Management issues and challenges of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Saudi Arabia has five UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) and plans to submit additional sites for inscription in the future. With the current level of tourist visitation to the country and potential new influx, this creates major impacts for sites that lack resources for preservation and management. The purpose of this research note is to examine management issues and challenges of WHS in Saudi Arabia via a review of academic papers, reports from the World Heritage Centre and International Council of Monuments and Sites, and government documents. Findings identify common challenges and concerns that include resource allocation, obstacles to implement management plans, pressure from increased tourism and urban development, and associated environmental impacts. The implications call for sustainable management of the WHS in the country.

KEYWORDS:

• World Heritage Sites
• tourism
• planning
• heritage management
• policy
• Middle East

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Abdulelah Al-Tokhais is a PhD student in the Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida, and a faculty member in the College of Tourism and Archaeology at King Saud University. His research interests are in the areas of sustainability and conservation.

Dr. Brijesh Thapa is a Professor in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida. His research theme is within the nexus of tourism, conservation and sustainability.

ORCID

Brijesh Thapa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0163-5580

Notes

1 See http://marketintelligence.unwto.org/publication/unwto-tourism-highlights-2018.

2 Information about the WHSs were compiled from https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/sa.

3 Information accessed from https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/sa and https://www.icomos.org.

4 Waqf refers to donated lands or buildings used for a charitable purpose under Islamic law.

5 Historic Jeddah was allocated a budget of $133.3 million from the state of Jeddah in addition to other financial mechanisms at its disposal.