UNESCO Vision and Activities on "Tourism, Culture and Sustainable Development"

UNESCO is resolutely engaged, alongside its Member States, the private sector and civil society, and in cooperation with the relevant agencies of the United Nations, in promoting the sustainability of development in tourism, which, as we

The Globalization of Tourism

The world’s leading category of international trade, tourism is increasingly offering a range of cultural products, from visiting monuments to discovering unique ways of life.

This growing trend fuelled by a quest for cultural enrichment can encourage the revival of traditions and the restoration of sites and monuments. But unbridled tourism can have the opposite effect. Here there is a real dilemma. Is there not a risk that the boom in cultural monuments to the discovery of unique ways of life. Tourism, by the sheer weight of numbers involved, may harbour the seeds of its own destruction by eroding the very cultures and sites that are its stock in trade? Our introductory section explores this dilemma along with the origins and growth of cultural tourism. Part 1 presents case studies showing what indigenous communities are doing to control tourism in their lands. In Part 2 we examine the world of site management, where the track record is at best mixed. In conclusion, two prominent personalities in the tourist business defend mass tourism,while its advocates and other key players enter the final stages of drawing up a global code of ethics for tourism.

Tourism and Culture: Rethinking the Mix

Tourism has long been assumed to promote cultural understanding and peace, but in fact it often chips away at cultures and leads to conflict. 

Is Cultural Tourism on the Right Track?, by Mike Robinson The Pioneers, by Roy Malkin The Globalization of Tourism, by Roy Malkin