Intangibles - enhancing access to cities cultural heritage through interpretation

Heritage-related activities are fundamental for the overall tourism experience. Destinations have recognized this and cultural heritage is directly or indirectly playing an important role in their tourism strategies. In particular in destination positioning, where destinations aim to evoke ideally unique images in peoples mind, cultural heritage enables them to do so. These unique images and imaginations can be created using both, tangible and intangible elements. Nevertheless there is still a lack of understanding of the intangibles and their valorization for tourism strategies. This paper focuses on the identification of cultural heritage, in particular its intangible aspects and stories worthwhile to be told, within a destination. It outlines the development of an interpretative strategy independent from, but aligned with, the current marketing and positioning strategy development level on the examples of three cities (Amsterdam, Genoa and Leipzig).