RESPONSE ACTIONS TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN A WORLD HERITAGE SITE: A CASE STUDY OF THE OLD TOWN OF LIJIANG, CHINA

Nowadays, heritage is seen as a significant tourism resource that contributes to developing quality tourism destinations. Places with world heritage are filled with valuable cultural and economic resources. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector has been hit hard by this inevitable global crisis. COVID-19 has negatively impacted World Heritage Sites (WHS), resulting in reduced tourism revenue, decreased employment in the tourism sector, and loss of local community livelihoods. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic also provides a chance for heritage sites to adjust and improve tourism management and development, therefore WHS can address the challenges brought by other inevitable crisis in the future. This study aims to explore the actions taken to address the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Old Town of Lijiang (OToL), a cultural WHS in China, as a case study. A qualitative approach was adopted, and in-depth interviews were conducted with multiple stakeholders including government officials, local residents, and business owners. The findings reveal that OToL implemented a series of effective response actions, including effective government response management, strict pandemic prevention actions, application of technology, active participation of local communities and business owners, and public publicity and education. These actions contributed to maintaining social and economic stability while facilitating tourism recovery. The experiences of OToL provide valuable lessons for other World Heritage Sites in designing adaptive responses to future crises and promoting sustainable tourism development in a post-pandemic context.