Cultural Heritage and Regional Development Policies

Dear Colleagues,

Since the eighties of the twenty century, theoretical and policy approaches to regional growth and development have tended to emphasize the importance of mobilizing endogenous resources and capabilities of territories to fight backward economic situations or enhancing social wellbeing. No matter if dealing with urban or rural territories, those strategic approaches do make sense as any territory is endowed of some sort of resources, including cultural heritage ones, material and immaterial. Some resources are easy to identify and assess, such as financial and physical assets, others are less visible and difficult to appraise, like human capital or reputation. Of course, resources endowment is not enough to ensure employment and wealth creation as economic activity requires the co-operation and co-ordination of sets of resources and the needed capabilities can be absent.

The way to look to regional development has followed a parallel time path to the increasing of the tourism industry and, mainly, with the role cultural tourism began to play on the world tourists flows. Nowadays, motivations to visit a destination are very diverse and can range from the desire to get an educational experience from a cultural heritage destination to just use some free time. This opened a new door to the development of some territories, namely those which were able to preserve their patrimony and cultural attributes, and of engaging the local community on the tourism development process, as common residents and other local stakeholders are an essential component of the tourist experience and of the sustainability of any tourism strategy relying on heritage and authenticity. The understanding of tourists’ perceptions of a heritage destination and the motivation behind choosing to visit such a site are also essential keys to develop successful marketing strategies and positioning any destination.

This way, to look to the success or the failure of a tourism strategy implies to address not only the issue of territories resources endowment, the adequacy of the regional public policies designed to take profit from the tourist resources available at the destination but also the commitment of the local community on it, as well as the capacity of the destination to supply a product which addresses the potential costumers needs and preferences. Besides, the information on the product supplied as to reach the potential market segment.

Therefore, this Special Issue provides a forum to discuss the potential of cultural heritage as a contributor to regional and local development and the design of regional and local policies aiming to positining the destination at the tourist market, addressing the issue from conceptual approaches to more empirical ones, including case studies. In this regard, successful cases are welcome as well less succeeded ones, as one can also learn from failure.

Prof. Dr. José Cadima Ribeiro
Guest Editor

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• Regional resources endowment and singularity of the tourism product
• Cultural heritage and authentic tourist experiences
• Regional sustainable tourism strategies
• Residents commitment towards tourism development
• Cultural heritage and tourists' visit motivations
• Tourism employment creation and growth of regional economies
• Regional infrastructures and facilities and tourist potential
• Natural and cultural heritage preservation and tourist potential
• Regional policies and local tourism development
• Case studies