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Do UNESCO World Heritage Sites Influence International Tourist Arrivals? Evidence from Italian Provincial Data

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Abstract

This paper investigates—through dynamic panel data techniques—the impact of Unesco World Heritage List (WHL) sites on international tourist arrivals. Relying on a sample of Italian provinces over the period 1997–2015, a positive effect of WHL inscriptions on foreign visitors’ attractiveness is found. These results provide a further contribution to the debate about the role of WHL in fostering tourism, and, differently from other analyses on the Italian regions, support the conclusion that the inscription in the list can play a role in promoting attractiveness.

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Fig. 1

Source: our elaboration on Unesco World Heritage Centre data

Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Data are downloadable by the ISTAT data warehouse (http://dati.istat.it/) by selecting “Servizi”, “Turismo”, and “Movimento dei client negli esercizi ricettivi- dati annuali” from the left menu on the website. Data before 2008 were directly collected at the ISTAT main building in Rome.

  2. The full list of Italian provinces is available at http://www.comuni-italiani.it/province.html.

  3. The eventual presence of cross-sectional dependence would affect the stationarity and cointegration tests’ results presented in Table 1.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to prof. Ilde Rizzo, participants to IES 2017 conference in Naples and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments and suggestions. Rosaria Rita Canale and Elina De Simone acknowledge financial support from Parthenope University, Bando di sostegno alla ricerca, annualità 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business and Economic Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Via Generale Parisi 13, 80132, Naples, Italy

    Elina De Simone & Rosaria Rita Canale

  2. Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Naples L’Orientale, Largo S. Giovanni Maggiore 30, 80134, Naples, Italy

    Amedeo Di Maio

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  1. Elina De Simone
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Correspondence to Elina De Simone.

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De Simone, E., Canale, R.R. & Di Maio, A. Do UNESCO World Heritage Sites Influence International Tourist Arrivals? Evidence from Italian Provincial Data. Soc Indic Res 146, 345–359 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1939-7

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