ABSTRACT
Cultural heritage, whether in the form of buildings, sites, or locations, or in its more general manifestation as the cultural environment or atmosphere of historic cities and towns, is an important stimulus to tourist demand; tourism data collections in many countries regularly document the role of cultural features, including tangible and intangible heritage, as determinants of tourists’ decisions to travel to particular destinations. The basic propositions concerning the relationships between cultural heritage and tourism are now well established from a variety of perspectives in the literatures of tourism economics, tourism management, heritage economics, cultural management and cultural policy (for example, Coccossis and Nijkamp 1995). Furthermore, in the field of urban planning, the role of cultural heritage in contributing towards the ideal of the ‘sustainable city’ is also increasingly recognised (Stabler 1996; Rana 2000; Fusco Girard et al. 2003).
