The effects of world heritage status on European city residents’ subjective quality of life

Abstract

Purpose

Being awarded world heritage status is a distinguishing factor when it comes to promoting tourism in a city. Tourism in these cities should be developed in a way that does not compromise either the city’s heritage or the inhabitants' quality of life. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of a European city achieving world heritage status on the subjective quality of life of its citizens.

Design/methodology/approach

First of all, we classify European cities according to whether or not they have been declared world heritage sites. Then, we analyze the effect of this classification on the main aspects used to measure the residents' perception of quality of life that are available in the Flash Eurobarometer 419.

Findings

The results show that achieving world heritage status has a negative effect on residents' perceptions of the noise level, air quality and feeling of safety. However, it does not affect their perceptions of public transport or cleanliness. In addition, world heritage status positively affects residents’ perceptions of the cultural activities in the city and their ease of finding a job. Residents report high levels of happiness in both world heritage and non-heritage cities, although levels are somewhat higher in non-heritage cities.

Originality/value

Residents' perceptions of the influence of tourism on their quality of life are undoubtedly of major importance; however, due to a lack of available data, few studies have examined this subjective quality of life at the city level.

Citation

Alfaro-Navarro, J.L. and Andrés-Martínez, M.E. (2024), "The effects of world heritage status on European city residents’ subjective quality of life", Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-02-2023-0016