Contributing to Sustainable Tourism at the World Heritage Site of Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region (Sudan)
Workshops were organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in collaboration with the UNESCO Khartoum Office aiming at developing a sustainable tourism strategy for the World Heritage Site of Gebal Barkal and the Napatan Region.
The workshops were organized within the framework of the Netherlands funds-in-trust project Contributing to Sustainable Tourism at the World Heritage site of “Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region”.
In this context, between 9 and 13 March 2020, a mission team conducted a site visit to all the components of the serial property and steered various consultations with the local communities around the World Heritage Site, in order to give them an opportunity to express their needs and aspirations as well as to raise their awareness on the value of the site. The workshops were a step towards engaging local communities in a participatory approach towards sustainable tourism management planning.
The launch workshop took place in Khartoum with key tourism and heritage stakeholders, and community representatives. The purpose of this workshop was to introduce the project to key stakeholders, explain and introduce the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Toolkit basic principles and case studies.
The second workshop took place at the University of Karima with the local community representatives, faculty members and students who were invited to take part in a chaired discussion. The purpose of this session was to discuss issues around the site, concerns and aspirations of communities, and potential solutions.
The third workshop took place with the communities of Zuma and was designed to engage all members of the community, including women, s in discussing tourism management at the site.
As a first step, a road map towards a sustainable tourism strategy has been envisioned as a result of the workshops, considering the identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.