Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Socio-economic Development - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 243

The United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization's
(UNESCO) World Heritage List is the most prominent international entity
for heritage designation. At the time of writing there were 759 cultural prop-
erties, 193 natural and 29 mixed properties in 160 countries. The goal of the
list is to identify, protect and preserve heritage throughout the world that is
of outstanding value to humankind. Most of the world's countries have
inscribed properties on the UNESCO list. As well, there are many additional
sites nominated that might be inscribed in the future. The World Heritage
Site (WHS) title is a visible 'brand' that travelers recognize as denoting spe-
cial places that are worthy of a visit. With this knowledge, several countries
have dozens of WHSs on the list, while others have only one or two. In
recent years, however, there has been a proliferation of nominations by sig-
natory states in an effort to get as many national sites listed as possible. This
widespread desire goes far beyond the conservation ethos of UNESCO, as the
majority of host countries see the UNESCO brand as a marketable commod-
ity for increasing tourist arrivals. Unfortunately, it is a flawed assumption
that UNESCO branding inevitably leads to increased tourist arrivals, for this
is not always the end result (Buckley, 2004; Cellini, 2010), although there is
some evidence to suggest that it is at already popular destinations (Frey &
Steiner, 2011; Yang et al. , 2009).
Because of this belief and in the process of creating a brand image, con-
certed efforts are made by host countries to globalize national heritage with
the UNESCO label. The same is true of national governments that use pres-
tigious lists (e.g. Historic Landmarks) to nationalize local heritage. This is
done to provide a brand for locales or objects and in the process make them
more sellable to the traveling public.
Intangible heritage
As noted earlier, the heritage industries have for centuries favored arti-
facts, buildings and historic sites. Today, however, newfound attention is
being directed to intangible heritage. Although tourism has long exploited
immaterial culture, such as music, dance and cuisines, only recently has the
immaterial past been targeted for widespread conservation and promotion
(Ruggles & Silverman, 2009).
UNESCO's 1993 Nara Document highlighted the importance of tangible
and intangible cultural heritage. The biggest breakthrough happened in
2003, however, with the enactment of UNESCO's Convention for the
Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This agreement underscored
the grave condition of many immaterial heritage elements and attempted to
help document and protect them (Blake, 2009; Ruggles & Silverman, 2009).
These include, among others, musical traditions, foodways, language and
artistic styles. This change illustrates a move from tangible and lavish heri-
tage to a more everyday past and a realization that not all cultural heritage