In the past, Cultural Heritage merely addressed perceptible heritage or monuments. Now the meaning of CH has widened to include all the evidence of people’s lives and activities from the past; comprising imperceptible heritage, historic areas, and cultural landscapes. In particular, the manifestations of CH can be grouped into two wide categories: a) Tangible heritage: denoting the physical heritage such as monuments, traditional buildings, archaeological sites, temples, and historic cities. b) Intangible heritage: signifying the abstract societal cultural expressions, such as conventional customs, societal practices, festivals, music, and craftsmanship (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008).

The cultural heritage sites are major tourist attractions, therefore, cultural heritage is the key asset for cultural tourism endurance (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008). The European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education "ATLAS' defines CT as: "All movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their normal place of residence" (EENCA, 2017). And UNWTO defines cultural tourism as “A form of tourism motivated by representations of peoples and their cultures” (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008). Hence, CT's concept emphasizes culture and its environment, locals’ standards and traditions, arts and entertainment resources including cultural pr8oceedings, museums, and legacy areas and socializing with the local residents (C.H.E.R.P.L.A.N., 2013). Therefore, heritage and arts are considered to be "primary elements" of cultural tourism. Whenever tourism and heritage harmonize, tourism returns would be used to ensure the endurance of heritage environments. Hence, CT can boost the community and help maintain cultural and social benefits (EENCA, 2017).

Tourism influences heritage sites in both positive and negative ways. CT conserves cultural heritage through revenues’ augmentation and local crafts’ revitalization. It can also boost employment and generate additional income for local businesses (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008). CT also could be considered as a part of solving tourism concentration problems, through redirection of cultural tourists to visit less popular destinations or go at less popular times of the year (Richards, 2005). On the other hand, CT has negative impacts; some impacts might be fast and direct, such as draining cultural heritage resources and infrastructure, this could take place through congestion, crowding, and high demands. Other impacts are indirect and slow; such as socio-cultural values altering, high housing prices and the natural environment depletion (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008). Tourism aids host communities by providing motivation for local residents to care for their legacy and cultural practices (U.N.E.S.C.A.P., 2008).

According to (Abu-Aljdael, 2012), achieving a competitive advantage in tourist destinations is not depends on traditional resources such as natural, technical or other resources, as these resources become easy to imitate, but it depends on the scarce resources that are difficult to imitate like culture & human capital. And according to (El-Sayed, 2006), the investment in human capital through training and education reflected in the improvement of tourism services and the ability to compete with other tourist destinations. As the tourism industry requires direct interaction between the tourist and the local community. Moreover, the UN’s Rio+20 Conference emphasizes the role of the local community in sustainable development (U.N.E.S.C.O., 2012). Article (6) recognizing that “people are at the center of sustainable development”. Article (30) distinguishing the complex bond between people, their ecosystems and their cultural heritage. Article (41) focus on human development and the role of cultures and civilizations in the contribution to sustainable development (U.N.E.S.C.O., 2012).

After the literature review, the importance of culture could be emphasized, as it’s considered as a basis of sustainable tourism. It helps to conserve the cultural heritage, ensure economic returns to local communities, and provide motivation to maintain the heritage and cultural practices. Also, it involves a large number of people including the local population, stakeholders, and tourists. We also illustrated the importance of human capital in sustainable tourism development, as an investment in human capital through training and education reflected in the improvement of tourism services and the ability to compete with other tourist destinations.

a) Human Capital (M.P.M.A.R., 2016):

b) Tourism & Culture:

According to (M.P.M.A.R., 2016), the first objective of the strategy is to encourage culturally relevant businesses including entertainment and traditional crafts. The second objective is to ensure the efficiency of tourism bodies along with minimizing the terrestrial gap of amenities provided due to location. The third objective is to preserve Egypt’s heritage through protecting, maintenance, and increasing awareness as well as attracting national and international visitors and supporting local cultural activities. Polices & programs will be as follows:

As a result, the above section explains that developing cultural industries and developing human skills through training & education, are key factors in Egypt’s strategic policies & programs that were set to overcome challenges faces tourism sustainability.

