Heritage and tourism: a dialogue of deaf? The case of Brussels

Abstract

With the increase of urban tourism, many historic city centres suff er from overcrowding. Heritage administrators are worried about the growing threats from mass tourism while at the same time tourism authorities promote heritage assets as pull factor for visitors. These opposite approaches of heritage and tourism stakeholders make the development of integrated management strategies diffi cult. In the fi rst part, the paper looks at the complex relationship between heritage and tourism stakeholders and introduces the case of the world heritage site «Grand Place» in Brussels’ historic centre. In the second part the authors present the fi rst results of an ongoing comparative research with key stakeholders on the heritage and tourism relationship.