The conservation and tourism development of World Natural Heritage sites: The current situation and future prospects of research

The conservation and tourism development of World Heritage (WH) sites has always been a key and urgent scientific issue to be solved urgently by academia and industry all over the world. An increasing number of researchers and practitioners are paying attention to this issue. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive literature review on this topic. To fill this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) based on 179 related studies retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) databases. Focusing on the research question of the conservation and tourism development of World Natural Heritage (WNH) sites, we built an SLR framework to implement the review process. First, quantitative research was conducted to analyse the annual numbers, content and continents of the published literature. Second, we classified and summarized the main progress and achievements from theoretical research, technical methods, model construction, monitoring and evaluating, and application demonstration. Finally, in view of the current research situation of the con-servation and tourism development of WNH sites, we proposed eight key scientific issues to be solved and several directions for future research.

Automated summary

The conservation and tourism development of World Heritage (WH) sites is a significant issue globally, attracting attention from both researchers and practitioners. However, a comprehensive literature review on this topic is lacking. In this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted based on 179 related studies from Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) databases. The review analyzed the annual numbers, content, and geographical distribution of the literature, and summarized the progress and achievements in theoretical research, technical methods, model construction, monitoring and evaluation, and application demonstration. The study also proposed eight key scientific issues to be solved and identified future research directions based on the current research situation of the conservation and tourism development of World Natural Heritage (WNH) sites.