To discuss recent trends and future of the sustainable tourism for cultural heritage destinations in ASEAN, tourism experts from the 10 ASEAN Member States, UNESCO, World Bank and Korea gathered in Seoul for the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Workshop on Sustainable Tourism for Cultural Heritage Destinations which was held at Lotte Hotel, Seoul on 7 November 2017.

ASEAN-Korea Centre organized the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Workshop on Sustainable Tourism for Cultural Heritage Destinations, under the theme of ‘Preserving the Past for the Future’, cooperated with the ASEAN Secretariat and the World Bank.

The Workshop brought more than 100 people from tourism related government ministries, private sectors, and distinguished speakers including Tan Sri Dr. Ong Hong Peng, former Secretary General of Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia and Chairman of National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage Malaysia, Ricardo Favis, Consultant of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office, Wouter Schalken, Senior Tourism Specialist for Asia of World Bank to share timely information on sustainable and cultural heritage tourism.

The lectures delivered by international experts were themed ‘Sustainable Approach to ASEAN Cultural Heritage Tourism’, ‘Community Engagement: Creation of Stakeholder & Community Benefits’, and ‘Promoting ASEAN Cultural Heritage Corridors’ on the first day of the Workshop

Country presentations were also delivered by the delegations from each country who were ASEAN tourism professionals from public and private sectors. On the Second day of the Workshop, all participants had the opportunity to enable in-depth learning and exchange of the best case studies of Cultural Heritage Tourism Destinations of each countries

Also, in order to provide the ASEAN delegates with an opportunity to experience first-hand experience one of Korea’s representative cultural heritage sites, Andong was chosen as the venue for the technical visits. The tour was conducted by professional Program Director of Andong, and the ASEAN delegations and speakers visited Wollyeonggyo Bridge, Andong on 8 November and UNESCO Cultural Heritage site Hahoe Folk Village, Buyongdae Cliff as well as Dosanseowon Confucian Academy in Andong on 9 November, respectively.

Andong Hahoe Village is also one of the best preserved and representative examples of Cultural Heritage Tourism Destination which active community engagement took place. Hahoe Village was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List under the category of “Historic Villages in Korea” on 31 July 2010. The ASEAN delegates and speakers received briefings on how the village was built up and how they operate the village with the local community, and then discussed the characteristics and strengths of the example of Cultural Heritage Tourism Destination in Korea.