Officially branding local heritage through recognised labels is a strategy that regions can use to promote economic development. Regions increasingly seek more sustainable tourism development, which can be captured by the quality of local tourist service development. This paper examines whether the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) label is associated with local tourism development of a higher quality and offers the first comparative study across European regions. Using TripAdvisor reviews of over 38,000 European locations, our results reveal a positive correlation between WHS labelling and measures of perceived quality and breadth of local tourist services.
UNESCO World Heritage Site label and sustainable tourism in Europe: a user-generated content analysis
Khalid W. A. Shomali
2024
Abstract
Officially branding local heritage through recognised labels is a strategy that regions can use to promote economic development. Regions increasingly seek more sustainable tourism development, which can be captured by the quality of local tourist service development. This paper examines whether the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) label is associated with local tourism development of a higher quality and offers the first comparative study across European regions. Using TripAdvisor reviews of over 38,000 European locations, our results reveal a positive correlation between WHS labelling and measures of perceived quality and breadth of local tourist services.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.