Factors Affecting Time Spent Visiting Heritage City Areas

Esther Martinez-Garcia, Josep M. Raya-Vilchez and Nuria Galí
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Josep M. Raya-Vilchez: Department of Economics and Statistics, University Pompeu Fabra-ESCET, Tecnocampus Mataró, Avinguda Ernest Lluch, 32, 08302 Mataró (Barcelona), Spain
Nuria Galí: Department of Art History and LMRT-Laboratori Multidisciplinar de Recerca en Turisme, University of Girona, Plaça Ferrater Mora, 1, 17004 Girona, Spain

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Urban tourism is growing fast, and in many cities visitor influx tends to concentrate in historic urban centers. When there are large numbers of visitors, deepening the knowledge on visitor time consumption is critical to better managing their impact on the city, and creating a sustainable city tourism destination. This has generated an increasing interest in the micro-spatial and temporal dimensions of tourist behavior in city tourism research and planning. This article focuses on modelling the factors affecting the duration of visits to each heritage attraction, and to the whole visit to the heritage city. This study adds to previous research in several ways: it uses survival models; distinguishes between attractions with and without an entrance fee; and tests how visitor type affects time behavior, for example, day visitor versus tourists, peak season versus off-peak season, informed visitors versus non-informed visitors, highly motivated visitors versus visitors with low motivation. Results show that there is significant heterogeneity in time consumption. This is generated by factors such as traveling with children, cultural proximity, rating of the attraction, and price and time constraints. Some evidence is also found, which suggests first-time visitor and informed visitors have an impact on time consumption.

Keywords: time consumption; duration; historic attractions; sustainable heritage city; sustainable tourism planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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