Whose heritage becomes visible? Selective elevation, erasure, and negotiated agency in the cultural governance of state-led tourism narratives

Tourism narratives are often treated as tools of destination marketing, recovery, and promotion. This study argues that state-led tourism narratives also operate as mechanisms through which cultural meaning is organised and governed. Using a systematic literature review with thematic synthesis, it examines 60 studies published between 2010 and 2025 on state-led tourism narratives, heritage representation, and cultural negotiation. The synthesis identifies selective elevation and erasure as coupled mechanisms: selected cultural forms become publicly legible as heritage and destination value, while difficult histories, alternative attachments, and less authorised claims are softened, displaced, or made less visible. It also identifies constrained negotiated agency, as communities, guides, visitors, and intermediaries adapt, withhold, reinterpret, or contest authorised narratives under unequal conditions. The study reframes state-led tourism narratives as cultural governance and argues that narrative-led tourism policy should be evaluated by how it reorganises cultural visibility, authority, memory, and room for negotiation.