Heritage Hospitality and Sustainable Tourism in Mountain Cultural Landscapes: The Case of Zagori Within the UNESCO Framework

Mountain cultural landscapes represent dynamic systems where heritage, policy, and tourism intersect to shape local resilience. This study explores how public incentives and adaptive reuse frameworks can transform traditional settlements into sustainable tourism destinations. Building on an established Conservation–Development model, an additional “Investigation” axis is introduced to empirically link policy intent, investment implementation, and demographic outcomes. Combining archival research, quantitative indicators and spatial analysis, the study examines the impact of successive development laws (1982–2022) on the evolution of heritage hospitality, focusing on small-scale, high-altitude enterprises that integrate cultural preservation with local entrepreneurship. The UNESCO cultural landscape of Zagori, Greece, serves as the empirical context of this analysis. The results reveal that heritage hospitality, driven by policy incentives rather than spontaneous market growth, has formed a micro-network of small-scale hotels, reinforcing both preservation and local resilience. Municipal-level patterns indicate that population decline was mitigated where heritage hospitality coexisted with diversified tourism infrastructure. Conversely, overconcentration or policy gaps led to stagnation. These findings position Zagori as a model for policy-driven, heritage-based sustainability in mountain cultural landscapes, emphasizing the interplay between legislation, built heritage and population vitality.