The heritage-scape : UNESCO, world heritage, and tourism / created by Michael A. Di Giovine.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : traveling across stones that speak Mediating world heritage : authenticity and fields of production in tourism and heritage The heritage-scape : UNESCO's globalizing endeavor Unity in diversity : The heritage-scape's meta-narrative claim Tourism : the heritage-scape's ritual interaction Converting localities into universal heritage Politics and personalities within the heritage-scape : narratives of nature and culture in Vietnam Museumification of local cultures : Ha Long Bay and Hoi An Creating the drama of the destination : managing, interpreting and branding world heritage sites Preserving the past : the heritage-scape and historic preservation Problematics of preservation : narrative and practice at the Angkor Archaeological Park Raising awareness, re-presenting the heritage-scape : fragmentary and reproducible re-presentations The future of the heritage-scape

"Tourism today is recognized as the largest and fastest-growing industry in the world, capable of producing positive social and economic transformations especially in developing countries. Yet for UNESCO, it works in conjunction with World Heritage sites for a far more ambitious goal: to produce "peace in the minds of men" by creating a new, global identity." "Anthropologist and former tour operator Michael Di Giovine draws on ethnographic fieldwork, close policy analysis of UNESCO's major documents, and professional experiences in Southeast Asia and Europe to provide a detailed examination of UNESCO's unusual effort to harness the phenomenon of globalization and the existence of cultural diversity for the purpose of creating "peace in the minds of men" through its World Heritage program. He convincingly argues that UNESCO's designations are not impotent political performances that lead to the commercialization of local monuments for a touristic superstructure, but instead the building blocks of a new world system, an imaginative re-ordering of the world that knows no geopolitical boundaries but exists in the individual "minds of men."" "Written for social scientists, heritage and tourism professionals, and the educated traveler, The Heritage-scape is an insightful, detailed, and expansive look at the politics and processes, histories and structures, and rituals and symbolisms of the interrelated phenomena of tourism, historic preservation, and UNESCO's World Heritage Program in Viet Nam, Cambodia, and across the world."