This paper consolidates the fragmented literature and evidence by highlighting the three important lenses on the institutional antecedents of sustainable development agenda in cultural heritage tourism. Our study, therefore, identifies three distinct institutional antecedents olensesf sustainable development in cultural heritage tourism such as governance mechanisms, community agency, and the influence of supranational institutions. It demonstrates that sustainable cultural heritage tourism is multidimensional as it spans institutional and sectoral domains. This study brings to light the interplay of these elements and further evaluates their efficacy in embedding the sustainable development agenda in cultural heritage tourism. It also contributes to the literature by bringing to light the current state of the literature on institutional antecedents of sustainable development in cultural heritage tourism. This allows our study to attempt to show the scope of the current knowledge about institutional antecedents and their relationship with sustainable cultural heritage tourism. Most importantly, the study identifies gaps in the research on institutional antecedents and sustainable cultural heritage tourism—the basis on which future research directions have been identified and suggested.