In the context of the World Tourism Event, hosted in Genoa from 12 to 14 September, a technical meeting was held on Tourism and World Heritage, in which the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation participated.
The role of UNESCO: guiding and identifying themes
The forum, organised by the Italian World Heritage Site Association and the Santagata Foundation, created a platform for reflection on the development opportunities and problems of tourist flows at World Heritage Sites. Speakers included Matteo Rosati, representing UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, the only regional UNESCO office in Italy and the only UNESCO site with a specific mandate for the European region. The session provided an opportunity to put questions to him directly on the issue.
Does the World Heritage Convention discuss tourism?
“The Convention is a 1972 document that establishes the UNESCO World Heritage programme. It does not directly discuss tourism because it has another purpose, which is to ‘preserve cultural and natural heritage’. Tourism can be an important tool to generate resources that must also feed into the protection and conservation of Heritage Assets, but it can also represent a risk factor for the very same conservation efforts. Certain excesses can have a detrimental effect on quality of life at the Sites and lead to socioeconomic strain that affects local communities. UNESCO requests that tourism is managed and planned in a way that is sustainable, responsible and integrated with wider management systems for the Sites”.
During your speech, you stated that UNESCO does not act as a “substitute”, what did you mean?
“Being a supranational organisation, by its very nature UNESCO can only provide guidelines to different areas, not resolve local politics. It can play a very important role, however, in bringing themes to the forefront, and guiding policy (rather than politics) and values on the correct way to face the problems in the context of the World Heritage Convention.”
Does the responsibility therefore fall on the local communities who have to manage the Site?
“The Convention is a tool that is ratified by States and it is the States who have primary responsibility. Obviously, States should be understood not only as their central institutions, but as a system with various administrative levels, which must include parties from civil society and, as far as tourism is concerned, the private sector as well, because we cannot handle the matter without listening to those working in the tourism business. Without a joint approach, pooling the different Heritage interests, community interests and tourist-industry interests, it is not possible to achieve shared solutions that can be applied sustainably and fully validated.”
The importance of environmental sustainability
The forum was introduced and moderated by Francesco Calabrò (ICOMOS Italia), Carlo Francini (Italian World Heritage Site Association) and Alessio Re (Santagata Foundation) and also welcomed the participation of Elena Di Raco (ENIT), Giacomo Montanari (University of Genoa), Sandra Torre (Municipality of Genoa) and Mara Nemela (UNESCO Dolomites Foundation). The Foundation invited consideration not only of the theme of social and economic sustainability but also, and above all, environmental sustainability in managing visitor flows and assessing the impact of tourism on World Heritage Sites.