Sustainable Tourism

Current approach to the management of World Heritage sites and the associated tourism is not always effective. Indeed, operators of Chteau de Versailles, Alhambra, and Vatican Palace trade-off visitors’ revenues against damage to these sites. We study the effective dynamic behavior of a firm managing a heritage site. In an optimal control model, the operator sets pricing and heritage conservation policies. Heritage sites benefit from spending on conservation but are deteriorated by large numbers of visitors. Visitor numbers increase with the attractiveness of the site but decrease with the entrance fee. Our results characterize optimal pricing and heritage conservation policies over time and provide a stronger foundation for sustainable tourism policies.