Abstract
This paper uses the archaeological site of Herculaneum, Italy, as a case study on which to ground the complex debate surrounding heritage ‘sustainability’. The authors seek to quantify and qualify current and potential ‘reciprocal heritage benefits’ thanks to available information from strategic research – including the development of improved visitor and engagement strategies. They argue that it is necessary to re-examine the dynamic role that cultural heritage could potentially play in contemporary society, not just looking to reduce threats but seeking to transform them, wherever possible, into opportunities for ensuring that cultural heritage can contribute benefits to the modern world and – within a reciprocal relationship – gain benefits from a society that is more involved in its management and conservation. The authors conclude that much more needs to be done not just in terms of measuring progress but also in terms of identifying the correct indicators to measure in the first place.
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Notes
- 1.
UNESCO (2015b): Although not all issues related to World Heritage are relevant elsewhere, much of the information collected sheds light on the challenges faced by heritage on a global scale.
- 2.
In the context of this publication it is worth noting that 16% of all World Heritage properties globally are being negatively affected by the impacts of tourism, visitors and recreation – indeed this is the fourth most significant impact on cultural heritage sites.
- 3.
UNESCO (2010): paragraph 33.
- 4.
UNESCO (2015a). This policy was adopted in 2015 at the 20th General Assembly of the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention.
- 5.
The Herculaneum Conservation Project is an initiative of the Packard Humanities Institute (and its Italian arm, the Istituto Packard per i Beni Culturali) in collaboration with the local heritage authority; a third partner – the British School at Rome – was also involved from 2004 to 2014, the period in which much of the work described in this article took place (see Stanley-Price 2007; Camardo et al. 2012); www.herculaneum.org.
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- 7.
- 8.
Wijesuriya and Thompson (2012)
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UNESCO (2015a)
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There is free entry for categories, such as under 18s, educational groups, scholars, etc.
- 11.
Since 2010 a minimum of one million euros of funding has been assigned to Herculaneum each year by the central Pompeii heritage authority for conservation and enhancement projects, with that annual figure rising to five million euros at times. However, a new reform of the Italian heritage system has given management autonomy to the archaeological park of Herculaneum.
- 12.
D’Andrea and Pesaresi (2014)
- 13.
The HCP audience development programme has focused to date on independent visitors and has included an initial 12-month campaign surveying 1561 individuals to understand demographics and motivation, which was followed by a 6-month questionnaire campaign to explore the visitor experience. The programme was developed by Sarah Court, Francesca Del Duca, Michela Del Tin and Anna Paterlini with support from Aurelio Galiano, Rosa Guida and David Samulski for the administration of visitor questionnaires.
- 14.
Among other results, 94% of visitors interviewed said they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their overall visit to Herculaneum.
- 15.
Fifty-two per cent of visitors interviewed were able to identify elements of their visit that were unsatisfactory, the greatest cause of dissatisfaction by far was the number of closed areas within the archaeological site that visitors could not access (17% of respondents).
- 16.
Court et al. (2011)
- 17.
- 18.
Biggi et al. (2018)
- 19.
Site visits were timed by HCP intern Niki Savvides. Audience development questionnaires then discovered that 80% of independent visitors stay at Herculaneum for up to half a day, 17% stay for up to a day, and only 3% stay for more than a day. Comparison of this data with the average site visit of 2 h shows that relatively few visitors have the time to explore the modern town around the archaeological site.
- 20.
- 21.
Arnstein (1969)
- 22.
Kretzmann and McKnight (1993)
- 23.
Biggi et al. (2018)
- 24.
UNESCO (1999).
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Court, S., D’Andrea, A., Del Duca, F., Pesaresi, P., Thompson, J. (2019). Managing Herculaneum in Context: Measuring Benefits for People and Places. In: Comer, D.C., Willems, A. (eds) Feasible Management of Archaeological Heritage Sites Open to Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92756-5_3
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