Visitors' preferences for preserving the attributes of a world heritage site

Abstract

UNESCO world cultural heritage sites, in particular landscapes, impose several land use restrictions and consequently impact the welfare of various stakeholders. As the preservation of the denomination implies costs, it is of utmost importance to identify and value stakeholders’ preferences. This paper applies discrete choice experiments to the Alto Douro Wine Region, classified by UNESCO as world heritage site. The results suggest a clear hierarchy of attributes. In addition, the introduction of both socioeconomic variables and interaction terms provides useful insights on systematic heterogeneity of preferences with interesting directions for heritage safeguarding.