World Heritage as a Soft Power resource: Investigating the Prospects for Developing Cultural Heritage and Tourism Policies and Practices in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In last decades, there was a great focus on utilizing World Heritage Lists and UNESCO platform as a fundamental instrument to promote tourism industry as well as empower the country status in the global stage, that through activating the cultural resources of soft power. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of UNESCO recognition on the international position of the Saudi Arabia and promoting World Heritage Sites in the tourism industry based on inspiration from international example; thus, determine prospects of these efforts on the Saudi Arabia’s global soft power. This will be inferred by using a document analysis method to analyse the current policies and content analysis method to analyse the current practices, the Saudi Arabia position in the global ranking indexes, and interviews. One of the most significant findings to emerge from this research is that the establishment of 2030 vision has made important impacts in the country's policy, in general, and particularly in tourism and heritage sectors, where they converted from complementary and unimportant sectors to be fundamental pillars in the national transformation. However, Saudi Arabia should particular attention to increase its presence and contributions in UNESCO platform, which in turn will support its global status and soft power.