The WHS Designation—A Factor of Sustainable Tourism Growth for Romanian Rural Areas?

Abstract

The presence of World Heritage Sites has been frequently used as a mean of tourism promotion and increased attractiveness. However, previous studies showed contradictory results regarding the territorial impact of World Heritage Sites, and very few researchers discussed their impact in Eastern Europe. This paper examines how the presence of World Heritage Sites in rural localities influenced the tourism growth and sustainable development in Romania after 2000. Independent Sample t-test was used to analyse the evolution of tourism and sustainable development indicators between 2001 and 2016. The results suggest an absence of a positive effect induced by World Heritage Sites in rural areas. It seems that, by itself, the brand has not enough power to sustain tourist attractiveness if it is not endorsed by national, regional, and local initiatives. These findings lead a discussion about how certain sites managed to induce a sustained tourism growth while others failed to do so.

The Impact of Tourism on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas: Evidence from Romania

“…Chang [30] suggested that tourism can only ease the pressure of rural decline, rather than make great impacts on the growth of local economy, his findings being in line with the vision of short-term impact of Loukissas [23]. Baum [46] considers that, outside of the traditional tourist destinations and far from big cities, tourism is not strong enough for supporting the diversification of rural economy, accessibility being the main supporting factor for tourism development [47,48], more important than even the local heritage [49].…”

“…We used Mann-Whitney U test, also called Wilcoxon rank-sum-a nonparametric test of the null hypothesis which does not require the assumption of normal distribution-to determine whether two independent samples have the same distribution or not. A similar method, however based on independent t-test has been successfully used in a recent study on the Romanian rural area for the identification of the impact of the presence of World Heritage Sites on sustainable development indicators [49].…”

Romanian Rural World Heritage Sites and Tourism Development

“…This situation is contradicting the ideas regarding the power of WHSs to promote the host country and to attract an increased number of tourists. The recent study of Iatu et al (2018) confirms Romania's position and its low ability to use WHSs in developing tourism. The only positive aspect is that Romanian rural WHSs are not plagued by excessive visitation and still have the time to envisage proper site management in order to avoid this problem.…”

“…While some exceptions exist, like the case of Viscri presented by Iorio and Corsale (2014), the majority of Romanian WHS localities do not properly exploit their tourist potential, a situation confirmed by Iatu et al (2018). In the cases of three communes (out of the 32 investigated), the local communities appear not to be willing to host tourists, having no registered lodging in 2005 and 2016, situation also pointed out by Pop and Coros (2016).…”

World heritage sustainable development policy & local implementation: Site management issues using a case study of Sri Ksetra at Pyu ancient cities in Myanmar

“…Inherent to the calls for sustainable development are concerns over implementation of the WH system's standards within developing countries, with elements of the discourse directed to promotion of conservation and sustainable development strategies that enable greater engagement with local communities (see for example, Chechi, ; Gullino et al, ; Halim & Ishak, ; Han et al, ; Larcher et al, ; La Rosa et al, ; Liu, ; Lixinski, ; Macheka, ; Owosuyim, ; Roders & van Oers, ). Consideration of local communities incurs identification of the stakeholders involved in management of a WH site, demarcating WH sites as venues bridging actors spanning global, national, and local levels (see for example, Allen & Lennon, ; Conradin & Hammer, ; Gullino et al, ; Iatu, Ibanescu, Stoleriu, & Munteanu, ; Nicholas & Thapa, ; Shende, ).…”