Managing World Heritage Sites

World Heritage Sites are some of the recognised locations around the world. This work covers the management issues encountered at cultural and natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It considers various aspects in arriving at solutions for site management principles. It covers issues such as WHS designation, marketing, visitor management, and more.

This book highlights the challenges and trends resulting from the relationship between tourist motivations, World Heritage Sites and local cultural uniqueness. With a special focus on Portugal and Brazil, several chapters refer to international cultural heritage experiences and destinations in Belgium, Cuba, Croatia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Spain and Turkey. The volume shows that there is some crossover between tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and explores themes such as festivals and events, marketing, branding, sustainability, authenticity, preservation, wine tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism, literary tourism, museology and garden tourism. It will appeal to readers interested in tourism management, quality of the tourist offer, tourism heritage products, and characteristics of the tourism demand in the scope of cultural heritage.

Every site that is inscribed on the World Heritage List (WHL) must have a management plan or some other management system. According to the UNESCO Operational Guidelines, the purpose of a management plan is to ensure the effective protection of the nominated property for present and future generations. This requirement was in part necessitated by the need to implement real systems of monitoring on the management of World Heritage Sites. Since its implementation in 2005, discussion on the function and the contents of management plans for World Heritage Sites has grown tremendously. The discussions have mainly been focused on the theoretical frameworks of World Heritage site management plans and proposals of practical guidelines for their implementation. This volume provides a platform for heritage practitioners, especially those working at Cultural World Heritage Sites, to put in writing their experiences and impressions about the implementation of site management plans at properties that are inscribed on the WHL. Cultural World Heritage Sites in this case refer to world heritage properties such as archaeological sites, cultural landscapes, religious sites and architectural structures. The book also seeks to examine the extent to which site management plans have been or are being implemented at Cultural World Heritage Sites.

Since the 1990s, heritage studies has emerged as a distinct academic field, and practices and rhetoric drawn from mainstream corporate management and strategic planning have become widespread. Based on extensive research, this book is an in-depth investigation of management practices rather than policies, based on a variety of case studies from around the world. The authors take the issue of management in heritage seriously, but also take into account the role of other disciplines within heritage organizations. In particular, they focus on sustainability in terms of financial resources, human resources, knowledge management, and the relationship with the audience and communities of scholars. The book opens with a methodological introduction that discusses what it means to do research on management, and why international comparative research is essential. The body of the text engages issues of heritage and management through five distinct analytical lenses: management and the process of change, institutional settings and business models, change and planning, the Heritage Chain, and the space between policy and practice. Each of these five sections includes a chapter introducing the analytical framework and possible implications, followed by case histories from China, Italy, Malta, Turkey, and Peru. The book ends with a chapter of concluding reflections.

In 2015, the General Assembly of State Parties to the World Heritage Convention passed a ground-breaking Sustainable Development policy that seeks to bring the World Heritage system into line with the UN’s sustainable development agenda (UNESCO 2015). World Heritage and Sustainable Development provides a broad overview of the process that brought about the new policy and the implications of its enactment. The book is divided into four parts. Part I puts the policy in its historical and theoretical context, and Part II offers an analysis of the four policy dimensions on which the policy is based – environmental sustainability, inclusive social development, inclusive economic development and the fostering of peace and security. Part III presents perspectives from IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM – the three Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, and Part IV offers ‘case study’ perspectives on the practical implications of the policy. Contributions come from a wide range of experienced heritage professionals and practitioners who offer both ‘inside’ perspectives on the evolution of the policy and ‘outside’ perspectives on its implications. Combined, they present and analyse the main ideas, debates and implications of the policy change. This book is key reading for all heritage professionals interested in developing a better understanding of the new Sustainable Development policy. It is also essential reading for scholars and students working in the area.

Theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind, to adapt a phrase from Immanuel Kant. The sentiment could not be truer of cultural heritage ethics. This intra-disciplinary book bridges the gap between theory and practice by bringing together a stellar cast of academics, activists, consultants, journalists, lawyers, and museum practitioners, each contributing their own expertise to the wider debate of what cultural heritage means in the twenty-first century. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides cutting-edge arguments built on case studies of cultural heritage and its management in a range of geographical and cultural contexts. Moreover, the volume feels the pulse of the debate on heritage ethics by discussing timely issues such as access, acquisition, archaeological practice, curatorship, education, ethnology, historiography, integrity, legislation, memory, museum management, ownership, preservation, protection, public trust, restitution, human rights, stewardship, and tourism. This volume is neither a textbook nor a manifesto for any particular approach to heritage ethics, but a snapshot of different positions and approaches that will inspire both thought and action. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides invaluable reading for students and teachers of philosophy of archaeology, history and moral philosophy – and for anyone interested in the theory and practice of cultural preservation.