Who visits World Heritage? A comparative analysis of three cultural sites

ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism is a growing segment of the modern tourism industry, and several studies have been undertaken to identify the individuals who participate in this type of tourism. These have indicated that heritage tourists, generally, are middle class, middle age, and well educated. However, despite their iconic role, there has been relatively little attention paid to profile of visitors to World Heritage Sites. This study aims to better understand the demography of this specific tourism segment through the use of survey-based research at three geographically diverse World Heritage Sites: Independence Hall in the USA, Studenica Monastery in Serbia, and the Archaeological Site of Volubilis in Morocco. Through the use of descriptive statistics, several over-arching trends were noted among the three sites. World Heritage Site visitors were found to be very well educated, but they did not have any similarities in relation to age, income, or residence, which contrasts the “general” heritage tourist typology. However, there were several World Heritage specific trends. While this work is a snapshot of the three sites under study and thus is difficult to generalize, it provides the basis for more comprehensive demographic research on visitors to World Heritage Sites.

KEYWORDS:

• World heritage
• heritage tourism
• demographics
• cultural heritage
• market segmentation
• cultural tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Bailey Ashton Adie has a Ph.D. in Management and Development of Cultural Heritage from IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca. Her research focuses on World Heritage tourism in an international comparative context as well as sustainable heritage tourism for community development.

C. Michael Hall is a Professor in Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and also holds positions at University of Oulu, Linneaus University, and University of Johannesburg. Current heritage tourism research is focused on World Heritage experiences in international perspective.

ORCID

Bailey Ashton Adie http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0309-4511

C. Michael Hall http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-4587