Eliciting Public Preferences for Managing Cultural Heritage Sites: Evidence from a Case Study on the Temples of Paestum

This chapter discusses ways of improving the management of cultural heritage sites, focussing on new forms of involvement and public participation based on eliciting public preferences. The problem of an appropriate level of democratic participation needs an integrated approach, capable of bridging the practice of urban design, conservation of the built environment and decision-making support system. This chapter reports results from a survey using conjoint choice approach questions to elicit people’s preferences for cultural heritage management strategies for an outstanding world heritage site: the Temples of Paestum, in Italy. The potential of the above-mentioned methodologies within the current cultural heritage research scenario is also discussed.