Site managers, he observed, typically have regarded those in tourism development with alarm. With better communication between both sides, he suggested, tourism could become an ally of site conservation by fostering more political support for those responsible for site custodianship. Mogao itself offered an example of the significance of tourist revenue in supporting economic development. As several at the conference emphasized, consideration of the economic potential of a site must be tempered with a recognition of a site's preservation needs. The temptation to exploit a site can ultimately lead to site damage if public access is provided without carefully considered safeguards.
Careful planning can save money and better protect a site for the future.
Another of the keynote speakers addressed the problem of communication within an increasingly diverse profession. The Buddhist grottoes of China, particularly those of the Silk Road, are the physical remains of an ancient time when an abundance of goods regularly passed back and forth between East and West. But as the grottoes themselves eloquently declare with their art, the Silk Road was more than a commercial link. The rock temples at Mogao and elsewhere are a testament to the power of the spiritual beliefs that also traveled the Silk Road and produced the remarkable Buddhist murals and sculpture that adorn the spaces of these historic sites. It therefore seems utterly fitting that conservation professionals from East and West gathered at Dunhuang, a Silk Road crossroads, to trade ideas on how best to preserve the heritage left to us from that earlier and culturally rich era of exchange.