Heritage, Territory and Tourism: A Social Networks Analysis (SNA) Perspective

Abstract

The capacity for activation and use of cultural heritage as a key element of a tourist destination depends on the capacity for articulation of the networks of actors involved in a given heritage-based tourist destination. The study analyses the relational structure of stakeholder networks in three cultural tourism destinations using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The analytical interest is focused on the degree centrality indicator for sociocentric networks and asymmetric relationships, which allow obtaining the input centrality (prestige) and output centrality (influence). The results obtained strengthen three ideas: firstly, that there is a direct relationship between relational dynamics and the development of tourist destinations; secondly, that the relational structure is transformed as tourist destinations evolve; and thirdly, that there is a correlation between the number of actors with high centrality and the development of tourist destinations. The study contributes to responding to the demand in the literature regarding the need to increase the number of comparative studies linking relational structure with the development of tourist destinations. The interest of the case studies is based on the fact that despite having similar geographical, demographic, heritage and economic characteristics, which would minimize possible differences in terms of tourism results, they have different tourism developments.