Ancient City of Nessebar: Politics of (World) Heritage and Tourism in socialist and post-socialist Bulgaria

Description

This paper explores the politics of heritage management and development in the Ancient City of Nessebar, a popular tourism destination and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Black Sea coastline of Bulgaria. The study explores the interrelationship between heritage and tourism and focuses on how the role of heritage has changed over time in socialist (1944 – 1989) and post-socialist (1989-2018) eras. Taking an interpretivist, ethnographic and qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews and archival research, the paper examines the socialist state politics of heritage development, and more specifically, the relationship between cultural heritage and the development of recreational mass tourism. The study provides a comprehensive analysis about the post-1989 state politics of heritage management and development in Nessebar and illustrates the changing value of heritage as a tool for economic regeneration, tourism development, political recognition, and post-socialist identity construction.

Period	8 Feb 2019
Event title	World of Heritage(s)
Event type	Conference
Location	Coimbra, Portugal
Degree of Recognition	International