Tourism Development through the Sense of UNESCO World Heritage: The Case of Hegra, Saudi Arabia
Sara Sampieri,
Abdellah Saoualih,
Larbi Safaa,
Fernando Martinez de Carnero Calzada,
Marco Ramazzotti,
Agustín Martínez-Peláez
Affiliations
Sara Sampieri
Programa de Doctorado en Turismo, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Madrid, Spain
Abdellah Saoualih
Laboratory of Applied Sciences for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Higher School of Technology Essaouira, Cadi Ayyad University, Km 9, Route d’Agadir, BP. 383, Essaouira 40000, Morocco
Larbi Safaa
Laboratory of Applied Sciences for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Higher School of Technology Essaouira, Cadi Ayyad University, Km 9, Route d’Agadir, BP. 383, Essaouira 40000, Morocco
Fernando Martinez de Carnero Calzada
Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies, Sapienza University, 00185 Rome, Italy
Marco Ramazzotti
Department of Science of Antiquities, Sapienza University, 00185 Rome, Italy
Agustín Martínez-Peláez
HIEART Grupo de Investigación Historia, Iconografía y Economía del Arte, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Madrid, Spain
This study explores the perception of a “sense of place” among tourists visiting Hegra, an archaeological site in northern Saudi Arabia, through reviews on TripAdvisor. The 267 reviews on TripAdvisor between 2020 and 2023 were analyzed using the VADER sentiment polarity analysis tool and object modeling using the NMF machine learning algorithm. The results highlight positive factors linked to the history and uniqueness of the place while showing some critical issues related to isolation, cost, privatization, and competitiveness. The originality of the research lies in the type of case study chosen, an archaeological site of a country that has recently opened its doors to tourism, and in the pragmatic nature of the investigation, oriented towards the search for possible solutions to be adopted in terms of heritage management based on the feedback received for the development of the tourist destination.
