Senior Director ICCROM

Joseph King provides support for the Director General of ICCROM in the implementation of the mandates of the organization, with a particular focus on governance issues. An architect and urban planner, he also leads a team of professionals in all aspects of ICCROM!s role as an Advisory Body to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, where he has represented ICCROM for 25 years. Previously at ICCROM, he has been Director of Partnership and Communication, Director of the Sites Unit, and a Senior Project Manager working on the AFRICA 2009 programme, a long-term regional programme for the conservation of immovable cultural heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was also involved in the development of the first Integrated Territorial and Urban Conservation course and the development and implementation of courses related to the conservation of stone, wood, and modern architecture. Before joining ICCROM, he worked as a consultant to UNESCO on a project to write a conservation plan for the Old Town of Mombasa in Kenya.

Tourism at World Heritage Sites: Is There a Chance to Reimagine Tourism for True Sustainable Development that Benefits Local Communities and Climate Action
Abstract for the 1 st International Exchange for World Heritage Sites
Joseph King, Senior Director, ICCROM

The inscription of a property on the World Heritage List is often seen as a guarantee of an increase in tourism and an increase in economic benefit for the State Party and the local community. But, is this true? In the case of Italy, it is hard to imagine that many of the UNESCO World Heritage properties would not have high levels of tourism with or without their World Heritage status. Furthermore, it can be argued as to whether local communities benefit much from tourism or whether the benefits accrue to larger tourism stakeholders, not necessarily linked to the local community.
In many cases, not only does the local community not benefit, but tourism often drives out local communities by high housing prices and lack of services necessary to maintain a normal quality of life. These negative impacts on the local community also alter the perceptions of the tourists themselves, creating a lose/lose (rather than a win/win) situation. Adding to this dilemma, climate change is beginning to have negative impacts on many our world heritage sites altering the way we understand them and how we care for them.
Tourism for its part, unfortunately, has a mostly negative impact on climate related issues, including the high carbon costs of travel. These considerations lead to questions of how tourism can be reimagined so that benefits accrue to local communities in addition to the larger tourism stakeholders. Furthermore, can tourism become part of the solution to the climate crises rather than continuing to be a cause of further climate deterioration?
The recent COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to rethink our models of tourism to make them more sustainable in all respects (economic, social, and environmental). Yet, 3 years into the pandemic, business as usual has been reestablished and it does not appear that there have been many positive changes to the industry. Can the tourism industry be a part of the solution, or will it remain a continued problem to be dealt with in the years to come.