Cultural heritage tourism

Tourism-related land grabs and dispossession do not always come in the form of violent eviction and physical displacement of local communities. They can also take more subtle forms, such as gradual gentrification and economic and cultural displacement. This chapter examines processes of displacement and gentrification associated with (eco)cultural heritage tourism in rural and urban contexts of various world regions, including Central America, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South America. The case studies demonstrate that tourism development and historical heritage preservation constitute converging domestic political agendas that are reinforced by external agencies with western expertise and universal regimes of regulation, such as UNESCO, while Indigenous and non-indigenous people’s rights to property and adequate housing and to participation in the management of heritage sites and the benefit streams from tourism are compromised.