Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Are Archaeological Parks the New Amusement Parks? UNESCO World Heritage Status and Tourism

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 433))

Abstract

In this chapter I address the concern that UNESCO World Heritage designation leads to unregulated tourism. I argue that heritage tourism not only has a negative impact on the site but may adversely impact local populations and descendant communities. I detail two related worries, UNESCO-cide and the Disneyfication of cultural heritage. The term ‘UNESCO-cide’ was coined by Marco d’Eramo to describe the role overtourism has played in the death of cities listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Disneyfication is the process of sanitizing potentially controversial or seemingly negative narratives from the tourist site to make the experience more palatable. I focus my analysis on two UNESCO World Heritage sites: Angkor Archaeological Complex in Cambodia and George Town in Malaysia. After a discussion about the negative impacts World Heritage designation has had on these sites, I suggest some mitigating strategies for tourism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See UNESCO: Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-conflict-and-heritage/convention-and-protocols/1954-hague-convention/. Accessed March 14, 2020.

  2. 2.

    See UNESCO: General Conference in Paris. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/armed-conflict-and-heritage/convention-and-protocols/1954-hague-convention/. Accessed March 14, 2020.

  3. 3.

    For an overview of recent work on the ethics of ownership of cultural heritage, spelling out ‘regionalist’, ‘nationalist’ and ‘universalist’ debates, see Matthes (2016).

  4. 4.

    For more on the original role of tourism and the UNESCO WH program, see Bourdeau et al. (2015).

  5. 5.

    Society of American Archivists. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. https://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/d/disneyfication. Accessed March 14, 2020.

  6. 6.

    See UNESCO: Criteria for Selection. https://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/. Accessed May 13, 2019.

  7. 7.

    The United States originally denied the bombing. See https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/05/archives/cambodia-shows-a-bombed-town-conducts-foreign-envoys-on-tour-of.html. Accessed May 13, 2019.

  8. 8.

    See UNESCO: Angkor. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668. Accessed September 27, 2019.

  9. 9.

    Moreover, the film industry has pumped some much-needed funds into the economy. For example, Laura Croft: Tomb Raider, reportedly cost Paramount Pictures $10,000 a day to film in the archaeological complex (McWhinnie 2015). By contrast, one third of the Cambodian population live on less than $1 a day.

  10. 10.

    See UNESCO-ICOMOS: The Venice Charter. https://www.icomos.org/centre_documentation/bib/2012_charte%20de%20venise.pdf. Accessed March 14, 2020.

  11. 11.

    See UNESCO-ICOMOS: NARA Document on Authenticity. https://whc.unesco.org/archive/nara94.htm. Accessed March 14, 2020.

  12. 12.

    See UNESCO: Intangible Cultural Heritage. https://ich.unesco.org/. Accessed September 27, 2019.

  13. 13.

    See UNESCO: Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17716&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Accessed March 14, 2020.

References

  • Aitchison C (1999) Heritage and nationalism: gender and the performance of power. In: Crouch D (ed) Leisure/tourism geographies: practices and geographical knowledge. Routledge, London/New York, pp 59–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Appiah KA (2006) Cosmopolitanism: ethics in a world of strangers. Norton, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron L (2017) ‘Unesco-cide’: does world heritage status do cities more harm than good? The Kathmandu Post, September 2, 2017

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker E (2017) Only governments can stem the tide of tourism sweeping the globe. The Guardian, August 5, 2017

    Google Scholar 

  • Benhamou F (2010) L’inscription au patrimoine mondial de l’humanité. Rev Tiers Monde 202(2):113–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boukari S (2002) Angkor’s role in the search for a lost unity. The UNESCO New Courier, May 2002, pp 13–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdeau L, Gravari-Barbas M, Robinson M (eds) (2015) World heritage, tourism and identity: inscription and co-production. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Candelaria MAF (2005) The Angkor sites of Cambodia: the conflicting values of sustainable tourism and state sovereignty. Brooklyn J Int Law 31(1):253–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Caust J (2017) Is UNESCO World Heritage status for cultural sites killing the things it loves? The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/is-unesco-world-heritage-status-for-cultural-sites-killing-the-things-it-loves-98546. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Caust J, Vecco M (2017) Is UNESCO World Heritage recognition a blessing or burden? Evidence from developing Asian countries. J Cult Herit 27:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavendish R (ed) (2008) 1001 historic sites you must see before you die. BES Publishing, Hauppauge

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan S (2018) Ticket revenue at Angkor soars to more than $85 million. Khmer Times, October 2, 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Chheang V (2010) Tourism and local community development in Siem Reap. Ritsumeikan J Asia Pac Stud 27:85–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Clodd HP (1948) Malaya’s first British pioneer: the life of Francis light. Luzac and Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuno J (2012) Whose culture? The promise of museums and the debate over antiquities. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Eramo M (2014) Urbanicide in all good faith. Domus, August 20, 2014

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly J (2019) Site where Julius Caesar was stabbed will finally open to the public. Smithsonian Magazine, March 5, 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Deng I (2018) China’s crumbling Great Wall is getting some hi-tech conservation help from drones. South China Morning Post, May 2, 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Faiola A (2014) Fears that corporate cash will lead to Disneyfication of Italy’s cultural heritage? News Network Archaeology, September 7, 2014

