Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Destination Development: The Role of Collaborative Strategies

To what extent can cultural heritage can be leveraged to generate economic and social wealth for the territory in which it is located? How can a tourism destination transform cultural heritage into a set of resources to address both destination branding issues and sustainability issues and thus safeguard heritage conservation and authenticity? Consistent with resource-based view (RBV) theory, we see cultural heritage as a key resource to implement successful destination development strategies. However, the transformation of cultural heritage from an asset to a key resource for a sustainable destination development is a complex process that involves multiple actors and should fit with “integrated multilevel strategies” across multiple actor boundaries and across multiple actor levels (Haugland et al, Annals of Tourism Research 38:268–290, 2011). In this context of strong interdependence, collaborative strategies play a crucial role. This study explores how collaborative strategies enable a sustainable destination development leveraging on cultural heritage. Through an in depth analysis of three emblematic case studies in Italy, this chapter examines how collaborative strategies help overcome some critical issues in cultural heritage valorization and to manage three key requirements for successful and sustainable destination’s strategies: (1) destination capabilities, (2) coordination at the destination level, and (3) inter-destination bridge ties.