Cultural Heritage, Development, Tourism and Global Indicators: The Experience of Western Balkan Countries

In recent times, there has been increased attention paid to and interest in the protection of culture and cultural heritage in the Western Balkans. Among the wide array of interventions and projects which have been developed in this field over the years, this paper offers a comparative review of the main two global initiatives proposing the collection and publication of indicators on culture, development, and tourism: the unesco Culture for Development Indicators, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Sustainable Tourism Indicators. The analysis of Western Balkan countries using these indicators helps us to see how they work in practice and what possible developmental outcomes they are likely to produce in both the short- and the long-term.