The recent emergence of sustainable tourism is viewed as a key driver in the revitalization of vernacular settlements globally. Many of these once-abandoned communities, often in a state of deterioration, are now being reimagined as tourist destinations as a means of preserving their cultural heritage (Haddad and Fakhoury in Archnet-IJAR: Int J Architect Res 10(3), 36–59). However, these settlements underwent dramatic and rapid changes to provide new tourist accommodation. The dwellings were restored and repurposed, while the demolished structures were reconstructed. However, there is a notable gap in the available literature regarding the impact of these transformations on the heritage of the settlements. This research seeks to address this gap by developing a methodology for evaluating the conversion of vernacular settlements into tourist accommodations. The integration of architectural and urban assessments with thermal evaluations is rarely explored in existing studies, yet it is considered crucial for establishing a comprehensive framework for assessing development projects in vernacular settlements, particularly in the context of climate change. Considering the most relevant theories to this research’s scope, a theoretical Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) framework is developed by overlapping the adopted data from ICOMOS (2011), (Del and Tabrizi in J Cult Heritage 44:135–151, 2020; Faria ALV (2020) Assessment model for vernacular limestone buildings using Microsoft Excel®: The Case of Serra de Santo António. PhD thesis. University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal) theories using Microsoft Excel. The ICOMOS’s HIA scales (2011) and Del and Tabrizi’s significance/weight values (2020) were adopted to evaluate the assessment criteria and, consequently, the transformed heritage buildings/sites. As a result, an integrated HIA framework is developed, combining the architectural, urban, and thermal assessments with the assessment of occupants’ satisfaction and comfort. The framework will assist local authorities and stakeholders in evaluating the impacts of various transformations, identifying potential challenges, and providing recommendations for construction professionals exploring tourism development as a strategy for revitalising abandoned villages.