Tourists’ Satisfaction Vs. Residents’ Quality of Life in Medium Sized European Cities: A Conjoint Analysis Approach for Cultural Tourism’s Impact Assessment

This paper discusses the use of conjoint analysis to assess the non market impacts of tourism presence in small and medium sized European cities. It presents the methodological approach developed to this purpose within the EU funded project PICTURE (Pro-active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism upon Urban Resources and Economies) and its application to the case of the city of Syracuse, Italy. Tourism is one of Europe’s largest economic sectors and features among the largest key industries of the 21st century and cultural tourism is one of the forms of tourism that is expected to witness the most important growth in the future. Sustainable cultural tourism strategies have the potential to assist the conservation of local identities, embedded in their respective cultural heritage, while supporting economic growth. However, tourism in cultural sites can also bring negative impacts, which need to be analyzed and assessed. Economic valuation can support decision making in this sector. This paper first discusses to what extent is possible to value in economic terms the positive and negative externalities brought by cultural tourism to heritage destinations, and which are the currently available valuation techniques. Then it focuses on how to manage destinations in a way to limit negative impacts whilst spreading the positive ones in the region. Then it reports the results of a conjoint analysis study on the city of Syracuse, Italy, carried out on a sample of residents and tourists. In particular it looks at the marginal utility associated to attributes interpreting the carrying capacity of the site. Finally, the paper focuses on the potential and limitations of conjoint analysis studies for the above purposes. Conjoint analysis is a non market valuation technique frequently used to place a value on a good. It is a stated-preference method, in the sense that it asks individuals what they would do under hypothetical circumstances, rather than observing actual behaviors on marketplaces, simulating a hypothetical market and analysing stated preferences rather than observing actual market behaviour. In a typical conjoint analysis choice individuals are asked to choose among alternative variants of a good described by a number of attributes. The alternatives differ from one another in the levels taken by two or more of the attributes. The technique assumes the choice between the alternatives is driven by the respondent’s underlying utility. Conjoint choice experiments were initially developed by Louviere and Hensher (1982) and Louviere and Woodworth (1983). Conjoint choice experiments have been widely used to value environmental and natural resources, and more recently cultural heritage. Previous research seems to confirm that the technique is flexible enough and can be successfully adapted to the assessment of policy strategies. The paper discusses the steps that should be considered when developing a conjoint choice experiment for similar purposes.

Benefit transfers of cultural heritage values - how far can we go?

Assessing the economic values attached to alternative land uses, when cultural heritage goods are at stake, makes the valuation process more articulated. Economic elicitation of cultural heritage values is quite a recent practice. Not many case studies have applied non-market valuation techniques, such as contingent valuation methods or travel cost methods, to derive monetary estimates of cultural goods attribute and even fewer applications have been policy oriented. Being a relatively recent research field, the first applications have mainly dealt with the challenges faced by the valuation techniques and the validity and reliability of results. These studies, particularly contingent valuation ones, have very high implementation costs. Hence, to obtain primary estimates of cultural values, agencies need to spend a great deal of money and time. Since these resources are scarce, there is an impinging need to consider the possibility of transferring benefit estimates from a specific “study site” for which data has been collected, to a “policy site” for which there is little or no information. An important question often addressed in the literature is what we can learn from individual case studies for a next case study. How general are the results of case study research? Can we transfer findings from a set of rather similar case studies to a new case study? This question is known as the benefit transfer (or value transfer) issue and seeks to investigate under which (general and specific) conditions common findings from various case studies are more or less valid for a new given case at a distinct site. Knowledge acquisition in the social sciences, and hence also in economics, is usually based on a reductionist approach, which eliminates many person-specific, object-specific or site-specific characteristics of a phenomenon, but the major advantage is that it allows for generalization through a common standardized approach that is applicable to a larger population. This methodology lies also at the heart of meta-analysis, which seeks to synthesize research findings from different case studies (van den Bergh et al. 1997, van den Bergh and Button 1997, 1999). Through the use of common relevant descriptors (behavioural, methodological, contextual) it is possible to draw inferences from a large sample of cases. For value transfer (also commonly named ‘benefit transfer’) the possibility of using meta-analysis is of major importance (Bal and Nijkamp 1998a). The basic idea of value transfer is that knowledge accumulated over time may be subjected to a transfer to a new, similar type of study. For the use of knowledge on a new similar study, it would be ideal if almost identical site characteristics could be transferred without any manipulation and if, at the same time, typical site-unique characteristics could be taken into account: that is, if it were possible to adapt derived variables for these site-unique characteristics.Value transfer studies in cultural heritage economics are rather rare, and the idea itself is quite controversial. In this paper we offer a concise – and certainly not exhausting – review of some recent value transfer studies in this area, with a particular view to spatial variability and transferability. We discuss limits and potentialities of benefit transfer approach for cultural values, aiming to raise debate on the topic. We acknowledge the local nature of cultural values and the strict relationship with the population to which the specific heritage belongs, but we focus on the more universally shared values that are embedded in cultural heritage and on possible ways of expressing them in terms of priorities and clusters. More research is needed in this direction before dismissing the possibility to apply benefit transfer in the case of cultural values estimates.

