ECONOMICS UNIQUENESS

274 ■ THE ECONOMICS OF UNIQUENESS
An additional issue is that the city may fail to capture the benefi ts of indirect
and induced outcomes from tourism. 17 Spatial analysis will help local authorities
to organize the growth of indirect use values, to keep as much economic
value as possible contained in the city, and to ensure that fi scal revenues are
collected locally.
• Th ere are few use values related to impacts on the local economy in general.
Poor private or public initiatives in conservation, or in the enhancement of
the heritage, ensues little macroeconomic impact in terms of income or jobs.
However, the main reason for feeble economic impact is because benefi ts are
captured mostly by non-residents.
Local authorities strive to keep as much economic values as possible within
the city. A historic city core loses its use values when residents drive
out of the city for shopping, when tourists cannot fi nd lodging or dining
places in the city, when activities in the city are managed by non-resident
individuals or companies, when goods and services are imported, when
conservation jobs go to non-local workers, and when the tax on heritage
properties or the admission fees do not benefi t the city budget.
Leakages do not reduce heritage economic value, they just displace them and
shift them to other benefi ciaries. In this case, the solution is to redirect values
to the benefi t of the city, aft er fi rst measuring the size of the leakages. A better
knowledge of such losses—for example, how much fi scal revenue is generated
by an archaeological monument or city heritage to the benefi t of the national
budget—can help city administrators in political negotiations with other levels
of government. Other means are increasing the propensity of inhabitants
to consume inside the city, reallocating tax income (e.g., transfer payments,
public expenditures, investment), maintaining jobs in the city, and enticing
businesses to stay in the city. 18
Case Study: The World Heritage City of Djenné in Mali
A test case for Djenné, Mali, a listed World Heritage Site since 1988, aimed to
collect data to test the mapping technique, with the purpose of showing the distribution
of the economic value of Djenné’s heritage. Th e ancient town of Djenné
is located 600 kilometers northeast of Bamako, the capital of Mali, West Africa,
and has a population of about 20,000 inhabitants (2008 estimate). It receives
roughly 15,000 tourists per year, of which 3,000 stay overnight in the town (2008
estimate).
Djenné’s earthen architectural style refl ects centuries of acquired knowledge,
building know-how, traditions, and lifeways of its populations. Th e
organic character of its earthen architecture is in harmony with its surrounding