World Heritage Report: Tourism management of World Heritage Sites.

This year's World Heritage Report by World Heritage Watch looks at World Heritage Sites and the challenges of preserving and protecting them. It also deals with tourism issues. After all, many World Heritage Sites are popular tourist destinations. 

Amongst other things, the report deals with excessive commercialisation and problematic tourism management practices of sacred and cultural heritage sites. For example, it draws attention to the means through which a new concrete kitchen structure and the respective cooking activities threaten the maintenance of the Fort and the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan.

By a similar token, the report points to waste management problems in Oaxaca, Mexico, including the archaeological site of Monté Alban. Due to the large influx of tourists that the site experiences, urban waste management faces major challenges. The waste problem not only negatively affects urban nature, but also has a negative impact on the material resilience of the historic buildings.

Meanwhile, the historic settlement of Mohenjo-Daro is suffering immensely from the heavy rainfalls in Pakistan. Yet economic funds for restoration are missing. Tourism could generate these, which goes to show that tourism can also represent an opportunity to preserve important cultural heritage sites.