UNESCO Chair Cultural Heritage and Tourism 
Chairholder: Prof. Dr. Kurt Luger

Mission Statement
World Heritage (cultural as well as natural heritage) is a fragile, non-renewable resource which must be protected to preserve its unique character for generations to come. Tangible and intangible treasures are exposed to a wide range of dangers. In recent years, the uncontrolled development of tourism has emerged as a major threat. Heritage as a system is ruled by the underlying principle of preserving and passing on what has been handed down from generation to generation. World Heritage refers to the biggest possible reference group – the entire human race.

By contrast, tourism as a system is ruled by the underlying principle of consumption of landscape and resources. It aligns itself with the post-modern concept of mobile leisure time, individual satisfaction of needs and experience-driven consumption of what the world has to offer. Reconciling these objectives, of heritage and of tourism, requires a tourism policy that is attuned to and aimed at achieving a sustainable balance, with central importance accorded to heritage preservation.

This leads to the central thesis or overarching epistemological research interest: A tourism policy that is thus formulated represents a material contribution to the sustainable development of World Heritage regions. This kind of regional development, in turn, can serve as a guarantee for the protection of individual World Heritage.

Cultural tourism is experiencing rapid growth, and has become a factor of considerable economic importance in industrialized countries – for example in Austria, with its impressive cultural heritage. In the less industrialized countries of the Third World, the linkage between culture and tourism is even more evident and a cultural sensitive sustainable tourism strategy is the call of the day.

In rapidly modernizing societies, traditions, indigenous knowledge and local customs, rituals and lifestyles are coming under increasing pressure. The local identity of the individual as well as of social groups – and thereby also their self-assurance in intercultural exchange – is closely interlinked with their own anchoring in cultural practices, linguistic expression and rituals. The security provided by cultural heritage is therefore vital to local interaction with a highly globalized society. This positive mutual process is a characteristic of tourism as it continually transcends territorial as well as cultural boundaries.

The objectives of the UNESCO Chair Cultural Heritage and Tourism are as follows: 

• to contribute to greater knowledge through basic and applied research

• to develop heightened awareness of the linkages between cultural heritage and tourism, informing the wider public about these interconnections

• to identify examples of good practice

• to collaborate in these efforts with relevant international institutions and networks