This workshop is an initiative to share views and experiences specifically related to current and emerging management issues at Cultural World Heritage (WH) sites and their immediate surroundings. In order to focus the workshop on common issues in a range of case studies and eventually discuss common approaches and management tools, a conceptual framework will be introduced, using a set of keywords.
The objective of the workshop is to open new perspectives on the actual and sometimes ambiguous role of tourism in the conservation of heritage sites and to discuss on methods for managing the balance between conservation policies and tourism strategies on WH sites.
WH sites are exceptional sites that are an important testimony of the past to the future generations, yet often vulnerable or misused and therefore require a high priority in terms of sustainable site management. In order to be recognised as a cultural world heritage site, a number of criteria have to be met (UNESCO, 2009). Tourism does not feature explicitly in this list, although it is widely recognized that the ‘International Top Brand’ benefits that are affiliated with the designation can open significant tourism opportunities for communities in areas adjacent to designated sites. However, the expectations of some stakeholders about the economic impulses may be beyond the capacity of the place. This refers to both sides of the concept: to the physical limitation of the site’s carrying capacity and to the lack of capacity to develop a competitive destination for cultural tourists.
Implementing a sustainable development model implies an early identification of the latent or manifest controversies between conservation and tourism activities. The controversies are not unique or isolated to only a few WH sites; therefore, we can learn much by sharing views and results of past and current experiences in selected case studies.
The focus of the workshop will be on key tourism management issues in the context of WH sites in particular. These have been identified in an ongoing project of WHTRN (World Heritage Tourism Research Network), an international collaborative network of researchers, consultants and scholars in the new and challenging multidisciplinary field of tourism and heritage.
The first stage of the project implies an evaluation of the State of the Art in terms of empirical studies, comparable results, analytical methods and potential recommendations on sustainable development models. An annotated bibliography on site studies and the methods used to analyse the tourism potential and impact, is now in progress. This will allow for researchers to indicate more clearly the knowledge gaps and, above all, to communicate relevant results of case studies. The WHTRN is supported with funding from Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, Parks Canada and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Within the context of a forthcoming publication on the tourism destiny of cultural World Heritage sites (Jansen-Verbeke, McKercher, 2010), a worksheet has been drawn to provide an explorative framework for the workshop. A selection of interdisciplinary case studies on different types of cultural WH sites (monuments, urban complexes, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes) will add a new and relevant dimension to the discussion.
For the purpose of selecting case studies for illustration, an invitation and a few questions to the participants are included on the website. This would allow us to track the researchers working in different geographical contexts and with diverse disciplinary backgrounds that want to share their views and hence contribute to an international comparative perspective. The papers selected for discussion in the workshop will approach the tourism activities at cultural WH destinations in an analytical way and refer to one or more issues included in the worksheet.
FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT:
Prof. Myriam Jansen-Verbeke (jansen.verbeke@skynet.be)
Dr. Wanda George (Wanda.George@msvu.ca) |
