Activities >> Seminars


5th Regional Thematic Seminar on Sustainable Tourism and Immovable Cultural Heritage
Nigeria 2004

Place: Osogbo, Nigeria
Dates: 26– 30 October
Partner: The National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria

Background: In many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, cultural heritage tourism represents a real opportunity for a country to address issues related to poverty alleviation. Tourism can generate employment and offer development opportunities. It can also play a part in reviving traditions and customs and restoring cultural pride. Tourism, however, can also have the negative effects. It can lead to cultural debasement and alienation. Uncontrolled, it can lead to the destruction of the very heritage we seek to preserve. The 5th Regional Seminar of AFRICA 2009 discussed these issues and explored their implications in managing Africa’s immovable cultural heritage. A number of case studies were given to elaborate on the issues.

Objective:

• evaluate the current state of tourism related to immovable cultural heritage conservation and management in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• provide a forum to discuss strategies and best practices in creating a symbioses rather than conflict between the needs of conservation management and demands of tourism;
• identify key issues related to the development of a sustainable strategy for cultural heritage tourism;
• develop an action plan for follow-up activities including an eventual publication.
  

Structure: The seminar was divided into two parts. The first was the presentation of papers participants outlining specific issues and giving examples from there countries of issues related to tourism and immovable heritage. A number of papers highlighted the possibilities of establishing symbioses between tourism and heritage places. In most cases it was agued that tourism was the only viable way to make heritage management useful. However, a few papers warned of the dangers of over relaying on tourism for conservation of site and the case of Zimbabwe was highlighted. Following these presentations, plenary and small group were held with the aim of pulling out the key issues and recommendations were then drawn.

Results:

• 18 professionals from 16 countries attended the seminar and shared experiences.
• 6 of the professionals were former participants of the Africa 2009 programme.
• A number of high profile politicians in Nigeria attended sections of the seminar. These included the Governor of Osun State and the Minister of Tourism and culture.
• A set of recommendations was made by the professionals for further developments of the theme.
  

For more information on the seminar, see the final report (Pdf 470 KB).