Tourism and the local communities: The Interplay between Tourism and the Community

This chapter deals with the multifaceted interrelations between host communities, tourists and tourism in and around World Heritage Sites. More specifically, it looks at the socio-cultural impacts of tourism and tourists’ behavior in sites that are supposedly managed in a sustainable way. In reality, however, many WHSs are not managed in a sustainable manner. Thus, negative socio-cultural impacts become inevitable. This chapter proposes both policies and guidelines on how to deal with such problem before, while and/or after WHSs have been transformed into tourist attractions. In the heart of
this policy lies a fundamental sustainability principle of community-based and/or community-centered tourism. This concept puts the host community in the center of any tourism planning, development and operational process. It is based on an ideology of socio-economic inclusion of such communities, public participation in decisionmaking and planning and bottom-up development approach. It is believed that if the guidelines and steps specified in the chapter are implemented, WHSs will become much
more socio-culturally sustainable.