Sustainability of Badaling Great Wall heritage site in Beijing, China: from a tourist perspective

Sammanfattning: Heritage tourism and the concept of sustainability have some certain intrinsic associations between each other. They both possess the characteristics of inheritance and continuance. In 2015, World Heritage Convention has stated that it is critical to consider present and future needs from economic, societal and environmental aspects when conserving the heritage resources. The Great Wall is one of the most popular and well-known heritage tourism destinations throughout the world, which was designated on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1987. Badaling Great Wall, as the study case in the thesis, is one of the eight sections of the Great Wall being located in Beijing. Based on the review of previous literature, there are a lot of research studying on heritage tourism within the context of sustainability from the aspect of local resident. However, there is little research studying from the perspective of tourist, who are the major consumers, financial support and a key group of stakeholders in heritage tourism. Hence, this thesis puts emphasis on exploring the current challenges to sustainability at Badaling Great Wall site, through investigating its current situation of sustainability from a tourist perspective. The research findings are that Badaling Great Wall site has confront several management-related challenges. Lack of commercial appeal and promotion, absence of cooperation between stakeholders, the negative effects caused by excessive visitors, lack of efficient energy, water and waste management, and absence of a sound scheme for monitoring the situation of heritage conservation and supervising negative tourist behaviors.