Last Monday, TripAdvisor announced a very cool partnership with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Our main focus will be to support UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and its efforts to protect and restore World Heritage sites. These sites are enjoyed by countless travelers every year, and we are excited to hit the ground running on this partnership.
What does it mean to be a World Heritage site? I thought for sure I knew, until I sat down to write this post about it! So I did a little research. Turns out, there are 890 World Heritage sites around the globe, all of which have “outstanding universal value.” World Heritage sites must also meet at least one of the ten selection criteria put forth by the World Heritage Committee. Among the ten, “to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius.” No pressure or anything.
Is your favorite spot a World Heritage site? It’s easy to find out using this interactive map. Hint: Carhenge didn’t make the cut. But the Great Barrier Reef is on there. So is the Statue of Liberty, these Buddhist Monuments containing some of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, and the French Gothic Chartres Cathedral (see awesome photo by a TripAdvisor member below).
Through our partnership with UNESCO, TripAdvisor is asking you to help raise awareness of these important and meaningful sites. You can read all about the partnership here. While you’re at it, enter to a win a VIP trip to Paris. It’s open to legal residents of China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Apologies to our Canadian friends. We couldn’t include you on this particular sweepstakes due to legal hurdles. Every country has different laws around sweepstakes, especially regarding rules of eligibility. It’s nothing personal. In fact one of our sister companies is in Canada (Travel Pod). But I know it still hurts.
A view from inside the Chartres Cathedral, by TripAdvisor Member travel035
One Comments
Whenever I am traveling I always look out for World Heritage Sites because I know that I’ll be impressed. Recently I had to choose between two islands in the Azores. I picked Terceira because of its town Angra do Heroismo which is recognized by UNESCO. I wasn’t disappointed at all!
I wrote about this topic on my blog at http://struxtravel.com too