World Heritage: features, composition, and tourist significance

Abstract

It is proved that the idea of world heritage and its conceptual form of legal imple- mentation created a new institution of world heritage in international law. At the end of the 20th century for the first time, the term «world cultural and natural heritage» became widely used to define those natural and cultural objects that are of outstanding importance not only for the people of a certain country but also for all humanity as a whole. Among the main advantages of granting the status of a world heritage site are the following: additional guarantees of preservation and integrity of unique natural and cultural complexes; increasing the prestige of the territories and institutions that take care of them; promoting the promotion of objects included in the List and the development of alternative types of nature use (primarily, ecological tourism); ensuring priority in attracting financial funds for the support of objects of world cultural and natural heritage, first of all, from the World Heritage Fund; promoting the organization of monitoring and control over the state of preservation of natural and cultural objects. Currently, the World Heritage List consists of three categoriesof objects: cultural heritage, natural phenomena, and cultural-natural (mixed) objects. It is noted that every year the number of world heritage sites is steadily increasing, and by 2020 their number has already reached 1,121 sites, including 869 cultural sites, 213 natural sites, and 39 mixed sites. From 1978 until now, the number of nominated objects has constantly increased. However, in order to achieve representativeness, balance, and credibility of the UNESCO Heritage List, certain restrictions on the number of nominations per year have been introduced since 2018. Now their total number cannot exceed 45 nominations per year and only one nomination from the state. They are distributed very unevenly by regions of the world. More than 75% of the world’s cultural heritage is concentrated in Eurasian countries. The countries of America and Africa hold the leadership in the number of natural monuments in the world. The basis of the interest of the countries of the world in the inclusion of objects in the List of World Heritage is the possibility of obtaining profits from the visit of numerous tourists to this cultural or natural attraction. About 225 historic centers of cities around the world are included in the UNESCO Heritage List, including Paris, London, Istanbul, Vienna, Athens, Florence, Venice, St. Petersburg, Krakow, Riga, Jerusalem, Mecca, Mexico City, Quito, Quebec, Rio de Janeiro -Janeiro, etc. It was found that individual objects of cultural heritage are also very popular (the Great Wall of China, St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the Colosseum, etc.).