Background : Several Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, including UNCTAD, UNESCO and
the World Tourism Organization (WTO) have emphasized the importance of a
country�s natural and cultural heritage in its economic and social development,
especially through tourism.

In one of the latest endorsement of such approach to cultural heritage
conservation and development, the Hue Declaration of the WTO Ministerial Meeting
on Cultural Tourism and Poverty Alleviation, held in June 2004, noted the
opportunities offered by sustainable cultural tourism activities to contribute
to economic development; the ethical obligation to contribute to poverty
alleviation; and the need to preserve the spiritual, cultural and artistic
values of heritage sites and living traditions in all countries, whether
developed or developing.

Over the past few decades cultural tourism has allowed many countries� cultural
heritage, mostly based on local communities, to be brought into the economic
arena. In this context, cultural tourism can be envisaged as contributing to
economic and social development of local communities by including tourism
policies and specific programmes and projects that establish as their central
aim to reduce poverty levels.

Tourism is a potent force that is intimately intertwined with cultural issues
throughout the world and has had a dramatic impact most notably in developing
countries. But as stated in the Hue Declaration, cultural tourism, though a
powerful tool for economic development and heritage sustainability, needs great
care and sensitivity in planning, development, management and marketing to be
socially as well as economically viable.

In developing countries, cultural tourism involves not only the built heritage,
but also the living, intangible heritage, so strongly present among local
communities. Relationships between cultural tourism and the local communities
living in proximity to heritage sites involves, therefore, more than employment
and income issues.

From the host community�s point of view, essential goals of tourism development
must include generating higher levels of income, creating new employment
opportunities, and increasing foreign exchange flows but also protecting the
environment and especially their culture, to which tourists are attracted in the
first place. This is why the potential of cultural tourism in local communities
should be a central consideration in discussions on policies regarding poverty
alleviation.

An associated challenge is other key problem is how to ensure that the local
communities retain their �authentic� character to ensure sustainable long-term
success without becoming too dependant on tourism but yet still benefit enough
to make it worthwhile. Tourism must not distort, but rather complement the local
village economy which is usually based on agricultural production.

The overall challenge is to ensure that tourism development at village level
remains not only socially sustainable and politically feasible but also
economically viable in order to function within the global tourism system