Analysis of international tourist arrivals worldwide: The role of world heritage sites

Assessing the economic values of World Heritage Sites and the effects of perceived authenticity on their values

“…Although there is an ongoing debate about its actual impacts on the increase of tourism demand (Cellini, 2011;Huang, Tsaur, & Yang, 2012;Yang & Lin, 2011), considerable evidences still support the positive effects of the WHS inscription such as increase in the number of visitors (Su & Lin, 2014;Yang, Lin & Han, 2010), enhanced level of residents' pride (Jimura, 2011), and increased quality of visitors' on-site experience (Poria, Reichel, & Cohen, 2013). Accordingly, many national, regional, and local governments have made considerable efforts to make their heritage attraction be comprised on the UNESCO World Heritage List in a hope that such a recognition helps validate the authenticity of the sites and successively attract tourists.…”

Cultural Centre, Destination Cultural Offer and Visitor Satisfaction

“…Another broadly accepted opinion suggests that heritage sites contribute to tourism development. For example, World Heritage Sites (WHSs), where the cultural and natural endowments are officially recognised by UNESCO, have been found to have significantly positive effects on the promotion of domestic or foreign tourism either in specific countries or at a worldwide level [15][16][17][18]. It has been found that tourist destinations with typical cultural or natural elements constitute one of the chief attractions for international visitors [19,20].…”

Return on capital in Spanish tourism businesses: A comparative analysis of family vs non-family businesses

“…Ample justification for an analysis of the keys to competitiveness in the tourism sector can be found in its importance to the Spanish economy (Vacas & Landeta, 2009;Vera & Marchena, 1996) and its prospects for growth at world level (Lee & Brahmasrene, 2013;Su & Lin, 2014). The need for better knowledge of the keys to the competitiveness of tourism businesses is all the greater because of the size of the challenges they face and the structure of the sector, combining the presence of chains with a considerable international profile (Mariz-Pérez & García-Álvarez, 2009;Rufín, 2006) with a fragmented segment of supply dominated by small establishments (Hernández-Maestro, Muñoz-Gallego, & Santos-Requejo, 2009) with a great deal of expertise in their activity but management falling short of the parameters of professionalisation and best practice.…”