Work in progess
Adopted by the ICOMOS Annual General Assembly
(Bangkok, Thailand, November 2022)
Profound growth and disruption in global tourism, including cultural heritage tourism, has necessitated the revision of the ICOMOS International Charter for Cultural Tourism (1999). The process has resulted in this ICOMOS International Charter for Cultural Heritage Tourism (2021): Reinforcing cultural heritage protection and community resilience through responsible and sustainable tourism management (hereinafter “the Charter”), which complements and updates the previous one. In addition to recognizing the intensified tourism use of cultural heritage places and destinations, this Charter addresses increasing concerns about the degradation of cultural heritage along with social, ethical, cultural, environmental and economic rights issues associated with tourism.
In this Charter, cultural heritage tourism refers to all tourism activities in heritage places and destinations, including the diversity and interdependence of their tangible, intangible, cultural, natural, past and contemporary dimensions. This Charter recognizes heritage as a common resource, understanding that the governance and enjoyment of these commons are shared rights and responsibilities.
Participation in cultural life with access to cultural heritage is a human right. However, some evolved aspects of tourism have constituted fundamentally unsustainable uses of planetary resources, including cultural and natural heritage. This calls for a charter that advocates responsible and diversified cultural tourism development and management contributing to cultural heritage preservation; community empowerment, social resilience and wellbeing; and a healthy global environment.
Properly planned and responsibly managed cultural heritage tourism, involving participatory governance with diverse cultures, right-holders and stakeholders, can be a powerful vehicle for the preservation of cultural heritage and sustainable development. Responsible tourism promotes and creates cultural heritage awareness, provides opportunities for personal and community well-being and resilience, and builds respect for the diversity of other cultures. It can therefore contribute to intercultural dialogue and cooperation, mutual understanding, and peace-building.
Objective 1 - To place the protection of cultural heritage and community rights at the heart of cultural heritage tourism policy and projects, by providing principles that will inform responsible tourism planning and management for cultural heritage protection, community resilience and adaptation;
Objective 2 - To promote stakeholder collaboration and participatory governance in the stewardship of cultural heritage and management of tourism, applying a people-centered and rights-based approach, emphasizing access, education and enjoyment;
Objective 3 - To guide cultural heritage and tourism management in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action policy.
The responsible management of tourism is a shared responsibility of governments, tour operators, tourism businesses, destination managers and marketing organizations, site management authorities, land-use planners, heritage and tourism professionals, civil society and visitors. This Charter is relevant to all of the above as cultural heritage and tourism stakeholders. It provides guidance for heritage and tourism practitioners, professionals, and decision makers within international, national and local government agencies, organizations, institutions and administrations. It aims to be a reference for educators, academics, researchers and students engaged with cultural heritage and tourism. It applies to the management of all cultural heritage properties and to the entire spectrum of their protection, conservation, interpretation, presentation and dissemination activities, since all are connected with, and influenced by, public use and visitation.
The Charter aims to align the work of cultural heritage and tourism stakeholders in the pursuit of positive transformative change, offering principles for regenerative tourism destination management that is conscious of heritage values, as well as their vulnerability and potential. It seeks the fair, ethical and equitable distribution of tourism benefits to and within host communities, contributing towards poverty alleviation. The Charter promotes the ethical governance of cultural heritage and tourism and calls for the integration of its principles into all aspects of cultural heritage tourism.
Branding and marketing of cultural heritage and its unique qualities has encouraged and driven an exponential growth in tourism to heritage destinations. Tourism has significantly impacted towns and cities with historic districts and culturally distinct urban landscapes. It has also impacted historic sites and monuments, along with natural and cultural landscapes. The interest of tourists and the tourism sector in tangible and intangible heritage has contributed towards greater awareness within local communities of the value of their heritage and its critical importance to their quality of life and identity. Indigenous communities, in particular, tend to recognize the fragility of the relationship between people and the land they live on, and the need to ensure that tourism sustains rather than erodes heritage and traditions.
Capitalizing on the increasing global interest in cultural heritage, the tourism industry has developed into a significant component of global, national, regional and local economies. When responsibly planned, developed and managed through participatory governance, tourism can provide direct, indirect and induced benefits across all dimensions of sustainability. However, unmanaged growth in tourism has transformed many places throughout the world, leaving tourism-dependent communities significantly altered and less resilient.
