Why Modern Society Should Maintain World Heritage Sites

This essay evaluates the argument that it is important for modern society to maintain World Heritage Sites. It begins by outlining the history, background, idea, and process of establishing World Heritage Sites, highlighting their recognition by UNESCO and their cultural and natural significance. The essay then discusses the importance of preserving these historical sites, emphasizing their role in showcasing past generations, architectural achievements, and cultural identity. It further explores the social, cultural, and economic advantages of designating heritage sites, using the Singapore Botanic Gardens as an example. The essay also addresses the adverse impacts of tourism on these sites, such as environmental disruption and increased maintenance costs, and provides recommendations for mitigating these negative effects through awareness campaigns, donations, and hygiene maintenance. The conclusion reinforces the value of World Heritage Sites in displaying history and cultural heritage, while advocating for responsible preservation practices.

EVALUATE THE
ARGUMENT THAT IT IS
IMPORTANT FOR
MODERN SOCIETY TO
MAINTAIN WORLD
HERITAGE SITE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
History, background, idea and process of World Heritage sites:................................................3
Importance of preservation of historical sites and their advantages:..........................................4
Adverse impacts of World Heritage Sites and the relevant recommendations:..........................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The world heritage sites include the cultural and natural sites that are determined as the
Outstanding Universal value that is stated in the world heritage list by the committee. These are
the special places in the world that used to attract the tourists to visit such place. This can also be
the historical sites or area of natural environment that are unique in the different countries. It
used to provide the international importance in the market. The current assignment will put focus
on the History and background of World Heritage Sites and ideas of starting the heritage sites.
Further this report will outline the importance of having the heritage sires by stating social,
cultural and economic advantages to the declared heritage places. At last this report will outline
the negative impact of having the World Heritage sites and its relation to the tourism. It will also
put focus on the recommendations in order to decrease the adverse impact.
MAIN BODY
History, background, idea and process of World Heritage sites:
World Heritage sites is the wide concept that was launched after the happening of Second
World War. This used to contain the special and unique places in the market that makes them the
heritage sites. After the world was second there were some places which were in disruption so
the UNESCO decided to make those unique places as heritages sites of the world.
This is basically the landmark or the areas that used to have the legal protection against them and
this is administered by UNESCO (Hosseini, Stefaniec and Hosseini, 2021). These sites used to
involve the natural and cultural heritage in the world in order to have humanity in the worldwide.
The heritage sites of the world are maintained by International World Heritage programme that
includes the different members in order to manage that.
The idea and purpose of having the heritage sites in the world is to attract the tourist to
visit the places in the different countries. This helps to have the development of the unique
places by having the more tourism in the market. It helps to create the popularity of the places
that used to have the heritage places in the world.
Process of creation of heritages sites is that the names of the places are written on the
tentative list of the different places from the different countries (Mariani and Guizzardi, 2020).
Meanwhile preparing the tentative list, state party has the plan to have the nomination file. In this
different countries unique places names are nominated. There are two advisory bodies that is

International Council on Monuments and Sites and IUCN. These used to examine the importance
of heritage sites from the nominated sites of the world. Further the World Heritage Committee
used to provide the final decisions in order to make some of the places as the heritages sites in
the world. The decisions given by them is on the basis of having the best universal value of that
place in the market.
Thus, world heritage sites mean a site or a place or a tourist destination which has been
recognised by World Heritage Convention of UNSECO which can either be naturally made or
man – made and are of social and cultural importance internationally and thus will be needed to
preserved and protected.
Importance of preservation of historical sites and their advantages:
It is important to preserve such historical sites and buildings because these are the only
remaining remnants of our predecessor generation, shows how our past was and traces the trail of
the evolution that our society has seen and gone through (The Importance of Preserving and
Promoting Historic Buildings, 2022). The historical sites also show the importance and
understanding of engineering and architectural processes followed in that era and the effect of
such engineering and architecture on current engineering and architectural scenarios and
developments. The heritage sites have now become a prominent part of the current community,
societal environment and structure thus, maintenance of such sites is supervised mostly by the
government authority with the back support of others in society in general.
Also, such historical sites and buildings provides the city and the state with a token of
identification and character and these sites are the proof of the rich heritage and aesthetics which
the city proudly displayed in its historical times. Such heritage will also represent something or
someone famous of the surroundings of the site. Naturally, such heritage sites attract a lot of
tourism embraces an exhibition of quality of material used in that era and the character that was
intended to be put in at that time.
The first UNESCO World Heritage Site of Singapore was the Singapore Botanic
Gardens. Such a declaration of the site as a World Heritage Site was a very important moment in
the history of Singapore as the history was marked, revived and resurrected for the coming
innumerable number of years to come (Lee, Phau and Quintal, 2018). Singapore Botanic Garden
are called the green lungs in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the place of Singapore i.e., it
is home to extensive and very influential research being conducted on the plants and it can be