Maribor city is the second-largest city in Slovenia, with a total number of residents of 95'881 persons in 2016¹. The old city center which built in the 13^th century has a rich historical heritage which is evident in numerous churches, monuments, museums, and other sites. The city faced many political alterations and after World War I, it came under the rule of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1991 and after the breakup of Yugoslavia, it became part of Slovenia (Maribor, 2015). The breakup subsequent collapse of heavy industry that was at the time the flagship of the national economy, resulted in heavy economic, social, and infrastructural damage for the city of Maribor. By the 20^th century, the city was developed as an educational and cultural center and became one of the major education centers of Slovenia (Maribor, 2016).

Maribor titled as the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in 2012 (Maribor, 2015). The preparation period was 6 years before the title-year. In 2010 the City Council of the Municipality of Maribor established the public institute “Maribor 2012” to be responsible for the inclusive process of planning and executing the “Maribor 2012 – European Capital of Culture” project (Maribor, 2015). The ECoC criteria require the nominated city to host hundreds of top-level cultural events spread out throughout the year, and to develop physical infrastructure (cultural venues, accommodation capacities, and transport connections), also to develop “human infrastructure” which is needed to host the ECOC. The criteria also require significant engagement with the citizens of a city: involve schools, universities, youth clubs, civil society organizations, and the engaging of the private sector in the cultural and creative industries (E.U.R.O.P.E.A.N.-C.O.M.M.I.S.S.I.O.N., 2012).

According to (Maribor, 2015), multiple stakeholders carried out 308 programs and projects in Maribor in the title year, including the local community, the Slovenian, and international partners. In addition to nearly 5,300 events took place in 2012 and included more than 30 different countries. “Maribor 2012” mission and vision were based on cultural promotion as this approach represents essential factors focusing on the importance of having a strong bond gathering individuals, cities, regions, and countries. It also targeted the founding of strengthening social relations through various cultural ventures. The plan also integrated different segments of the local community in the cultural projects after providing the required training and attending cultural awareness programs (Maribor, 2015).

The following Figure 1, the benefits of ECoC in Maribor

From the above, we can notice that ECoC brought new opportunities to Maribor, it revitalized the city center through various cultural festivals & events spread out throughout the whole year and proven that cooperation is a key step to achieve sustainability, as local community involvement played an important role in the ECoC project’s success, after providing them with the required training. It also was able to attract more visitors, which consequently lead to recognize Maribor as “one of the top ten tourist destinations in Europe” (Maribor, 2015).

Morelia is the capital of the Michoacán state and is sited within the middle of the Mexican Republic (Alfaro & Gil-Lafuente, 2012); with a population of 899'000 persons in 2016³. It has one of the most important Universities in Mexico (Alfaro & Gil-Lafuente, 2012). Morelia was built in the 16^th century and contains 249 monuments that reflect the town's architectural history. UNESCO declared Morelia Historic Centre as a World Cultural Heritage in 1991. Morelia Historic Centre is the main attraction, and it is protected by robust regulations and legislations (U.N.E.S.C.O., 1991). In addition, Morelia joined UNESCO Creative City Network in 2017 as a Creative City of Music (U.N.E.S.C.O., 2017), it built a distinguished dynamic musical character through its large musical program. Since 1989, the Morelia Music Festival Miguel Bernal Jiménez takes place as an international event that is festive with famous artists along with its many musical educational activities (U.N.E.S.C.O., 2017).

Morelia being rich with exquisite architectural, cultural, and historic sites along with its beautiful natural destinations has led to its being among the most visited tourist destinations in Mexico. It also has a wide variety of entertainment facilities such as; theaters, museums, cinemas, and bars. It also has an international airport, and a bus terminal with nine lines that offer transfers to the entire state, as well as major cities across Mexico (Alfaro & Gil-Lafuente, 2012). In 2005 Morelia City established the “Council of Cultural Sites of the Historic Centre of Morelia”, to be responsible for the Development Program of the Historic Centre Urban. Morelia’s plan targeted its transformation into a world-class sustainable city that would take place through economic progress, residents’ quality of life improvement, adequate use of public services and spaces, and environmental management. In addition, tourism was introduced as an important factor for economic revenues by Mexico’s development policies (U.N.E.S.C.O., 1991).

Morelia includes the “Conservatorio Musical”, a 277 years old music school that encompasses various numbers of artists in different specializations (Alfaro & Gil-Lafuente, 2012). Morelia also has fifteen universities, six of them offering tourism as an undergraduate program, and two as an area of expertise. Four universities offer seminars and courses related to tourism, and one of them has established a research center for tourism (CIETEC), which has conducted an annual survey from 2010 to 2014 to study the profile of tourists visiting the state in an effort to provide information for decision-makers. And the result was that city is primarily a domestic destination since 85 % of tourists are domestic tourist stays an average of 3.5 days, and international tourists (15%) stay an average of 10 days, visiting museums or attending cultural festivals & events (Medina, 2014).

