Tourism in European heritage cities

Heritage cities attract many visitors, generating benefits and costs. When the costs exceed the benefits, tourism development is no longer sustainable, and interventions become necessary. In order to develop guidelines to help heritage cities manage their tourism more adequately, the tourism market and policy of seven art cities were analyzed: Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Bruges, Florence, Oxford, Salzburg and Venice. It was shown that tourism is menacing not only the vitality of their local economies, but also the integrity of their heritage and the quality of life of their residents. Measures to control and guide visitor flows are urgently needed. In reality, tourism management in the heritage cities does not go much further than promotion.