Heba Aziz of Egypt — holder of the UNESCO Chair for World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Management in the Arab Region — thinks most preservation strategies need to think beyond preserving the sites.
"Heritage is like a vessel," she said in an interview after a 2026 Beijing Culture Forum session regarding conserving historic cities in urban development on Sept 23. The Egyptian scholar argued that strategies fixated on preservation alone drain a site of its story — visitors photograph the pyramids, she noted, without ever learning the stories behind them. Interpretation, now enriched by digital and immersive technologies, is what carries that story to the next generation.
Nor are crowds the enemy. What endangers a site is the lack of management. Reflecting on a recent visit to Beijing, the expert praised the city's management of busy heritage sites, saying Beijing offers valuable experience in balancing heritage preservation, tourism, and everyday urban life.