Eliciting Public Preferences For Managing Cultural Heritage

This paper reports results from a survey using conjoint choice approach questions to elicit people’s preferences for cultural heritage management strategies for an outstanding world heritage site: the Temples of Paestum, in Italy. The potential of the above-mentioned methodologies’ within the current cultural heritage research scenario is also discussed.Conjoint Analyis, Evaluation of Cultural Goods

Public Preferences for Land uses’ changes - valuing urban regeneration projects at the Venice Arsenale

This paper discusses the results of a conjoint analysis study developed to assess alternative land uses for an important part of the city of Venice: its Arsenal. Aim of the study is to illustrate the potential of stated preferences techniques for placing a value on redevelopment and reuse alternatives for an underutilized site with high historical, cultural and architectural significance. Very few studies have used conjoint choice to assess public preferences for alternative land uses in an ex-ante framework, i.e. masterplans. For our study, we wanted to concentrate on a “city of art,” where the relationship between cultural heritage resources management and city development is more critical. Venice was an obvious choice for the national and international relevance of its heritage. The Arsenale is one of the few places in Venice that has the potential for a real transformation of its uses, with important impacts on both residents and visitors. Moreover, the Arsenale plays a strong symbolic role: it was the place where the strength and power of the Serenissima was built. The City Council of Venice has recently deliberated that the Arsenale is an inalienable heritage of the city of Venice. In recent years, the importance of the Arsenale has resulted in a heated debate on its possible new uses. Many architectural proposals have been submitted through international competitions. These proposals—whether submitted in the past or currently under consideration—have shown that there may be a conflict between different possible land uses and the transformation allowed by the existing architectural structures. We surveyed individuals in Venice asking respondents to engage in conjoint choice tasks, gathering 168 usable observations. Members of the general public were intercepted at the Multimedia Library at Palazzo Querini Stampalia/FEEM and asked to indicate which choice they preferrd among hypothetical—but realistic—redevelopment projects of the Arsenale historic site. Each project was described by a vector of attributes, such as land use, use of basins and waterways, architectural features, access, employment implied by the reuse, and cost. The responses to these choice tasks was used to infer the rate at which respondents trade off land uses, aesthetic features, and costs, and hence to derive the value of marginal changes in the attributes, and the value of a proposed policy package. The Venice Arsenale is owned by the Italian government and is currently used by the Italian Navy. The Arsenale site accounts for about 15 percent of the area of the city of Venice (about 45 hectares), and is located in the Castello district. Tradition has it that doge Ordefalo Falier founded the Arsenale—a shipbuilding yard—in 1104. In 1340 the “Darsena Nuova” was created, which marked the birth of the Arsenal Nuovo and of the Corderie building. Further expansion started in 1473, covering an area of 26 hectares. This phase lasted more than 100 years, resulting in the construction of the New Corderie building, among others, in 1591. In its heyday, the Arsenale employed roughly 20,000 workers in an assembly-line fashion and produced one ship a day. The Arsenale, after the navy largely withdrew from the complex over 40 years ago, suffered from abandonment and under use. The Arsenale is, therefore, one of the few places in Venice that has the potential for a real transformation of its uses. In this paper we investigate how the development of the Arsenale site, involving alternative land uses, may influence the welfare of the residents of the historical city center of Venice. Starting from the evidence of our survey in Venice, the paper broaden its scope to discuss ways of improving the management of cultural heritage cities, focusing on new forms of involvement and public participation based on public preferences’ elicitation. We debate the issues related to city governance and the need for an appropriate level of democratic participation. An integrated approach, capable of bridging the practice of economic valuation, urban design, conservation of the built environment, and decision-making support systems is here analysed.

Eliciting Public Preferences For Managing Cultural Heritage Sites: Evidence from a Case study on the Temples Of Paestum

This paper discusses ways of improving the management of cultural heritage sites and cities, focusing on new forms of involvement and public participation based on public preferences’ elicitation. The problem of city governance and of the appropriate level of democratic participation needs an integrated approach, capable of bridging the practice of urban design, conservation of the built environment and decision-making support system. This paper reports results from a survey using conjoint choice approach questions to elicit people’s preferences for cultural heritage management strategies for an outstanding world heritage site: the Temples of Paestum, in Italy. The potential of the above-mentioned methodologies’ within the current cultural heritage research scenario is also discussed.

Smart cities and heritage conservation: developing a smartheritage agenda for sustainable inclusive communities

This paper discusses the potential of current advancements in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for cultural heritage preservation, valorization and management within contemporary cities. The paper highlights the potential of virtual environments to assess the impacts of heritage policies on urban development. It does so by discussing the implications of virtual globes and crowdsourcing to support the participatory valuation and management of cultural heritage assets. To this purpose, a review of available valuation techniques is here presented together with a discussion on how these techniques might be coupled with ICT tools to promote inclusive governance

Using Surveys to Compare the Public’s and Decisionmakers’ Preferences for Urban Regeneration: The Venice Arsenale

In this paper, we illustrate how surveys can be used to elicit the preferences of the public and of policymakers and city officials for regeneration projects at urban sites. Our methodology uses rating exercises, coupled with conjoint-choice stated preferences for the general public and with ranking exercises for the public officials and other stakeholders, and is then applied to investigate alternative reuses of the Venice Arsenale, Italy, and their economic, environmental and social impacts. One interesting feature of the conjoint choice questions for members of the public is that the responses to these questions can be used to estimate the social benefits of regeneration projects, i.e., how much people are willing to pay for these urban transformations. Another advantage of our approach is that it can be used seek and foster broader public participation into urban decisionmaking processes.Land Use, Decision-Making, Cleanup, Sustainable Development, Local Economic Development, Choice Experiments

Rapid urbanization and heritage conservation in Indian cities

The paper discusses the issue of heritage conservation in Indian cities in the face of current rapid urbanization trends. The urban development pressure, coupled with the lack of an appropriate conservation framework, is causing the loss of important cultural heritage in India. The federal Indian government has recently launched a program on smart cities to improve cities livability and embrace technological progress. The paper discusses the current policy situation and the role that urban heritage is having within the internal debate. It presents results from an experts’ workshop held in Mumbai in December 2016 and argues that a novel smartheritage approach is needed to support decision making in urban conservation