WORLD HERITAGE SITE STATUS: DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Issues & Opportunities

  Thursday 13th September 2007
West One De Vere Venue, Portland Place, London

Steve Beioley FTS chaired this interesting and well attended event on World Heritage Sites (WHS). The speakers all gave excellent presentations and demonstrated the wealth of issues, opportunities and activities involved in gaining the status and then putting the management plans into action.

Sally King from the Jurassic Coast provided the background and context of this international designation. She then outlined the particular challenges faced at the Jurassic Coast site with regards to the long, linear site. She concluded that the status does make a difference with the key note that it is how you use this status to make the difference that counts. She considers that it provides 'an opportunity to do something a bit different in managing and maximising the opportunities that the status allows'.

Deborah Boden from the Cornish Mining site outlined the issues involved in creating a WHS for a serial site with a large geographic spread of physical sites, international spread of potentially interested diaspora and huge number of stakeholders. She commented that the identification of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is almost like identifying your USP and can be used to the site's advantage as such. She concluded that the status did make a difference in many ways, not least in adding a new dimension to an existing and established destination.

John Hinchcliffe from Liverpool World Heritage approached the status from an alternative angle, with the designation forming part of the cityscape of Liverpool . While evidence of a difference was 'anecdotal rather than empirical', it related to increasing pride, raising standards of design and improving heritage management overall. There was some evidence to suggest that the status was a consideration in encouraging visitors to the city over other competitor cities and stated that this is a mechanism that should be harnessed to improve the management of heritage.

Chris Blanford MTS of Chris Blandford Associates has been involved in preparing nomination and management plans for several WHS. He posed some interesting questions with the regard to the future of the World Heritage List and whether or not increasing the number of nominations and inscriptions is indeed diluting the status. This was seen to be an issue in the context of increasing interest from sites wishing to be inscribed, a resource shortfall and heightened interest in the existing WHS and their management. He considered the importance of consultation with stakeholders and offered some ideas of the essentials for good management planning. These included having a comprehensive OUV and stakeholder consensus.

Bryony Lodge, a Deputy Director at DCMS gave an explanation of the World Heritage Policy review that is currently underway at DCMS. This included the reasons for the review, those on the Advisory Group and the focus on the cost/benefit analysis of WHS status. The draft findings were offered and highlighted the perceived benefits as being and the costs as being. The full published report is due in October 2007.

The floor was then opened for questions. One related to the opportunities for international marketing with a comment on the great awareness of WHS status among Asian markets and that this could be used within the UK . There was some discussion of the lack of awareness within the UK and lack of a co-ordinated marketing approach for UK WHS and some discussion about whose responsibility this would be. Several questions came from academics within the audience with a view that this sector is sometimes left out of the research process, despite much interest and previous experience of projects and publications. A request was made that academics be invited to participate in future discussions. This was a pertinent topic, evidenced by the volume and geographical range of participants. The excellent presentations given by the panel are available via the Tourism Society website.

Anna Leask FTS, Napier University , Edinburgh Sept 2007