With the changes of the administrations of the state government and the municipality of Morelia in the second half of 2015, new vision-related to tourism management of the city was set. The main idea was “to make the Historic Center a vibrant heart of the culture and citizenry that attracts more visitors”. This vision promoted various actions and projects in the last two years; such as the rescue of the public spaces of the city for the benefit of its inhabitants, celebrating the 25 years of the recognition of Historic Center of Morelia as a World Heritage, and position Morelia within the Wedding and Romance tourism segment. The following Figure 3 illustrating the tourist numbers from 2000 to 2017 (Pardo, 2017):

From the above, we can notice that Morelia faced tourism sustainability challenges, which represent in seasonality, terrorist attacks in 2008 and insecurity, violence, and instability issues in 2012 through the mixture of two characteristics. a) The development of Human Capital, as human capital in Morelia considering as a strengths point, due to its adherence to the customs, traditions, and expressions of regional culture, as well as its training education through specialized tourism programs. b) Morelia's political intention to strengthen the tourism sector through CT development. In addition to the beauty of the city’s architecture, natural and cultural attractions as well as the festivities related to the intangible heritage which provided an important foundation to develop the tourism sector.

Located in the north of Morocco, Fez is the capital of the Fas-Meknes province and the second-largest city in Morocco, its population in 2014 was around 1,146,500 inhabitants (Morocco, 2018-03). Dating back to the 9th century with the oldest university in the world (U.N.E.S.C.O., 1981). After the transferring of the political capital from Fez to Rabat back in 1912, its position as the cultural and spiritual center of Morocco was attained. Fez city is considered to be among the most well conserved historic municipality in the Arab region. Fez is well known for its superb architectural, rich artifacts sites, urban heritage along with its elegant lifestyle, tenable skills, and iconic culture. In 1981 Fez city was listed as a world heritage city by UNESCO (U.N.E.S.C.O., 1981).

Fez conservation strategy encompasses all intangible and tangible heritage. The renewal project was based on the rehabilitation and revitalization approaches and the restoration of heritage sites with the partnership of multiple investors. The plan also targeted infrastructure upgrading. Accordingly, Fez’s image changed from a stagnant, depleted city into a livable and evolving city. During the period of 1981 to 2005; different investments and conservation projects took place; an overall budget was conceded including a 52.9% for infrastructure, 22.1% for rehabilitation projects, 11% for the restoration of monuments, 6.6% for environmental protection, 4.9% for cultural and tourism development and finally 1.3% and 1.2% respectively targeted for training and institutional support (Radoine, 2008).

Recently, Morocco framed its development strategies to encompass CT as its main target through the development of historic quarters, resulting in a distinctive city for tourism attraction. The development notion sought to attract tourism-related to historic sites and various cultural events (Alami et al., 2017). To achieve the conservation strategy, the Morocco government created a new institutional framework in 1989 (ADER-Fès) to be responsible for the development of Fez. “ADER-Fès” set a vision of Fez’s heritage revitalization through the enhancement of inhabitants’ quality of life (Radoine, 2008). Fez’s CT has evolved in the recent years, it had transformed to an economic touristic hub attracting multinational immigrants to settle, work and mainly found guesthouses; that had multiplied through the past 20 years from one guesthouse back in 1997 up to 112 guesthouses in 2016 (Alami et al., 2017).

In 2013, the government has implemented a project named “Ziyarates Fez”. The project was based on the adaptive reuse of locals’ homes into guesthouses where families offer the visitors one or more rooms, this would facilitate interactions between different cultures and experience the local life. Allowing the pilot project, the “Ziyarates Fez” project for the first time to be legal was according to an agreement between different governmental institutions and NGOs (Alami et al., 2017). The project aimed to involve tourism in human development through the following undertaken actions: restoration & upgrading of residential houses, services quality control, local’s training on tourism importance, and grant funds for guesthouses’ furnishing. Above all, training was provided to all families in the project about "tourism professions" including; welcoming guests, cooking, bedding and house-holding, ensuring the security of tourists, and accompaniment (Alami et al., 2017). The Moroccan government initiated robust policies in order to avoid mass tourism in Fez, to reduce the socio-cultural impact on the local population (Alami et al., 2017).

