1 September 2026
UNESCO-supported training is helping six Southern African heritage sites turn local stories into meaningful visitor experiences and sustainable tourism.
A heritage site can preserve extraordinary places, traditions and memories. But its significance becomes more meaningful when visitors understand and connect with the stories behind it.
How can heritage sites move beyond presenting facts to creating meaningful visitor experiences? Whose voices should be heard? How can communities participate? And how can storytelling support conservation, education and sustainable tourism?
These questions were at the centre of a regional training on interpretation and storytelling held from 27 to 31 July 2026 at Matobo Hills, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
The training brought together participants from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Supported by the European Union and implemented by UNESCO through the Africa–Europe Partnerships for Culture: Promoting Culture and Heritage-based Sustainable Tourism in Southern Africa project, the training was delivered in collaboration with Interpret Europe, with technical support from the African World Heritage Fund.
Regional training on interpretation and storytelling in Zimbabwe
Turning heritage into visitor experiences
The training marked an important step from planning towards implementation across six participating heritage destinations: Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site, Matsanjeni North, Morija Cultural Precinct, Twyfelfontein UNESCO World Heritage Site, ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site and Matobo Hills World Heritage Site.
Work is underway across the sites to strengthen how heritage is managed, interpreted and connected to sustainable tourism development.
Rather than developing interpretation frameworks that remain planning documents, the project aims to translate them into experiences visitors can see, hear and participate in, including guided experiences, heritage trails, exhibitions, community storytelling and appropriate digital interpretation.
Through the Certified Interpretive Planner training approach, participants explored practical methods for identifying the significance of heritage, understanding audiences, developing meaningful themes and connecting tangible places with the stories, memories and values associated with them.
“The training challenged us to think beyond simply giving visitors information about our sites. Good interpretation is about creating a connection, helping visitors understand why a place matters, whose stories it carries and what they should take away from the experience.”- Corera Links, Socio-Economic Transformation Officer, ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site, South Africa
Putting communities and multiple voices at the centre
Heritage sites carry different histories, memories, meanings and perspectives. The objective is therefore not to develop one standard story across the six destinations, but to equip each site team to create an interpretation framework grounded in its heritage values, communities and visitor context.
Community participation is central to this process. Local communities are not only beneficiaries of heritage tourism; they are knowledge holders, custodians and storytellers whose perspectives can shape how places are understood and presented.
Their participation can also create opportunities for local guides, creatives, cultural practitioners, entrepreneurs, women and young people to engage more meaningfully in the visitor economy.
“As local guides, we are not only showing visitors places; we are sharing stories that come from our communities and our lived experiences.
It is important that local people are involved in deciding how those stories are told, so that visitors hear the voices of the people connected to the heritage.”- Sipho Khoza, Local Community Guide, Matsanjeni North, Eswatini
Learning by doing
Through facilitated sessions, group exercises, practical activities and reflection, participants explored how interpretation can provoke curiosity, encourage participation, create deeper meaning and strengthen stewardship of heritage.
One question captured the approach: “What story should every visitor remember after leaving your heritage site?” The question encouraged site teams to think beyond signs, information panels and guided commentary towards the lasting connection between visitors and heritage.
“Interpretation is not simply about providing more information. It is about creating meaningful connections between people and heritage.
When visitors are encouraged to think, participate and discover meaning for themselves, interpretation can contribute to a deeper appreciation of a place and its values.” – Michal Medek, Lead Trainer, Interpret Europe
From training to action
Participants will now take the knowledge and methods developed during the programme back to their respective sites. The next stage will involve working with site teams, communities and other stakeholders to develop site-specific interpretation and storytelling frameworks.
The frameworks will identify the stories each site wants to communicate, audiences it seeks to reach, perspectives that should be represented and appropriate ways of transforming these narratives into visitor experiences.
This site-level approach recognises that Tsodilo Hills, Matsanjeni North, Morija Cultural Precinct, Twyfelfontein / Ui-//aes, ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape and Matobo Hills have distinct histories, landscapes, communities, heritage values and tourism contexts.
“This training is not an end in itself. What matters now is how the learning is taken back to each of the six sites and translated into interpretation and storytelling frameworks developed with communities and other stakeholders.
Ultimately, we want to see those frameworks move from paper into real visitor experiences that strengthen people’s connection with heritage while creating opportunities for communities.” – Rodney Bunhiko, Project Coordinator, UNESCO
Turning stories into sustainable futures
Strong interpretation can contribute to meaningful visitor experiences, diversified tourism products, local livelihood opportunities and greater understanding of why heritage needs to be protected. For the Africa–Europe Partnerships for Culture project, this connects interpretation to the wider objective of developing sustainable culture and heritage-based tourism across Southern Africa.
Success will ultimately be reflected in what happens at the six sites: whether guides are better equipped to engage visitors, communities have stronger voices in presenting their heritage, new experiences and opportunities emerge, and visitors leave with a deeper understanding of the places and people they encounter.
The regional training provided a common foundation. The next step is to turn that learning into locally grounded interpretation frameworks, and those frameworks into experiences that connect people with heritage. Because the most powerful heritage stories are not simply those that are told, but those that people understand, connect with and carry with them long after they leave.
Source: https://shorturl.at/fUywJ
