Preservation and Importance of World Heritage Sites

This report discusses the history and selection process of world heritage sites, their importance, and ways to prevent negative impacts. It also examines the relation of these sites with tourism and the negative impacts of these sites. The report provides recommendations to reduce these negative impacts and covers all major aspects related to world heritage sites.

Academic Writing for
Business and
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
World heritage sites are those sites which are cultural or natural in their presence and
give outstanding universal value to the humanity and environment. UNESCO prepares list of
these sites from various countries on the basis of certain criteria. It is very essential for the
society to preserve and maintain these world heritage sites. This report will discuss about the
history of these world heritage sites and the process of selection of these sites in world heritage
sites list. The report will also address the importance of these historical sites and provide ways of
preventing them. The relation of these sites with the tourism and the negative impacts of these
sites will also be examined in this report(Adie, 2019). The recommendations will be provided so
that these negative impacts can be reduced. All the major aspects related to the world heritage
sites will be covered in this report.
MAIN BODY
The concept of world heritage was introduced after the end of second world war. The
unique Ramses temple at Abu Simbel was threatened by destruction during the establishment of
Aswan dam in Egypt in 1959. UNESCO stressed on this issue and adopted a convention for the
protection of unique monuments. The reason behind this step was to preserve these sites which
belong to the mankind. These sites are designed in such a way that they possess universal value
in the environment and community. UNESCO adopted the convention in 1972 and officially it
came into effect in the year 1975. This convention was adopted after obtaining ratification from
20 countries of the world(Breeze, 2022). The main aim of this convention is to increase peace
and harmony among the countries in order to protect the heritage across the world which possess
outstanding universal value which will be beneficial for existing and future generations. The
headquarter of UNESCO is located in Paris, France. There are mainly three categories in which
these sites are divided i.e. cultural, natural and mixed. Cultural sites are those which includes
unique buildings and relics like Taj Mahal. Natural sites are those which involve natural areas
which possess natural features having special importance for the people and environment such as
French Austral Lands and Seas. Mixed sites includes features of both cultural and natural sites
like Khangchendzonga National Park, Sikkim. There is a proper process of selection of these
world heritage sites. The criteria of selection involves ten guidelines in respect of these sites.
These guidelines are 1. To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. 2. To exhibit an

important interchange of the human values. 3. Possess unique testimony to a cultural tradition. 4.
Outstanding example which depicts significant stage in human history. 5. Outstanding example
of traditional human settlement. 6. Directly related with artistic and literary works of exceptional
universal importance. 7. Contains superlative natural phenomena. 8. Represents major stages of
earth's history and background. 9. Showing current biological and ecological processes. 10.
Contains significant natural habitats(Carreira, GonzálezRodríguez and DíazFernández, 2022).
The site must have outstanding universal value and should meet at least one of the ten above
mentioned criteria. The process of world heritage site listing involves 5 stages which are
preparation of tentative list, formulating a nomination file, consulting with advisory bodies,
setting up of world heritage committee and last checking whether the site is fulfilling any criteria
for selection.
The world heritage sites are considered as identity of the place where the site is located.
These sites must be preserved so that the future generations can also see and experience the
beauty and uniqueness of these sites. It combines the people living in the place of these heritage
sites in such a way that that people think the cities history belong to each one of them. They
should try to protect the sites. The people should understand that these sites are very essential for
their own good since it attracts a large number of tourists(Duval, 2022). This generates a lot of
wealth for the economy and give the opportunity to growth and development of that place. It is to
be considered that these sites circulates the money within the economy. These sites requires
regular maintenance which gives employment to various individuals and also it increases the
price of nearby places which helps the real estate sector of the nation. Prevention of these
heritage sites discourages the waste of the natural resources and also conserve energy for future
generations. It helps in developing economic stability in the nation. Conservation of these
heritage sites also helps in recycling of resources. The people come from various countries to see
and experience heritage tourism. These heritage sites provides significant value for the
improvement of local communities and other vulnerable social groups. It brings all kinds of
people together for a noble cause which promotes integration and collaboration(Seyfi,
MichaelHall and Fagnoni, 2019). These heritage sites provides various social benefits to the
place which is being declared as World heritage site. These benefits are global recognition,
contribution to the area's condition and identity. Cultural benefits are those which helps the place

