At the Mogao Grottoes a World Heritage site near Dunhuang city in Gansu Province visitor
numbers have increased inexorably since 1979 when the site opened. A national policy that
identifies tourism as a pillar industry along with pressure from local authorities and
businesses to encourage more tourism threatens to lead to an unsustainable situation for
management an unsafe and uncomfortable experience for visitors and irreparable damage to the
fragile art of the cave temples for which the site is famous. In the context of the
comprehensive visitor management plan developed for the Mogao Grottoes a multi-year study
began in 2001 as a joint undertaking of the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation
Institute to determine the impact of visitation on the painted caves and develop strategies for
sustainable visitation such that once implemented these threats would be resolved. The
methodological framework featured a major research and assessment component that integrates
visitor studies laboratory investigations environmental monitoring field testing and
condition assessment to address the issues affecting the grottoes and visitors. Results from
this component led to defining limiting conditions which were the basis for establishing a
visitor capacity policy for the grottoes and developing long-term monitoring and management
tools.
