Regenerative heritage tourism in Samarkand: a multi-stakeholder framework grounded in the historic urban landscape

Abstract

Tourism has grown in Uzbekistan, especially in Samarkand, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic Silk Road hub. While this presents significant economic opportunities, it threatens cultural integrity and sensitive ecosystems. This article analyzes the potential of regenerative tourism in Samarkand through the lens of UNESCO's Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) framework. While HUL offers a holistic approach, its operationalization within tourism planning, particularly through regenerative paradigms, remains under-theorized in Central Asia. This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, prioritizing qualitative depth followed by quantitative validation. Anchored in the UNESCO HUL Recommendation (2011) and the four-pillar sustainability model, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and surveys, prioritizing stakeholder perspectives and the linkage of HUL principles with sustainability dimensions. The study contributes by contextualizing regenerative tourism within post-socialist governance realities and proposing an implementable, multi-stakeholder framework tailored to Samarkand’s socio-institutional context. Findings indicate that regenerative capacity in Samarkand persists primarily through economic reciprocity, artisan cooperatives, and benefit-sharing agreements rather than through the deliberative participation HUL assumes as a precondition, suggesting that net-positive impact should be decoupled from participatory-governance baselines in centralized political contexts. It also suggests that regenerative heritage tourism functions as a catalyst for urban resilience when embedded within inclusive governance.