USI UNESCO chair at the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention

The UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted on 16 November 1972. A highlight of its 50th anniversary was a gathering last November in Delphi, Greece, attended by the UNESCO Director-General, the prime minister of Greece, several diplomatic delegations and a number of researchers.

Among the invited speakers at the conference was the director of the UNESCO Chair at USI, Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni , who gave a presentation on World Heritage and Tourism. How can digital media help enhancing resilience and sustainability?

In his presentation, Professor Cantoni proposed the framework developed within the Lugano Chair to interpret the relationship between digital media, heritage and sustainable tourism, called ’ABCDE’ . The acronym emphasises five main contributions: Access, Better, Connect, Dis-intermediate, Educate.

The Chair’s director also suggested no longer considering the tourism experience as the mere "consumption" of the destination; instead, it is more about ’deserving’ it. Thanks to digital media, it is possible to learn more about heritage before the visit and thus better understand its meaning and value. Such understanding will then help, during the visit, to behave more responsibly and sustainably.