in preserving its culture and diversity. The place gets the required protection from the wars under
the Geneva convention. The place also gets the access of various global resources and
management projects which will improve the reputation of the place. It also promotes local and
national pride in the man made and natural sites of that country. World heritage site provides
various economic benefits to the place. These advantages includes bringing tourism to the place
of heritage site and also provides various funds for restoration, prevention and training. It
improves the relations between the countries which involve heritage sites(Thiaw and Wait,
2018).
The world heritage sites have many negative impacts on the economy. Without effective
administration, the value of the heritage sites gets reduced because of the lack of information
provided by the management of these heritage sites. The tourists lacks the proper understanding
and appreciation of the heritage and culture of these sites. Another adverse effect in prevention
of these sites is involvement of high cost of maintenance. The conservation involves deployment
of various labourers on the site which gets very costly for the administration or management. The
cost needs to be taken into consideration by the management in maintaining the culture and value
of the heritage sites. This directly impacts the tourism of that place of all these obstacles. This
enable over commercialisation of heritage sites which is a negative sign for the economy. The
management of the site do not want to destroy or diminish the value of the heritage site by
allowing complete access to the tourists. So it becomes necessary to create a line for the tourists
in order to maintain the value of the heritage site(Tomita and Hiura, 2021). These heritage sites
sometimes overshadow the other important monuments or historical places which are present in
the nation or economy. This also affect the revenues from all those essential sites because of the
lack of focus on these sites. These sites also create a language barrier between the tourists and
the local people which can be very negative in the context of tourism. These world heritage sites
are the main focus of tourism industry since it attracts majority of the tourists from all over the
world. It is essential for the management of these sites to properly explain all the details
regarding the site otherwise the customers will not be able to gain proper knowledge about the
culture and history. This will lead to reduction of the value of the heritage site. The community
also gets wrong perception of the tourists due to their lack of knowledge. It is strongly
recommended that all the above mentioned negative impacts can be minimise by formulating

effective policies and making a proper structure for the preservation of these heritage sites(Yan,
2018).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that it is very essential to maintain the world heritage
sites. The modern society must preserve these sites in order to maintain their value as it is. These
sites are a proven source of income for the economy as its attracts the tourists. The government
should take essential steps in order to protect these sites as greater social inclusiveness can be
obtained by the heritage protection. Campaigns should be organised in order to create awareness
in the society. The government should set up various departments in order to save these
monuments and implement strict laws for any mishappening. The modern society should take
care of these heritage sites so that the future generation also gets the chance of experiencing this
amazing sites. These heritage sites are a great source of education for people of all ages.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adie, B.A., 2019. World Heritage and tourism: Marketing and management. Routledge.
Breeze, D.J., 2022. Frontiers of the Roman Empire: The Antonine Wall-A World Heritage
Site. Frontiers of the Roman Empire, pp.1-76.
Carreira, V., González-Rodríguez, M.R. and Díaz-Fernández, M.C., 2022. The relevance of
motivation, authenticity and destination image to explain future behavioural intention in
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(4), pp.650-673.
Duval, M., 2022. To what degree does a UNESCO World Heritage Site listing improve the
conservation of heritage sites? Insights from the case of the Maloti-Drakensberg World
Heritage Site (South Africa-Lesotho). International Journal of Heritage Studies, 28(3),
pp.376-399.
Seyfi, S., Michael Hall, C. and Fagnoni, E., 2019. Managing world heritage site stakeholders: A
grounded theory paradigm model approach. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 14(4),
pp.308-324.
Thiaw, I. and Wait, G., 2018. Presenting archaeology and heritage at a UNESCO World Heritage
site: Goree Island, Senegal. Advances in Archaeological Practice, 6(3), pp.238-247.
Tomita, K. and Hiura, T., 2021. Reforestation provides a foraging habitat for brown bears (Ursus
arctos) by increasing cicada Lyristes bihamatus density in the Shiretoko World Heritage
site. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 99(3), pp.205-212.
Yan, H., 2018. World heritage craze in China: Universal discourse, national culture, and local
memory. Berghahn Books.