want of more revenues from
the tourism and the benefits availing to the tourists and the tourism providers.

For preserving the heritage sites from negative outcomes of tourism it can be
recommended to form a group of volunteers who are willing to preserve such sites from the
increased activities of the tourists. Such volunteer groups may work through websites or a
discussion board and can also arrange for special events to make the public aware of such an
issue. Another recommendation is of arranging of systematic and properly guided tours to avoid
useless wandering of the tourists in the restricted areas of the site (Brown, Liuzza and Meskell,
2019). Another way is to closing of these sites for a particular period of time to allow their
maintenance and natural recovery. Communicate with the locals and tourists the issue of such
damage and appealing them to be cautious of their activities so that the damage and deterioration
of such heritage sites can be avoided and the integrity, uniqueness and value of these heritage
sites can be maintained for the years to come for the present as well as the future generation.
Therefore, such steps and recommendations can be followed to minimize the adverse impacts of
the tourism industry on these World Heritage Sites.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, it can be concluded that it is important for modern society to maintain World
Heritage Sites to keep their historical and cultural importance intact in the society and make the
communities acknowledge and respect their cultural heritage and past traditions. The above
essay therefore, contains information about the history, background, types and processes related
to the World Heritage Sites. The essay explains the importance of the preservation of such
historical sites and their social, cultural and economic significance. Lastly, the essay takes into
consideration the adverse impacts the tourism industry had on these World Heritage Sites and the
resultant recommendations for cope with these adverse impacts and negative outcomes of the
tourism industry on these sites.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brown, N. E., Liuzza, C. and Meskell, L., 2019. The politics of peril: UNESCO’s list of world
heritage in danger. Journal of Field Archaeology. 44(5). pp.287-303.
Cigna, F., Tapete, D. and Lee, K., 2018. Geological hazards in the UNESCO World Heritage
sites of the UK: From the global to the local scale perspective. Earth-Science
Reviews. 176. pp.166-194.
Mariani, M. M. and Guizzardi, A., 2020. Does designation as a UNESCO world heritage site
influence tourist evaluation of a local destination? Journal of Travel Research. 59(1).
pp.22-36.
Mugobi, T. and Mlozi, S., 2021. The impact of external factors on ICT usage practices at
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing
(JTHSM). 7(1). pp.3-12.
Panzera, E., de Graaff, T. and de Groot, H. L., 2021. European cultural heritage and tourism
flows: The magnetic role of superstar World Heritage Sites. Papers in Regional
Science. 100(1). pp.101-122.
Porter, N., 2020. Strategic planning and place branding in a World Heritage cultural landscape: a
case study of the English Lake District, UK. European Planning Studies. 28(7). pp.1291-
1314.
Woosnam, K. M. and et.al., 2018. Social determinants of place attachment at a World Heritage
Site. Tourism management. 67. pp.139-146.
Online
World Heritage List Nominations. 2022. [Online]. Available through:
<https://whc.unesco.org/en/nominations/#:~:text=A%20nominated%20property%20is
%20independently,Committee%20with%20evaluations%20of%20the>
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