Year: 2011
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Some of the most scientifically and historically important, aesthetically spectacular, and famous archaeological World Heritage Sites have seen a dramatic increase in numbers of visitors over recent decades.The ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM) has begun evaluations of how greatly increased visitation has affected historical and scientific values at four such pre-eminent sites (Petra, Machu Picchu, Pompeii, and Angkor) and the social and economic conditions in nearby communities.Our preliminary findings indicate that inadequately regulated and managed tourism has undermined the outstanding universal value of some of, if not all, of these sites, and that the unbalanced attention paid to the economic benefits of tourism has not advanced the agenda of the World Heritage Convention, but instead threatens it.At many archaeological World Heritage Sites, global media have reported significant deterioration of site fabric or social disruptions that have been linked to over-visitation.Further, while much has been made of the economic benefit to countries in which archaeological World Heritage Sites are located, preliminary research by ICAHM has yielded only anecdotal indications of the magnitude of such benefit, and no reliable data regarding the parties to which benefit has accrued.Nonetheless, at each of these sites, tourism has been promoted through investments made by international assistance programs, including USAID and JICA, and some host countries have been the recipients of loans from lending institutions such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.We contend that archaeological sites and landscapes comprise a type of cultural resource that must be managed in special ways in order to preserve scientific and historical values.This paper will present the information that we have examined and explain the reasoning that we have in developing this position.
Authors: Douglas C. Comer, W.J.H. Willems
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology (arts and humanities)
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Park Service
OpenAlex ID: W2164726996