Growing global wealth and connectivity, linked to low-cost travel, has resulted in the evolution of mass tourism in many parts of the world. It has also led to the phenomenon of ‘overtourism’ characterized by pervasive congestion and unacceptable degradation of tangible and intangible heritage, with associated social, cultural and economic impacts. The widespread promotion, marketing and use of cultural heritage has also caused commodification and gentrification, compromising local communities and cultural integrity, and placing irreplaceable assets at risk. Recognizing that this is not always the case, ill-considered tourism planning and development has had significant negative impacts on numerous cultural heritage sites and destinations, Indigenous Peoples and host communities.
The use of heritage in the economic growth-based strategies of the tourism industry globally has been remarkably successful. However, it has often failed to deliver equitable benefit-share. Rapid and insensitive commodification, commercialization and overuse of local culture and heritage has resulted in negative and disruptive impacts across countless destinations. It has also provoked restrictions on rights of use, access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage by local people and visitors alike.
The context within which these matters must be considered includes the climate emergency, environmental degradation, conflicts, disasters, the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, mass tourism, digital transformation and technological developments. There is a need and opportunity to recalibrate the perpetual economic growth-based approach to tourism, recognizing and mitigating its unsustainable aspects.
Any cultural tourism strategy must accept that cultural heritage protection, social responsibility and ‘sustainability’ are not merely options or brand attributes, but rather necessary commitments and, in fact, a competitiveness asset. In order to remain successful and sustainable in the long term, cultural tourism proponents must put this commitment into practice and become a force that supports community resilience, responsible consumption and production, human rights, gender equality, climate action, and environmental and cultural heritage conservation.
For this reason, the Charter is formulated in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which specifically mention tourism in Targets 8.9, 12b and 14.7.
Cultural tourism also has the potential to contribute, directly or indirectly, to Target 11.4 which aims to “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage”. Working towards the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the responsible national, regional and municipal governing institutions have a duty to ensure that the SDGs and their targets are integrated into the planning, management and monitoring of cultural heritage and tourism destinations.
Recalling the previous Cultural Tourism Charters (1976 and 1999) and other existing standard- setting texts developed by ICOMOS, ICCROM, IUCN, UNESCO, the UNWTO, other relevant NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, agencies and institutions;
Acknowledging that, at the broadest level, natural and cultural heritage is relevant to all people, and that rights of access and enjoyment are linked to the responsibility to respect, understand, appreciate and conserve its universal and particular values;
Affirming that cultural heritage protection and responsible cultural tourism planning and management must be informed by the systematic identification and monitoring of tourism impacts on heritage places, destinations and communities;
Understanding that the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities and equitable benefit share must be fundamental goals of cultural tourism;
Recognizing the need and opportunity to re-balance tourism, moving away from mass tourism towards a more sustainable, responsible and community-centered tourism with cultural heritage at its centre;
The principles set out below provide a framework for guidance on this subject that is not present in other documents concerning cultural heritage or tourism:
Place cultural heritage protection and conservation at the centre of responsible cultural tourism planning and management
Manage tourism at cultural heritage places through management plans informed by monitoring, carrying capacity and other planning instruments
Enhance public awareness and visitor experience through sensitive interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage
Recognize and reinforce the rights of communities, Indigenous Peoples and traditional owners by including access and engagement in participatory governance of the cultural and natural heritage commons used in tourism
Raise awareness and reinforce cooperation for cultural heritage conservation among all stakeholders involved in tourism
Increase the resilience of communities and cultural heritage through capacity development, risk assessment, strategic planning and adaptive management
Integrate climate action and sustainability measures in the management of cultural tourism and cultural heritage
ICOMOS International Charter for Cultural Heritage Tourism (2022) was drafted and presented for its adoption by the ICOMOS International Committee on Cultural Tourism task force including Celia Martínez (Coordinator), Fergus Maclaren (President), Cecilie Smith-Christensen, Margaret Gowen, Jim Donovan, Ian Kelly, Sue Millar, Sofía Fonseca, Tomeu Deyá, Ananya Bhattacharya, and Carlos Alberto Hiriart.
The Charter Dossier was created upon support of ICOMOS Norway and UNESCO Norway. The web-dossier including the Charter Application Compendium is coordinated by Cecilie Smith-Christensen (ICTC Bureau and ICOMOS Norway).
ICOMOS ICTC also want to recognise everyone that has been or are involved in charter translation, the broader distribution and implementation of the 2022 Charter.
More information is also available through ICOMOS website and ICOMOS ICTC website