Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria for cultural sustainability and cultural property protection

      Thailand’s economy is primarily driven by the tourism industry. In 2019, Thailand had over 40 million tourists from all over the world, prior to the COVID-19 crisis. However, the downside is that the degradation of nature will be exacerbated as tourism grows. “Sustainable tourism” is gaining popularity as a means of generating revenue while protecting the environment. Many organizations have created policies to encourage sustainable tourism. GSTC, which stands for the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, is one of them. It developed a set of criteria to help people understand how to create sustainable tourism.

      The preservation of cultural assets is a fundamental guideline for ensuring the long-term viability of cultural heritage in each community. The Cultural Property Protection Guidelines describe how we should consider cultural property. In short, sites exist for the purposes of valuing, restoring, and preserving cultural assets, including heritage buildings and cultural landscapes. The guidelines provide several useful indicators for action:

• An inventory of cultural assets is created, including valuation and vulnerability assessments;
• There are plans and operations in place to restore and conserve cultural assets;
• here is a mechanism in place to use tourism revenues to help preserve cultural assets.

Source : Global Sustainable Tourism Council

Information as of 28 February 2023