Protecting world heritage in China by enacting laws: Sustainable tourism development

Abstract

Chinese scholars have been debating how to best protect and utilize world heritage. This study discusses three key perspectives on this issue, which are “conflict-focused”, “compromise-oriented”, and “coordination-oriented”. Some typical incidents, which involve damage to heritage resources, are analyzed before a coordination model is presented that maximizes the compatibility of sustainable tourism development and world heritage protection. Finally, this study explores the possibility of constructing a legal system that engages all the stakeholders in protecting world heritage. Chinese lawmakers, for example, should seize the opportunity to create a law concerning national parks, which will modify and integrate existing laws and regulations in order to produce a comprehensive legal system that embodies the fundamental values of world heritage protection and sustainable tourism development. This system should implement the following: (1) maximize the complementary aspects of and mutual benefits derived from both tourism development and world heritage protection; (2) pay special attention to the various restraints that are inherent in the fundamental requirements for world heritage protection; (3) make world heritage protection sustainable while supporting sustainable tourism development; and (4) emphasize the public-interest nature of profits that are obtained by tourism developers while ensuring that the income from tourism is proportionately allotted to heritage protection.