The Effects of World Heritage Sites on Domestic Tourism: A Spatial Interaction Model for Italy

Abstract

Cultural tourism is gaining increasing importance in the modern tourism industry, and represents a significant force of attraction for tourists (both domestic and international). It allows destinations and regions to both expand their customer base – by gaining new clients otherwise interested in other types of attractions – and to diversify their offer, particularly in the case of destinations which have typically exploited different tourism typologies (e.g. seaside or mountain tourism). Great efforts are made, by national governments and regions, in order to obtain official certification regarding the relevance of their own historical/cultural attractions, for example through UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites (WHS) list. Such an aspect seems particularly relevant for a country like Italy, which has a rich historical heritage and a high number of entries in the WHS list, and where regions take an active role in promoting tourism. Using an 11-year panel of domestic tourism flows, we investigate the importance of the regional endowment in terms of WHS from two perspectives: (a) by separately estimating the effects, on tourism flows, of WHS located in the residence region of tourists and in the destination region; and (b) by taking into account potential spatial substitution/complementarity between regions in terms of their WHS endowment.