The Wander and Wonder Podcast

As we have seen around the world, our lives are adapting into a "New normal” of how people should behave in public places, so I wonder how that will change the experience in UNESCO sites and properties, and more importantly in sites where management is not a strong feature.

Every time I go to a UNESCO World heritage I ask myself the same thing: what came first, the tourist or the designation? For many places the UNESCO branding comes hand in hand with heaps of tourism arrivals, and for people like me who are always analysing tourism impact, I wonder if UNESCO is nourishing the tourism crowding. I had to pursue this issue in our interview with Amilcar, what are the negative sides of the UNESCO designation?

When I was doing fieldwork on my bachelors many communities in Mexico kept saying that their goals was to get the national designation of Pueblos Magicos, if not UNESCO World Heritage. Coming form a Town with both designations this issue always gives me the heebie jeebies.

What is the role that Cultural Heritage sites have in influencing the amount of travellers in cities and sites?

When we think of tourism, we think there is an economic value that benefits locals from that tourism growth. The problem is, when the sense of place is too attractive, sometimes the industry doesn't benefit the locals at all. Last episode we discussed Overtourism, but how can we tackle it?Diversify and distribute is about managing and planning inbound tourism. But also, tourists have to bear some responsibility. 

How can travellers be more responsible? What is the morality of travel? Who has the right to travel? We need to rethink the way we travel or the reason why we do it.