The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration.” (UNESCO)
Many World Heritage sites also happen to be major tourist attractions e.g. East Africa’s Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Tower of London and Hadrian’s Wall.
The World Heritage List (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list) currently includes 851 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. In the UK, the list includes 24 sites and The Tourism Company has worked on nine of these sites in one way or another:
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast (visitor management)
- Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (visitor management)
- City of Bath (tourism strategy)
- Tower of London (visitor management)
- Maritime Greenwich (visitor management)
- Dorset and East Devon Coast (marketing plan)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (visitor management)
- Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (visitor management)
- Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (marketing plan)
We have also worked on tourism, marketing and visitor management issues at a number of other aspiring World Heritage sites in the UK including:
- Chatham Maritime
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Glasgow’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh icons
- Down House
Overseas, we have been involved with the World Heritage sites at:
- Historic Inner City of Paramaribo, Suriname
- La Citadelle, Haiti
- Colonial City of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Forts and Castles of Ghana
