Resumen de Destination branding and quality management of cultural sites

Fabio Carbone, Maurizio Quagliuolo

• The ability of enhancing cultural resources represents, in the context of tourism development, an effective instrument to face the competition between different destinations. The Cultural Heritage represents a "primary tourist resource" of the territory. The latter becomes a tourist attraction just when complemented by "secondary resources", such as infrastructures and instruments of interpretation and communication with the public. This statement leads to further reflections: the skills needed to manage and promote Cultural Heritage for tourism, become, themselves, a valuable resource for a destination. The greater will be the ability to manage and enhance Cultural Heritage, the most competitive will be the tourist destination. Hence, the importance of introducing quality (and its certification) in the management of Cultural Heritage for tourism let to improve competitiveness. The International Certification for Cultural Heritage Quality Management was defined by the International Organization HERITY (from the union of the two words HERITAGE and QUALITY). Up today, 243 among museums, archaeological sites, libraries, archives and monuments were assessed on the basis of the HERITY Global Evaluation System (HGES), especially related with maintaining proper conservation at the site, while promoting and valorizing the asset for Tourism. The public is an extraordinary ally in this process: for this the HERITY system is strongly committed to inform the visitor as well as the resident. Examples will be illustrated analysing case studies such as Serra da Capivara (Piauí, Brazil), Zaragoza (Spain), and the Historical Center of Rome (Italy)