WebinarOnline
Planning for resilient destinations: Integrating cultural heritage, rural tourism and community-led strategies
Friday, 29 January 2027
Examine how heritage stewardship, rural development and community leadership can be integrated into destination planning that anticipates disruption, distributes benefits fairly and protects the character of place.
About this event
Destinations face overlapping pressures from climate change, demographic shifts, economic volatility and uneven development. Resilience is therefore more than recovery after a crisis. It concerns the capacity of places and communities to anticipate change, protect valued assets and adapt without losing their social or cultural foundations. This webinar explores how destination planning can connect cultural heritage, rural livelihoods and community leadership within a coherent long-term strategy.
The discussion will examine heritage as a living resource rather than a static attraction. Historic landscapes, local knowledge, crafts, foodways and shared memories can support identity and economic opportunity, yet tourism may also strain them. Participants will consider how planning frameworks can balance visitor access with conservation, local use and the rights of communities to shape how their heritage is represented.
Rural settings bring particular opportunities and constraints. Tourism may diversify income, sustain services and encourage enterprise, but weak infrastructure, seasonal demand and external ownership can limit local benefit. The webinar will address collaborative governance, capacity building and locally appropriate indicators. It will ask who defines resilience, who bears adaptation costs and whose knowledge informs decisions.
Practical attention will be given to mapping vulnerabilities, developing scenarios and coordinating public, private and civic action. The session will show how community-led approaches can strengthen legitimacy and reveal priorities that conventional economic measures overlook. Its central argument is that resilient destinations are not created by a single intervention. They emerge through patient relationships, accountable institutions and planning that values continuity alongside change across generations, sectors and institutions.