UNESCO World Heritage Site label and sustainable tourism in Europe: a user-generated content analysis

Egbert Van der Zee; Nicola Camatti; Dario Bertocchi; Khalid W.A. Shomali

doi:10.1080/00343404.2024.2333787

UNESCO World Heritage Site label and sustainable tourism in Europe: a user-generated content analysis

Egbert Van der Zee, Nicola Camatti^*, Dario Bertocchi, Khalid W.A. Shomali

^*Corresponding author for this work

Urban Accessibility and Social Inclusion

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Regional Studies
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2024.2333787
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 18 Apr 2024

Keywords

brand
cultural heritage
label
tourism development
UGC
UNESCO WHS

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10.1080/00343404.2024.2333787

Cite this

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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.",

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AU - Van der Zee, Egbert

AU - Camatti, Nicola

AU - Bertocchi, Dario

AU - Shomali, Khalid W.A.

PY - 2024/4/18

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - brand

KW - cultural heritage

KW - label

KW - tourism development

KW - UGC

KW - UNESCO WHS

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SN - 0034-3404

JO - Regional Studies

JF - Regional Studies

ER -

UNESCO World Heritage Site label and sustainable tourism in Europe: a user-generated content analysis

Abstract

Keywords

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