UNESCO recognition through its World Heritage List and time in the subsequent travel spotlight can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, a new site gets a big status boost and some protection. On the other hand, an influx of tourists adds pressures and more need for protection. One way to curb this effect is for travellers to visit alternative heritage destinations where high tourism congestion isn’t causing problems.

In Mexico, 200 years ago, leaders in their communities started an uproar for independence from Spanish rule that would last more than 10 years. Almost 100 years later, revolutionaries would go on to defy the social and economic unrest for which the then-President Porfirio Díaz was held accountable. Now in 2010, all of Mexico will celebrate the bicentennial of the independence of the country and the centennial of the revolution that led to social and political freedom.