Evaluating heritage tourism on the World Heritage Sites in China -: Criteria and indicators (ID: CA002)

Heritage tourism is booming in China at an amazing speed which is particularly so on the UN designated World Heritage Sites. However, evaluation of tourism practice on these heritage sites seldom occurs in part because of a lack of standardized evaluative criteria. This paper seeks to contribute to filling this gap by presenting and justifying a heritage tourism evaluation criteria framework adapted from previous research, focused on three variables: heritage conservation, local community well-being and tourism (quality visitor experience), and providing corresponding indicators for each criterion.