Author
Chinaza Ohakwe
A Master’s Level Academic Article in Cultural Studies
Department of Igbo, African & Communication Studies
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
Abstract
Tourism has emerged as one of the most transformative
forces in the modern world, reshaping not only
economies but also the cultural landscapes of societies
across the globe. As international tourist arrivals
recovered to approximately 91 percent of pre-pandemic
figures by the third quarter of 2023 (UNWTO, 2023), the
relationship between tourism and cultural preservation
has become a matter of profound and urgent
significance. This article provides a comprehensive,
critical, and multidimensional examination of that
relationship, drawing on contemporary scholarly
literature, empirical case studies, and international policy
frameworks. The analysis explores tourism’s dual role: as
a vehicle for revitalising tangible and intangible heritage,
generating economic incentives for conservation, and
fostering cross-cultural understanding; and
simultaneously as a force capable of commodifying,
eroding, and displacing the very cultures it claims to
celebrate. Emerging frameworks of sustainable tourism,
community-based tourism (CBT), regenerative tourism, and digital heritage technologies are examined as means
of reconciling tourism’s economic imperatives with the
preservation imperative. The article concludes that
tourism, when governed with cultural sensitivity,
community agency, and institutional rigour, can be a
powerful instrument of cultural preservation.
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