Toward sustainable innovation in tourism: the role of cultural heritage and heritage communities

This chapter provides a theoretical contribution investigating how the current notion of cultural heritage and the emerging role of heritage communities can trigger and lead sustainable innovation in tourism. After tracing the evolution of international conventions on cultural heritage since the Second World War, the research discusses the implications of the paradigm shift introduced by the Faro Convention (2005) for heritage and tourism management. The analysis focuses on the current extended concept of cultural heritage—open and inclusive, dynamic and relational—and on the involvement of heritage communities in heritage recognition, safeguard and enhancement. Ten years after the Faro Convention entered into force, the research results suggest that the international framework currently provided by UNESCO and the Council of Europe can help to design heritage-aware destinations and develop heritage-aware tourism. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this approach also opens up unprecedented potentialities for slow and proximity tourism.