The Regional Secretariat Northwest Europe and North America of the OWHC held its Regional Conference 2018 in Amsterdam/Netherlands from Nov. 27 – 29. The main topic was “Heritage & Tourism: Local communities and visitors - Sharing responsibilities” in preparation for the Krakow OWHC World Congress in 2019.
With 45 participants from 20 World Heritage cities as well as experts from other institutions, the conference offered a dense working program. Not only did it offer a platform for exchange of expertise and ideas, but also new input on a scientific level.
With the extra support from the General Secretariat, a Scientific Day on the topic was planned: moderator and expert Prof. Kurt Luger from Salzburg University led through the day and encouraged the participants to share their ideas. Keynote speaker Prof. Greg Richards from Tilburg University in the Netherlands inspired with his thoughts on the concept of “Placemaking” and latest figures on surveys and statistics when it comes to tourism in World Heritage. Presentations of special practice examples, also from tourism experts from our member cities, did highlight the problems and challenges, but also benefits of tourism in World heritage sites. And the contribution of all conference participants was asked for when holding three thematic workshops which led to recommendations and principles which have to be respected or can be a guideline for future development in tourism.
Amsterdam Day
A very informative and various program organized by the hosting city Amsterdam did also offer to discuss critical issues like overtourism and its negative effects in tourist hotspots.
All results of the Scientific Day as well as more intense scientific papers from the professionals in our organization will be collected in a Guidebook on “Heritage & Tourism” to be published in 2019 through the moderator, Prof. Luger and the OWHC Regional Secretariat.