    Google Scholar 

  • Fricker M (2007) Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • González Tirados RM (2011) Half a century of mass tourism: evolution and expectations. Serv Ind J 31(10):1589–1601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goyal S (2018) Blog: the Red Fort sponsorship controversy. India Campaign, April 30, 2018. https://www.campaignindia.in/article/blog-the-red-fort-sponsorship-controversy/444264. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Gravari-Barbas M, Bourdeau L, Robinson M (2015) World heritage and tourism: from opposition to co-production. In: Bourdeau L, Gravari-Barbas M, Robinson M (eds) World heritage, tourism and identity: inscription and co-production. Routledge, London/New York, pp 1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray DD (2016) UNESCO World Heritage sites and the downside of cultural tourism. Skift, January 28, 2016. https://skift.com/2016/01/28/unesco-world-heritage-sites-and-the-downside-of-cultural-tourism/. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Hammer J (2016) The lost city of Cambodia. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lost-city-cambodia-180958508/. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Holtorf C, Pantazatos A, Scarre G (eds) (2019) Cultural heritage, ethics and contemporary migrations. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitching C (2014) Tourist who smashed Buddha statue while ‘hearing voices’ inside Cambodia’s Angkor Wat says it was fake and didn’t belong there. Daily Mail Australia, October 14, 2014

    Google Scholar 

  • Labadi S (2007) Representations of the nation and cultural diversity in discourses on world heritage. J Soc Archaeol 7(2):147–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manjoo F (2018) ‘Overtourism’ worries Europe: how much did technology help get us there? The New York Times, August 29, 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthes EH (2016) The ethics of historic preservation. Philos Compass 11(12):786–794. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McWhinnie L (2015) 8 Angkor Wat facts that will blow your mind. The Collective, December 23, 2015. http://blog.topdeck.travel/8-angkor-wat-facts-will-blow-mind/. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Merryman JH (1986) Two ways of thinking about cultural property. Am J Int Law 80(4):831–853

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miura K (2010) World heritage sites in Southeast Asia: Angkor and beyond. In: Hitchcock M, King VT, Parnwell M (eds) Heritage tourism in Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp 103–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan NJ, Pritchard A, Piggott R (2003) Destination branding and the role of the stakeholder: the case of New Zealand. J Vacat Mark 9(3):285–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neth B (2011) World heritage Angkor and beyond: circumstances and implications of UNESCO listings in Cambodia. Göttingen University Press, Göttingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson E (2018) How heritage became sexy (and what that means for the future of conservation). Global Heritage Fund, July 24, 2018. https://globalheritagefund.org/2018/07/24/how-heritage-became-sexy-future-conservation/. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Pantazatos A (2017) Epistemic injustice and cultural heritage. In: Kidd IJ, Medina J, Pohlhaus G (eds) Routledge handbook of epistemic injustice. Routledge, New York, pp 370–386

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pianigiani G, Yardley J (2014) Corporate medicis to the rescue. The New York Times, July 15, 2014

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan J, Silvanto S (2009) The world heritage list: the making and management of a brand. Place Brand Public Dipl 5(4):290–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salazar NB (2010) From local to global (and back): towards local ethnographies of cultural tourism. In: Richards G, Musters W (eds) Cultural tourism research methods. CABI, Oxfordshire, pp 188–198

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Seglow J (2019) Cultural heritage, minorities and self-respect. In: Holtorf C, Pantazatos A, Scarre G (eds) Cultural heritage, ethics and contemporary migrations. Routledge, New York, pp 13–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma JP (2018) Alphons writes to culture ministry to expedite heritage adoption scheme. Hindustan Times, June 22, 2018. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/alphons-writes-to-culture-ministry-to-expedite-heritage-adoption-scheme/story-HbgtYs4oxkpx7oAJb0mgGN.html. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Shortliffe SE (2015) Gender and (world) heritage: the myth of a gender neutral heritage. In: Bourdeau L, Gravari-Barbas M, Robinson M (eds) World heritage, tourism and identity: inscription and co-production. Routledge, London/New York, pp 107–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Sok C (2017) Angkor water crisis. The UNESCO Courier: Many Voices, One World. https://en.unesco.org/courier/2017-april-june/angkor-water-crisis. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Sopheakpanha N (2019) Cambodian gov’t complains to Amazon over ‘Angkor Wat toilet products’. VOA Khmer, January 21, 2019. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodian-government-complains-to-amazon-over-ankor-wat-toilet-products/4752123.html. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Sotheary P (2018) Angkor Temple voted world’s topmost site. Khmer Times, August 6, 2018. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/519338/angkor-temple-voted-worlds-topmost-site/. Accessed 13 May 2019

  • Tourtellot J (2017) ‘Overtourism’ plagues great destinations; here’s why. National Geographic, October 29, 2017

    Google Scholar 

  • Vecco M (2019) Value and values of cultural heritage. In: Campelo A, Reynolds L, Lindgreen A, Beverland M (eds) Cultural heritage. Routledge, New York, pp 23–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Vernooy R (ed) (2006) Social and gender analysis in natural resource management: learning studies and lessons from Asia. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Young JO (2013) The values of the past. In: Scarre G, Coningham R (eds) Appropriating the past: philosophical perspectives on the practice of archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 25–41

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Elizabeth Scarbrough

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Scarbrough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth Scarbrough .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Mount Allison University, Sackville NB, Canada, School of Philosophy and Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Acton ACT, Australia, Acton, ACT, Australia

    Anton Killin

  2. Department of Philosophy, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Sean Allen-Hermanson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Scarbrough, E. (2021). Are Archaeological Parks the New Amusement Parks? UNESCO World Heritage Status and Tourism. In: Killin, A., Allen-Hermanson, S. (eds) Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy. Synthese Library, vol 433. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61052-4_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation