From community participation to responsible governance in cultural heritage tourism: A systematic literature review

Background and Purpose: Cultural heritage tourism depends on the communities that sustain heritage and the governance arrangements that shape its management, yet these dimensions are rarely examined as an integrated system. This systematic literature review synthesises evidence on how community participation and governance interact in cultural heritage tourism and proposes an integrative conceptual framework. Methodology: A focused systematic literature review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 reporting guidelines. Scopus was searched on 5 June 2026 using a structured TITLE-ABS-KEY query. Of 37 records identified, 19 studies met the inclusion criteria after title and abstract screening and full-text eligibility assessment. Findings: Thematic synthesis yielded four interconnected themes: (1) community participation is multidimensional, driven by interacting economic and non-economic factors; (2) diverse governance models converge on shared normative principles of accountability, inclusion, transparency, and equitable benefit sharing; (3) participation and governance interact to shape outcomes across heritage conservation, sustainable tourism development, and community wellbeing; and (4) persistent gaps remain between governance principles and implementation practice, including capacity deficits, distributional inequity, and pseudo-participation. Contributions: The review contributes an integrative conceptual framework positioning community participation and responsible governance as mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable cultural heritage tourism. The term "responsible governance" is proposed as an analytical construct synthesising shared principles that emerge across diverse governance models, rather than a term uniformly employed in the reviewed literature. Keywords: Community participation, responsible governance, cultural heritage tourism, systematic literature review, stakeholder engagement. Cite as: Li, G., Abd Halim, N., & Liu, M. (2026). From community participation to responsible governance in cultural heritage tourism: A systematic literature review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 11(2), 209-227. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol11iss2pp209-227