Each MIIS (Intercultural Mediation and Social Intervention) Conference, although always broad in scope, has been held under the banner of an overarching theme. In 2025, at its 13th Conference, we are reflecting on a topic as current and pertinent as the relationship between cultural heritage, tourism and social sustainability, including the environmental, economic and other dimensions.
Tourism, as we know it today, had the Grand Tour as the symbol of its birth. This term originated in the 17th century and was used to refer to young people from the nobility and the wealthy English middle class who began to travel around the European continent for around two years to complete their education and gain personal experience. In 1772, the word tourist was printed for the first time. Culture and heritage were therefore at the root of the first tourist trips, as it was through heritage that young people learned and became culturally enriched.
More than 250 years on, tourism has become one of the main economic sectors in many countries and regions, involving millions of people every day who cross different ideas and concepts, in a constant intercultural relationship. Even the so-called nature or beach tourism, among others, always involves contacts between different cultures.
This mass tourism has brought new challenges to contemporary societies. If, on the one hand, it has led to economic development, lifting large sections of the population out of poverty, on the other hand, mass tourism can jeopardize the sustainability of the places visited from a social, environmental and economic point of view, among others. These include issues related to pollution or the irreversible damage and destruction of many ecosystems, gentrification, which makes many places uninhabitable for their former inhabitants, but also prejudices and repulsive feelings between visitors and the visited, which can jeopardize the longed-for interculturality and sustainable development of the communities visited.
The 13th MIIS Conference thus aims to be a space for reflection on some of the multiple effects that tourism has on today's societies, and especially on the conservation of cultural heritage, leading to sustainable social development. Our challenge is to think about the relationship between tourism and cultural heritage, promoting sustainable development in which everyone gains from this important economic and socio-cultural activity. Our conference will feature a series of thematic panels and round tables, as well as free papers that you can submit on this website.
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