Community involvement at Great Wall World Heritage sites, Beijing, China

Abstract

Many stakeholders are engaged in heritage tourism at World Heritage sites, but local communities are among the most important and affected. The management structure and the nature of local communities influence how the latter are involved in heritage tourism. Community involvement can be categorised into participation in decision making and in benefit acquisition. This study examines and compares the management structure and the status of involvement at two places adjacent to the Great Wall in Beijing, China. Key informant interviews and questionnaire surveys were employed, supplemented by analysis of plans, and it was found that communities receive benefits from tourism despite their minimal participation in planning and management decisions. A two-dimensional framework comprising decision making and benefit acquisition is developed to position communities on these criteria, to evaluate community involvement, and to indicate areas for improvement.

Keywords:

• community
• stakeholders
• involvement
• participation
• World Heritage
• China

Acknowledgements

The research was partially funded by a research grant to Dr. Geoffrey Wall from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and partially supported by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Project No. 11YJCZH145) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41201147) to Dr. Ming Ming Su.