A sub-editor on a travel magazine I once worked on would curse every time he opened a feature to find the writer had referenced a destination’s World Heritage status. “It’s become a cliché,” he’d say. “It’s right up there with 'a stone’s throw' and 'quaint cobbled streets' … every-bloody-where is a World Heritage Site these days – there’s nothing unique or special about them…” And on he’d go, moaning about travel writers and their inability to think up anything new.
And he had a point. The UNESCO World Heritage Site list started in 1978 with just 12 entries; 45 were added the following year and 27 in 1980 – UNESCO was making up for lost time.
Since those first inductions, a total of 890 sites worldwide have been designated World Heritage Sites. That's a 12-site increase even on the number included in UNESCO’s own recently released book of its sites.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 10/23/2009 - 20:00
Two giants of travel and world heritage teamed up this Thursday, as UNESCO and online community site TripAdvisor launched a partnership to help save some of the world's greatest cultural sites. The pairing will see TripAdvisor pledge an initial $1.5million (£919,000) towards UNESCO's ambitious World Heritage Centre, from which the UN's culture wing will observe and preserve some 890 sites on its World Heritage List. These include some of the planet's most celebrated ancient places, such as Stonehenge, the Theban Necropolis and Chichen Itza.
A sub-editor on a travel magazine I once worked on would curse every time he opened a feature to find the writer had referenced a destination’s World Heritage status. “It’s become a cliché,” he’d say. “It’s right up there with 'a stone’s throw' and 'quaint cobbled streets' … every-bloody-where is a World Heritage Site these days – there’s nothing unique or special about them…” And on he’d go, moaning about travel writers and their inability to think up anything new.
