Cultural Heritage Tourism as an Innovative Catalyst of Local Development: Strategies and Actions

It has always been a matter of dispute, whether tourism has a positive effect on a cultural heritage site or not; it is a topic that has been recently gaining a lot of attention of scholars and policy-makers alike. When we initiate this discussion, it is important to think about the following questions: why was the cultural heritage site created primarily? Was it intended to be an abstract object, something maintained by locals for its artistic/cultural/historic values or was it originally meant to be exploited and used by the community? What is the central focus for us, as the conservators and heritage managers: the well-being of the community by maintenance and sustainable development of the heritage site or preservation of the site as a distant object, away from the locals and abandoned of its original use? Is the focus the Site or the Community, or the Site for the Community and other way around? Where is the golden mean between advantageous and disadvantageous tourism? This paper will answer the questions, arisen in the paragraph above, by providing a successful case study about the heritage sites in Georgia, in a borderline between Europe and Asia, discussing how tourism transformed communities, decreasing unemployment level, improving accessibility of heritage sites, developing infrastructure and raising awareness of the cultural value of regions. As a recommendation, the paper will discuss how the previous experiences can be used for boosting sustainable tourism development on the Elephantine Island in Aswan for the favor of the community by recommending the appropriate strategies and actions to achieve a successful sustainable development