UNESCO World Heritage Forum Series – Sustainable Tourism World Heritage Sites was held in Mount Sanqingshan Scenic and Historic Area in Jiangxi Province between 20 and 22 May 2015. This forum was organised by UNESCO Beijing Office and World Natural Heritage Protection and Research Centre of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China. Mount Sanqingshan Scenic and Historic Area Administration Committee hosted this forum. Several institutions and organisations, including the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITRAP), ICOMOS China, IUCN China Office, Institute for Tourism Research of Nanjing University, and the Chinese Society of Education, also supported this forum.

The forum brought more than 140 experts and practitioners together. They included prominent experts from Tsinghua University, Tongji University and Nanjing University, and researchers from more than thirty World Heritage sites in China and overseas. The forum focused on two themes: How to strengthen the capacity and resilience of the environment of World Heritage sites by developing and advocating policies, strategies, frameworks and tools that support sensitive and responsible sustainable tourism as a realistic means of safeguarding cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value; and, how to promote effective stakeholder engagement in the planning, development and management of sustainable tourism so that local communities are empowered to recognise the challenges and benefits of a “destination approach” to heritage conservation.

During the forum, Professor Han Feng, an expert for WHITRAP Shanghai and professor in Tongji University, made a presentation titled “World Heritage values and sustainable tourism”. Mr. Xue Zhijian, the director of WHITRAP Suzhou, made a presentation titled “enhancing World Heritage education for youngsters, promoting sustainable tourism”.

Mr. Peter Debrine, the Programme Specialist of World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme (WH+ST) at UNESCO World Heritage Centre, encouraged WHITRAP to undertake its application in China. Mr. Peter Debrine and representatives from WHITRAP discussed extensively on the action plan, cooperation mechanism and selection of case studies. This programme will be implemented  in China from 2015 to 2017.