Auditing the Branding Approach at the Heritage Site: People-centred Thinking

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Contextualising a Branding Approach in the Heritage Site’s Context (HERE)

Following the 21st-century values-based marketing approach (Donner & Fort, 2018; Doyle, 2008; Ellwood, 2002; Misiura, 2006), the site’s community is the main owner, representative and generator of a cultural heritage value. Today, the emphasis on community participation in heritage tourism planning and development has increased (Dragouni & Fouseki, 2018). Recent recommendations and conventions [1] for the conservation and management of heritage sites as well as for the sustainable development of cultural tourism have called for the application of a people-centred approach to ensure the engagement and collaboration of autochthonous/Indigenous/local communities to grasp the varied heritage significance and cultural values associated with the heritage sites, and to allow people to retain their relationship with the land and nurtures a sense of pride: to recognize the main values of the cultural asset; realize the tourism statement and profile of the heritage destination; assess the socio-economic factors which contribute to forming the stereotypes towards the tourism process; and manage the joint factors among regional, national and international tourism approaches. (Smith & Ripp, 2020)

Respectively, to invest in culture means to improve the quality of life in a specific territory by attracting new economic, financial and human resources that influence the growth of the society (Di Pietro et al., 2014). In compliance with the value-based approach to cultural heritage management, this research proposes a people-centred approach to monitoring the sustainability of heritage site branding.

Nearly two decades ago, Mowforth and Munt (2003) drew attention to the importance of developing sustainable cultural tourism through the involvement of the host community. Meanwhile, according to Smith and Ripp (2020), local communities are stewards and custodians of the heritage destination and it is essential to carry out different actions to emancipate the level of their involvement, such as establishing formal or informal interagency delivery partnerships, use of a Tourism Forum to facilitate an ongoing dialogue with the host community, use of local guides and volunteers from the people who belong to the local community, and taking steps toward people-centred heritage conservation, business and other local entrepreneurship and people/creativity-centred tourism.?

Following the value-based marketing approach (Doyle, 2008), this research suggests, enhancing the cultural assets and treating the unique values of cultural identity by representing it in the marketing mix, as well as covering a holistic marketing strategy. As shown in the table, this approach can help balance the requirements of the visitors and the community by covering the Ps of marketing - such as product, price, place, promotion, and people - in each branding phase. The table summarizes the different marketing strategies that might be adopted in the cultural heritage context (Ellwood, 2002; Kotler et al., 2014; Fitzgerald et al., 2014; Kotler & Keller, 2006; Black & Veloutsou, 2017; Guzijan & Cvijic, 2018), the interplay among the marketing mix elements, as well as the diverse stakeholders involved within the different branding phases.

Matrix of Marketing Strategies in the Heritage Context

(Amer et al., 2023 - Guided by (Ellwood, 2002; Kotler et al., 2014; Fitzgerald et al., 2014)

Footnote:

[1] (1) the Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention, 2005); (2) Valletta Principles for the Safeguarding and Management of Historic Cities, Towns and Urban Areas (ICOMOS, 2011); (3) Larrakia Declaration on the Development of Indigenous Tourism (WINTA, 2012); (4) Recommendations on Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tourism (UNWTO, 2019); (5) Larrakia Declaration on the Development of Indigenous Tourism (2012) (By the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance); (6) Recommendations on Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tourism (2019) (By the World Committee on Tourism Ethics); (7) Guidelines for Sustainable Cultural Tourism (2020) (By the European Association of Historic Towns and Regions, and Organization of World Heritage Cities (Smith & Ripp, 2020))

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