UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the Downside of Cultural Tourism

• Destinations are realizing that tourism management is an essential part of a good quality of life for residents.
• It is officially described as the best-preserved city in Southeast Asia, a bygone seat of kings tucked into a remote river valley of Laos.
• But most of the locals don’t live here anymore.
• “If you open the door you will have some fresh wind, but you will also get mosquitoes,” says Prince Nithakhong Tiaoksomsanith, a leader in preserving Luang Prabang’s artistic heritage.
• Since UNESCO helped lay down the town’s welcome mat, its longtime residents have been replaced by wealthy Lao outsiders, an ever-growing influx of tourists and enough French, Australian, American and other expatriates catering to their needs to have locals rhyme Luang Prabang with “Meuang Falang” — meaning either French or Western town.
• Luang Prabang’s rich architectural heritage, protected by UNESCO’s regulations, has been spared the eradication of countless historic sites across Asia.
• Scenes of workaday life are rare because as prices shot up — a small plot of land that sold for $8,000 three years ago now goes for $120,000 — residents moved into surrounding areas, selling or renting their properties to the newcomers.
• Similar criticism has been leveled at UNESCO’s worldwide program, along with praise for having rescued irreplaceable man-made and natural treasures in 163 countries since its inception in 1972.
• Calling it “UNESCOcide,” Italian writer on urban development Marco d’Eramo has said that whenever a city is named a heritage site, it “dies out, becoming the stuff of taxidermy. a mausoleum with dormitory suburbs attached.”
• Luang Prabang’s rich architectural heritage, protected by UNESCO’s regulations, has been spared the eradication of countless historic sites across Asia.
• Viewing UNESCO’s program in a broader context, Dallen Timothy, a cultural tourism expert at Arizona State University, said indigenous heritage worldwide has become the commodity of outsiders “rather than remaining in control of the people whose cultural heritage it really is.
• From a trickle, Luang Prabang, a town of some 50,000, attracted more than 530,000 foreign and domestic tourists in 2014 and all projections show steep increases.
• Governments and tourist operators are keenly aware of the benefits a UNESCO imprimatur can bring, and use it as a marketing strategy.
• Laos last month marked the 20th anniversary of Luang Prabang’s inscription with a 6,000-strong parade accompanied by 20 elephants.
• “Emerging countries have bombarded us with new nominations, especially China and India, in addition to European countries, which have always been interested,” said Rossler.
• As political pressure is exerted, some sites are approved well before they are properly prepared, Rossler said.
• In Luang Prabang, the prince said residents, tour operators and Buddhist monks were not ready to cope with the sudden influx.
• “UNESCO should be a bit tougher on enforcing the regulations. Some of the sites in danger should be delisted, which would provide an impetus for their host countries to wake up and work on fixing what’s wrong,”
• Aside from shaming governments into action, the agency has few enforcement powers.
• Rossler puts down failures to “bad actions of governments” and stresses that UNESCO doesn’t have the funds or manpower to solve festering problems, never mind the destruction of sites by war and Islamists in the Middle East.
• In Luang Prabang, reactions of citizens to “moladok,” or heritage, are complex. They express pride in being internationally recognized and satisfaction at opportunities for jobs and cash from tourists, hoping even more will come.
• And yet, “They say they have lost a sense of belonging to the community, a monastery and its ceremonies, a sense of pride in their old quarter,”
• Thongkhoun Soutthivilay, co-director of the town’s Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center, said her mother sold her traditional house for a good price and joined the exodus.
• “But we miss our old neighborhood,” she said.