Can Tourism and Heritage Be Mutually Sustainable? Anthropological Perspectives on the Role of Local–Global Governance in Heritage Tourism Development

This chapter presents anthropological perspectives on how cultural heritage preservation and tourism development can be mutually sustainable. It discusses the origins of the concept of sustainability, as well as UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention and the UN World Tourism Organization – which emerged at the same time, but until recently have been at odds in their approaches towards tourism development and preservation. Anthropologists have been sceptical of both tourism development schemes and some of the fundamentals of the historic preservation canon, particularly as they see their role as advocates for descendent communities. Stemming from an invitation from ICOMOS’s International Committee on Cultural Tourism to present an “anthropological perspective” on this topic, survey and interview research among multiple generations of anthropological tourism scholars, who have different connections towards tourism, heritage, and indigenous rights in different geographic regions. In the post-COVID era, the resulting analysis is particularly helpful to reimagine and rebuild tourism and preservation activities in a more sustainable fashion.