The (controversial) role of the UNESCO WHL Management Plans in promoting sustainable tourism development

This paper investigates the relationship between tourism and planning in UNESCOWorld Heritage List (WHL) sites. It concentrates on the relation betweenManagement Plans (MPs) and other (local and regional) planning instruments andpolicies able to influence the promotion of sustainable and responsible development.This is explored through an examination of two important tourist locations in Sicily:Agrigento (the Valley of the Temples) and the Aeolian Islands, which have bothbeen recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The analysis of these casestudies will point out the challenge of integrating different management andplanning regimes. The paper shows how supranational policies often lose theirefficacy in relation to regional and local planning systems. It underlines how theinterrelation between the WHL MP and other (local and regional) plans is on theone hand necessary and on the other hand problematic, due to the difficultintegration between planning instruments operating in the same area, but managedby different actors, with different time schedules, resources and legal effectiveness.