Rethinking the marketing of World Heritage Sites

Giving the past a sustainable future

Bibliographic Data

ID12705372
AuthorsAriel de Fauconberg (McCallum School of Business Bentley University Waltham Massachusetts 02452 USA), Pierre Berthon (0009-0006-1200-8255, McCallum School of Business Bentley University Waltham Massachusetts 02452 USA, corresponding author), Jean Paul Berthon (McCallum School of Business Bentley University Waltham Massachusetts 02452 USA)
Year2017
Volume18
Issue2
Publication date2017-03-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-3891 • E-ISSN: 1479-1854
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pa.1655
OpenAlexW2599741223
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited15

Despite significant global prestige and a strong brand presence, UNESCO World Heritage Sites remain underfunded with many unable to self‐sustain. Increasing government budget constraints have further restricted funds and UNESCO's “World Heritage Fund”—UNESCO's sole source of financial assistance available to sites—has fallen to approximately $3M USD per annum. Few sites are able to fully offset these budget constraints through tourist revenue alone, and those able to do so often require additional repairs due to damage from visitors exceeding the site's capacity. Although this situation is widely acknowledged within the heritage literature, few papers have proposed long‐term strategic solutions beyond marketing and management plans for individual sites. The authors address this pressing issue by questioning whether World Heritage Sites in general are currently being marketed in an optimized manner and proposing a new framework for creating stronger and more appropriate relationships between visitors and sites using Berthon et al.'s the Aesthetics and Ontology model. The authors argue that clarifying and optimizing the marketing of World Heritage through this lens with its focus on the consumption experience of visitors and other stakeholders will yield positive results for both the management of the sites and for their impact on surrounding communities. Furthermore, the authors recommend that policies surrounding the management of these valuable resources and sources of tourist revenue be modified to reflect these findings

Business · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Government (linguistics · Heritage tourism · Political science · Prestige · Revenue · Tourism · World heritage · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Finance · Marketing

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