Entitled "Value of Heritage for Tourism", the 6th Conference of the UNESCO UNITWIN network will be held in Leuven, Belgium, on 8-12 April 2019.

Theme and programme

Heritage and tourism constitute a winning team if managed properly. Heritage offers an excellent asset for cultural tourism on the one hand while the sharing of heritage’s values with locals and visitors provoke learning processes and experience on the other hand. The visitor is able to contribute in many ways to heritage conservation while heritage adds to the attractiveness of a place and therefore to the local economy and identity which, in turn, justifies heritage conservation. Specific themes addressed during the conference are as follows:

• Economic value of heritage for tourism
• Tourism contributing to heritage conservation
• Heritage conservation contributing to tourism
• Managing the gap between use value and exchange value
• Host-guest alliances in view of heritage conservation
• Sustainability of heritage tourism products
• UNESCO world heritage recognition: legitimation of heritage tourism
• Heritage labels and tourism development
• Good management practices at touristic heritage sites
• Valorisation of heritage through learning
• Valorisation of heritage for identity, empathy, citizenship development
• Contribution of heritage to meanings and memories, and sense of place

A full programme of the conference is now available here.

Further information and registration

For additional information and registration in the 6th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference, please visit https://ees.kuleuven.be/unitwin2019/