Heritage Management and Sustainable Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review

Heritage Management and Sustainable Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review: Comparison

Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Perry Fu and Version 1 by Nataša Urošević.

Cultural heritage, with its humanistic values, is seen as a tool for preserving historical memory and reinforcing cultural identity, while its socio-economic values have a significant impact on the tourism industry. However, the contemporary global context, characterized by rapid and often unsustainable development, has intensified challenges such as tourism massification, urbanization, and climate change. To address these challenges, the authors assume that contemporary society should find a balanced development model in which heritage management becomes an integrated part of sustainable tourism practices. Although the relationship between heritage, tourism, and sustainability has been extensively explored for more than four decades, existing research remains fragmented and lacks an integrated conceptual framework that systematically explains the interconnections between sustainable tourism and heritage management. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework and conduct a comprehensive literature review that synthesizes these processes, contributing to the existing body of knowledge and addressing identified research gaps. The conducted research indicates that contemporary approaches should enhance integrated heritage management plans, effective visitor management strategies, carrying capacity assessments, and continuous monitoring of tourism impacts. In this context, sustainable tourism and heritage management represent a coordinated process of planning and governance aimed at ensuring the long-term conservation of cultural and natural heritage resources while enabling responsible tourism development. By reviewing and synthesizing existing literature, this paper contributes to the theoretical advancement of sustainable tourism and heritage management studies through the development of an integrated conceptual framework that addresses existing research gaps and incorporates contemporary academic insights.

cultural values
heritage management
sustainable tourism
conceptual framework

The Digital Era of global connectivity is marked by turbulent transformations and tensions between modernization processes and the preservation of tradition. As the most intimate elements of human culture; identity, tradition, and heritage, are increasingly challenged, this paper emphasizes the importance of the strategic and sustainable use of valuable and limited cultural resources.

Cultural heritage, considering its humanistic and socio-economic values, has a great impact on the economic, social, and cultural development of tourist destinations as well as environmental protection [1,2]^[1][2]. However, the contemporary global context, in which neoliberal economic models are characterized by the aggressive and unsustainable exploitation of resources, has intensified challenges such as tourism massification, urbanization, and climate change ^[3]. These processes contribute to overtourism, gentrification, the physical degradation of heritage sites, loss of authenticity, inadequate governance structures, and insufficient coordination among stakeholders, placing unique cultural heritage assets at increasing risk.

Heritage and tourism have multiple and dynamic interrelations, but the current issues have dramatically accelerated the tourism heritagization process and contributed to a new “heritage regime”, placing heritage as a driver in achieving sustainable goals, social justice and guaranteeing local communities well-being ^[4]. A long-standing issue is also the tension between the intrinsic and extrinsic values of cultural heritage, often resulting in conflicts between conservation objectives and heritage commodification ^[5]. Therefore, strategic policies and frameworks should prioritize the sustainable use of limited and valuable cultural and natural resources, thereby transforming local destinations into highly desirable and attractive places to live, work, visit, and invest in ^[6]. In this context, cultural heritage management aligns with sustainable tourism development, ensuring that heritage resources are protected, interpreted, and utilized in ways that generate long-term social, cultural, economic, and environmental benefits for local communities.

Although the relationship between heritage, tourism, and sustainability has been extensively explored for more than four decades [7,8,9,10]^{[7][8][9][10]}, existing research remains fragmented and lacks an integrated conceptual framework that systematically explains the interconnections between sustainable tourism and heritage management. The main goal of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework through a systematic literature review (SLR) based on the PRISMA method. The authors assume that contemporary society should find a balanced development model in which heritage management becomes an integrated part of sustainable tourism practices.

References

Timothy, D.J. Contemporary Cultural Heritage and Tourism: Development Issues and Emerging Trends. Public Archaeol. 2014, 13, 30–47.
Šmid Hribar, M.; Bole, D.; Pipan, P. Sustainable Heritage Management: Social, Economic and Other Potentials of Culture in Local Development. Procedia-Soc. Behav. Sci. 2015, 188, 103–110.
Milano, C.; Novelli, M.; Cheer, J.M. Overtourism and Tourismphobia: A Journey Through Four Decades of Tourism Development, Planning and Local Concerns. Tour. Plan. Dev. 2019, 16, 353–357.
Gravari-Barbas, M. Heritage and tourism: From opposition to coproduction. In A Research Agenda for Heritage Tourism; Grabari-Barbas, M., Ed.; Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, 2020.
McKercher, B.; du Cros, H. Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management; Routledge: New York, NY, USA; London, UK, 2002.
Urošević, N.; Afrić Rakitovac, K. Models of Valorisation of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Tourism; Juraj Dobrila University of Pula: Pula, Croatia, 2017.
Robinson, M.; Picard, D. Tourism, Culture and Sustainable Development; UNESCO: Paris, France, 2006.
Loulanski, T.; Loulanski, V. The sustainable integration of cultural heritage and tourism: A meta-study. J. Sustain. Tour. 2011, 19, 837–862.
Jelinčić, D.A. Indicators for Cultural and Creative Industries’ Impact Assessment on Cultural Heritage and Tourism. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7732.
Pai, C.H.; Zhang, Y.; Wang, Y.L.; Li, K.; Shang, Y. Current challenges and opportunities in cultural heritage preservation through sustainable tourism practices. Curr. Issues Tour. 2025, 29, 1016–1034.