Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourism on World Heritage Sites: Communities' Perspective of Lamu (Kenya) and Zanzibar Islands

Most World Heritage Sites are major cultural tourism attractions. The majority of visitors to these sites are generally motivated by an interest in culture, nature and heritage. The high numbers of visitors that World Heritage Sites usually attract mean that issues of accessibility, transport, accommodation, other service provision, information or impacts of visitor pressure must be discussed and potential problems must be solved by appropriate management techniques. However, a conflict of interests is most likely to emerge among the various parties involved in the management of a site: governments (or tourism organizations) on a national level usually wish to use the site as a marketing tool in image creation, local people expect increased tourist flows bringing employment and income, and site managers attempt to preserve the quality of the given World Heritage Site and avoid negative impacts of visitation by restricting visitor numbers and educating visitors about appropriate behavior. Kenya has three listed locations as heritage sites, of which Lamu Old Town is one. Zanzibar Stone Town is listed as a heritage site. This article will focus on the degree of involvement in tourism planning, management and ownership of the sites as well as the socio-cultural impacts of tourism at the two sites.