Abstract
While World Heritage sites have “protection and preservation from threats such as damage and destruction” as their primary purpose, UNESCO itself promotes tourism development through its policy program ”The UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme.” Recognizing and protecting the value of cultural properties versus utilizing them for tourism promotion are not actions that stem from a shared value system. The value of cultural properties themselves isn't necessarily measurable in monetary terms, yet tourism, as an economic activity, relies on currency valuation to exist. This means that World Heritage sites contain inherent values with different directions that may contradict or even neutralize each other. This paper will therefore examine specific cases to explore the challenges embedded in World Heritage sites.
