ECONOMICS UNIQUENESS

MAPPING HERITAGE ECONOMICS FOR SPATIAL ANALYSIS ■ 281
Paris (33), and Lyon (37) (http://www.mercer.com/articles/quality-of-living-surveyreport-2010).
8. Th e Vieux Lyon quarter in France (Old Lyon, World Heritage Site since 1998) covers
74 acres (30 hectares), including 500 buildings, 3,000 housing units, and 7,000
residents. Th is represents a high use value for the city and its residents. Most buildings
are used for housing, but Old Lyon includes other economic functions: hotels,
restaurants, retail shops, offi ces, and cultural venues. As a whole, the historic city core
provides many services to its inhabitants: job opportunities; commercial options; cultural
activities and administrative, health, and education services. With a particularly
high rate of occupancy, heritage buildings play a very important role in promoting the
city’s growth and welfare.
9. Rome remains one of the top destinations for tourism in Italy. Th e number of visitors
(mostly related to heritage sites) was 29.7 million in 2008, of which 43 percent were
from Italy and 57 percent from abroad. Th ese visitors provide substantial revenues
in terms of admission fees to access monuments and heritage sites. More than half of
the visits are estimated to be free of charge, which leaves a huge potential consumer
surplus (= amount of consumers who benefi t for free). Th e Cathedral of Notre-Dame,
in Paris, a World Heritage city since 1991, is the most visited monument in France. It
is noteworthy that the two most visited monuments in Paris are Notre-Dame and the
Basilique du Sacré-Coeur (respectively, 13.6 and 10.5 million visitors in 2007) (Offi ce
de Tourisme de Paris). Th e Eiff el Tower comes third, and charges for the visit, which
is not the case for both churches.
10. An alternative way to display values is drawing bubbles centered on the spot that is
measured. Th e bubble radius is proportional to the number of visitors and represents
the attractiveness of the place. Similar tools can be applied to commercial activities,
indicative of a commercial buff er zone.
11. Inhabitants of the Mont-Saint-Michel in France (a few dozens in the last census)
experience simultaneously positive and negative externalities: residents enjoy the
setting as a wonderful living place and are annoyed by tourists. Both externalities
need public regulations. On one hand, the setting is protected to maintain positive
externalities, and these regulations are sometimes considered as a burden for inhabitants.
On the other hand, the mass of tourism has to be regulated to avoid exposing
the monument to undue risks, and these regulations are sometimes considered as a
burden for visitors.
12. When an annual event is organized to enhance the city heritage, privately owned
buildings are exceptionally open to the public. Most of the visitors are city residents
and meet for that occasion in restaurants and cafes in the city. Impacts on the local
economy of this heritage-related initiative could be measured through food and
drink expenditures, those in excess of the regular daily sales.
13. Macroeconomics is oft en connected to John Maynard Keynes, who set the general
principles of this discipline in the 1930s. Keynes also advocated for strong public
interventions in the economy. Th is principle seems consistent with a public goods
approach to conservation.
14. It is unclear how accurate the spatial identifi cation and mapping of these outcomes
from development and conservation projects can be. Although they represent increasing
economic values for the city inhabitants, they are not totally linked to heritage
policy, and are not always identifi able spatially.