The Overlooked Contribution of National Heritage Designation in City Branding and Tourism Management

Abstract

The designation of cultural heritage, especially the World Cultural Heritage Site, is extensively discussed regarding its impacts on tourism destination branding. However, the impact of the designation(s) of World and/or National Cultural Heritage Site on affective city image and behavioural intention is still under-researched. This study aims to investigate the respective impact of visitors’ awareness of the world and national heritage status on existential authenticity perceived at the heritage site, affective city image, and behavioural intention. The quantitative research method was employed to test the proposed structural model. A structured questionnaire was sent, and 363 valid responses were collected from domestic visitors at the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty, China. The results demonstrate that cultural heritage designation, whether it is a world or a national one, when recognised by domestic visitors, determines the shaping of a positive affective image of the city hosting the heritage site, as well as visitors’ future intentions. However, visitor awareness of the world status and national status does not condition the affective city image and behavioural intentions in the same manner. This research takes the lead to stress the significant role of national heritage status in city branding and urges managerial attention.

Potentials of Employing Local Heritage in City Branding: The Case of Baluwarti Surakarta in Indonesia

“…They say that Baghdad city branding has four main strategies, namely: differentiation, creativity, experience and tourism. Other findings suggest that the status of national heritage can provide added value to cities in terms of tourism attraction, development of local identity, and protection of cultural heritage (Dai et al, 2022).…”

How do aesthetics and tourist involvement influence cultural identity in heritage tourism? The mediating role of mental experience

“…And heritage is an effective way of cultural representation and an important carrier of cultural identity ( Zhang R. et al, 2021 ; Xu et al, 2022 ; Zhang and Brown, 2022 ). Until 2022, China owns 56 World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites recorded on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, making it one of the countries with the most complete types of World Heritage Sites in the world ( Dai et al, 2022 ). Heritage tourism research began in the 1990s with a group of European scholars who were the first to explore the topics like heritage establishment and conservation, and gradually expanded by North American scholars who focused on natural heritage conservation and sustainable development in the context of protected areas and national park systems ( Harvey, 2008 ; Harrison et al, 2020 ; Smith, 2020 ; Gandarillas and McCall, 2021 ; Santoro et al, 2021 ).…”