UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova underlined the importance of better integrating cultural heritage preservation and sustainable tourism during the Roundtable on World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism, held in Miami on 19 March. She highlighted that cultural heritage is a powerful driver of social and economic development for local communities.
Under the recently developed UNESCO World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Programme, the Director-General underscored that UNESCO seeks to create an international framework for the cooperative and coordinated achievement of shared and sustainable outcomes related to tourism at World Heritage properties.
The Programme seeks to link up national and local authorities, site practitioners, tourism sector, and local communities to integrate a sustainable tourism perspective into the mechanisms of the World Heritage Convention. The idea is to promote broad engagement in the planning, development and management of sustainable tourism that follows a destination approach focuses on empowering local communities. The Programme also seeks to provide World Heritage stakeholders with the capacity and the tools to manage tourism efficiently, responsibly and sustainably based on the local context and needs.
The Director-General emphasized that the international community needs to encourage responsible behavior among all stakeholders and to foster understanding and appreciation of the concept of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ and the protection of World Heritage.
Everglades National Park: http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm
UNESCO World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Programme: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/venice/special-themes/sustainable-tourism/
Related publications on the Sustainable Tourism Program:
http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-113-1.pdf
http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-113-2.pdf
