SOCIAL MEDIA TO BALANCE TOURISM FLOW IN NATURAL HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

Living Heritage
and Sustainable Tourism

“Preceedings” of the

Heritage, Tourism and Hospitality International Conference HTHIC2020

Andela Sormaz & Engelbert Ruoss

ICT and social media have in recent years increasingly influenced visitors’ behaviour and resulted in negative impacts on heritage sites. While single sites are getting exponentially huge visibility and attraction, others are still little popular. The analysis of the presence on Instagram and Trip Advisor of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site shows considerable differences between over and under tourism among the site destinations. Communication and ICT tools will play a key role in the realization of new concepts of destination stewardship. Destination dedicated channels on social media providing information on tourism flows and carrying capacity related issues could be relevant for future tourism management. A “heritage stewardship destination” model, focusing on quality tourism and involving all actors, creates value added for locals and visitors, opportunities to jointly engage in conservation of their heritage, to improve their own living standards and experience, and to share equally costs and benefits.