Fez also adopted a project named: "Fez, Capital of Traditional Arts and Showcase of the Craftsmanship of Morocco" targeting the exploiting of Fez’s extraordinary cultural products and branding the local crafts and their high-end images including: 'zellige', ceramics, brassware and textiles, and traditional clothing (Alami et al., 2017). The following Figure 5 illustrating the tourist numbers in Fez from 2009 to 2017:

The cultural tourism project in Fez had developed opportunities for local authorities, and improved the living conditions of the population. Through the restoration and rehabilitation processes and the upgrading of Fez infrastructure, developing human capital through training, and developing the national handicrafts. Fez achieved sustainable tourism development by achieving economic revenues to the local community through their direct involvement in cultural tourism projects and heritage conservation projects.

Aswan considers as one of the most important tourist destinations in Egypt, where Aswan has all elements of attractions, such as monuments, temples, nature reserves, and islands scattered in the Nile, in addition to Aswan High Dam and Nasser Lake. Aswan is also famous for its therapeutic areas by burial in the sand. In addition, Aswan includes many full-service hotels and floating hotels between Aswan & Luxor and eco-tourism motels in Gharb Sohail and Abu Simbel (Aswan, 2016). It also offers a rich cultural experience through staying in Nubian guesthouses in Gharb Soheil the Nubian Village (Shampoo & Ghalib, 2019-03-08). Aswan also has multiple patterns of tourism in addition to cultural tourism, such as scientific tourism, fishing tourism, deserts adventure tourism, medical tourism, and many other tourism types. Aswan also has an international airport and a railway station (Aswan, 2016).

Unfortunately, although Aswan has all the above-mentioned tourism possibilities, which can qualify it to be one of the most important tourist destinations in the world, it was affected by the tourism seasonality, terrorist attacks, and political issues, which led to a significant drop-off in tourists’ numbers in Aswan, especially after the 2011 revolution. The following Figure 7 illustrating the situation of the tourism sector in Aswan from 2008 to 2017:

From the above figure, we can see that the average overnight stays in Aswan are ranging from (1.6 to 1.7 nights/tourist) before and after the revolution. In addition, and according to Aswan statistics (Aswan, 2016), the global tourism ratio decreased from 92% in years (2008 and 2010) to be 28% in 2014.

Aswan Workforce: The workforce in tourism sector represents only 2% from the total workforce in Aswan, and the main workforce is in industries sector with 25%, followed by agriculture sector with 6% (GOPP, 2017), most of the tourism workforce changed from the tourism sector to another sector after the 2011 revolution, most of the tourism bazaars in Aswan Market changes the selling products from tourism souvenirs to household and clothes (Site Visit).

Aswan Cultural facilities: Aswan has only one cinema, one theatre, one culture palace, one sound & light show, three museums (C.A.P.M.A.S., 2018). In addition, there are only five annual international festivals held in Aswan during the period from November to March each year.

Aswan Infrastructure: The current infrastructure in Aswan hadn't been renovated for 70 years (Soliman, 2018-02-24).

In 2017 the President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced that Aswan would be the "Capital of African Culture and Economy". This vision was part of the recommendations concerning the Second Youth Conference held in January.

In May 2017, the General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP), set future vision & development projects for Aswan Governorate according to Egypt's Vision 2030 and National Strategic Plan for Egypt 2052. The vision included projects in the following categories: road development & beautification, construction of new hotels & eco-tourism hotels, construction of handicrafts villages in Abu Simbel, Edfu, and Com Ombo, in addition to the development of river marina berths.

All the proposed projects concentrated on traditional tourism, industrial, and agriculture sectors and didn't include any project concerning cultural tourism or human capital in Aswan. In contrast, Egypt's Vision 2030 set objectives to achieve sustainable development in the tourism sector included: Develop human skills for tourism workers and establish training centers in the tourism sector. Develop cultural industries including cinemas, theaters, music, and traditional crafts, protect & develop heritage crafts through financing & marketing (M.P.M.A.R., 2016).

From the literature review, and global experiences cities, there are key steps to achieve STD in Aswan, and overcome tourism seasonality; this would take place through terrorism eradication, and political life stability, along with achieving the vision that was set for Aswan to be a "Capital of African Culture and Economy". The following are the summarized key steps: