“Exploring the link between managing cultural heritage and tourism industry competitiveness: a two country comparison”

Purpose of the Paper – Built cultural heritage, such as museums, are deeply linked totheir locations and have a crucial role to play in tourism developments. Yet, theliterature on museum management is focused upon museums without considering thecompetitiveness of the tourism industry where they are located. This paper will seek toaddress this lacuna, and attempt to connect or link museums management andcompetitiveness in the tourism industry.Design – Two samples (most visited U.K. and Italian museums) will be analysed togetherwith the competitiveness of their (local) tourism industry.Findings – Research findings will allow classifying most visited U.K. and Italian museums in clusters. The comparison will reveal country-specific differences andtourism industry competitiveness of regions of most visited Italian and U.K. museums.Practical Implications – The differences in tourism industry competitiveness and themuseums appeal will enable elaboration of specific strategies for museums and thetourism industry for each identifiable cluster. Originality/value – The link between museum marketing strategies and destinationcompetitiveness has been quite neglected by researchers to date. This paper is a firstattempt to address this gap, with regard to U.K. and Italian context.KEY WORDS museums | tourism destination competitiveness | museum marketingstrategies | tourism industry strategies