Sustainable tourism competitiveness clusters: application to World Heritage sites network development in Indonesia

This paper will focus on how small sustainable tourism and related supply chain businesses in gateway communities can be linked to World Heritage Sites by organizing them into competitive clusters focused on the site's competitive advantage, differentiation and uniqueness. The paper highlights how Indonesia might enhance its sustainable tourism competitiveness by using collaborative tools based upon a World Heritage network workshop findings and lessons learned from cases around the world, including: (a) developing an inclusive stakeholder group; (b) fostering education within gateway communities near sites; (c) creating strategic partnerships to promote a global World Heritage brand; (d) linking World Heritage sites to less visited areas; (e) implementing environmental management and certification programs; (f) expanding financing for World Heritage sites; (g) using the Internet for linking and branding the network; and (f) developing indicator or monitoring systems.