claimed that the garden has maintained its actual structure, objective and layout and not got
affected by all the activities of development that took place outside the site.
The site shows how the British tropical colonial botanic garden evolved to be a source of
education and conservation by being a world class modern institution of science. Such quality
will also impart economic advantages to the people working there and the area in which it is
located and also to the government to whom the revenue from such research and study is
accruing as it also includes horticultural researches and the relevant recreation.
Adverse impacts of World Heritage Sites and the relevant recommendations:
As much as such heritage sites are seen as carrier of the world heritage and development
of the tourism industry but there are equal chances that such preservation and conservation will
bring more disruption and harm than the expected benefits from such world heritage sites. Also
the preservation and maintenance of such heritage sites may lead to disruption of the nature
around them as the tourists will come here and destroy the natural beauty and natural resources
which is an obvious result of the increased tourist activity at a tourist place.
Such tourist activity will then also require incurring of the expenditure for the
maintenance of such heritage sites due to the heavy trafficking of the tourist of such places. Such
maintenance will be in relation to the cleaning of the sites, maintaining the authenticity of the
cite, prevent disruption and degradation of such sites, etc. Such an expenditure of maintenance
will keep on increasing as the volume of tourist activities increases and the heritage site gets
older and older (Levin and et.al., 2019). Also, tourism being a source of income there is a
possibility that it will be preferred over and above the preservation of the heritage sites and thus
will lead to destruction and degradation of such sites and losing the essence and authenticity
while fading away of the rich cultural heritage and history into the oblivion.
It is necessary to recommend the steps that shall be taken to avoid such disruption of
world heritage sites due to the adversarial effects of the tourism activities. It can be
recommended to spread awareness about such an issue of disruption of world heritage sites as a
responsible and concerned citizens of this planet (Katahenggam, 2020). The best way to spread
such awareness is through the social media networking sites like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
etc. Able and wishing citizens and organisations can donate to the cause of protection of such
world heritage sites from the destruction, disruption and disturbance. Such donation will help the
other organisations working for the betterment of such world heritage site like UNESCO, to be

able to provide better services with access to the more funds and the chances of survival of these
world heritage sites from such disruption increases. Hygiene is the most important aspect of
maintaining such world heritage sites. When the hygiene of such sites is maintained, it will
automatically lead to efficient preservation of such sites.
CONCLUSION
From the above it is concluded about the meaning of world heritage sites. It says that
such world heritage sites are the places that displays the history of the respective place and
provide details about the rich cultural heritage which the specific area shares with the rest of the
world. This report has evaluated about the history and background of the heritage sites. Further it
has also described about the ideas and process of creation and nomination of the heritage sites.
The above prepared report also explains the importance of the preservation of such world
heritage sites and the resulting advantages of the world heritage sites being declared whether
such advantages accrue socially, culturally, or economically. Then the adverse impacts of the
such world heritage sites in relation to the tourism industry are explained and certain
recommendations are also given on how to minimize the effects of these adverse impacts on
these sites.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hosseini, K., Stefaniec, A. and Hosseini, S. P., 2021. World Heritage Sites in developing
countries: Assessing impacts and handling complexities toward sustainable
tourism. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 20. p.100616.
Katahenggam, N., 2020. Tourist perceptions and preferences of authenticity in heritage tourism:
visual comparative study of George Town and Singapore. Journal of Tourism and Cultural
Change. 18(4). pp.371-385.
Lee, S., Phau, I. and Quintal, V., 2018. Exploring the effects of a ‘new’listing of a UNESCO
World Heritage Site: The case of Singapore Botanic Gardens. Journal of Heritage
Tourism. 13(4). pp.339-355.
Levin, N. and et.al., 2019. World Heritage in danger: Big data and remote sensing can help
protect sites in conflict zones. Global environmental change. 55. pp.97-104.
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.
Online
The Importance of Preserving and Promoting Historic Buildings. 2022. [Online]. Available
through: <https://tomorrow.norwalkct.org/news/importance-preserving-promoting-
historic-buildings/>