Multicolored or Black and White

The synergy cultural heritage has been a tradition that is developed during the last decades. Once realized its importance, most European countries made cultural heritage a public good. Different cultural practices have been used by countries to market their nation or their cities. This research will focus on one specific part of the appreciation of cultural heritage, the UNESCO World Heritage status. If a site is included on the World Heritage List it can be used to attract investors and investments but also to improve the image of the city. There are well known sites who succeeded significantly in using this status for their own benefits – Machu Picchu and the Acropolis – and others are still struggling with the exploitation of such a cultural brand. Within this framework, this research tried to carry out a comprehensive study to investigate to what extend the UNESCO World Heritage status of the capital city of Curacao – Willemstad – had any affects on the tourism on Curacao. Mixed methods were used to investigate the awareness among tourists, and different categories of involved stakeholders were interviewed. The goal was to see how the tourists and different stakeholders perceive the World Heritage City Willemstad. It was concluded that the knowledge among the tourists about the World Heritage status is very low, and when they do know they are not triggered to explore this special feature of the city – so far the status did not generate extra (economic) benefits for the island. On the other hand, the involved stakeholders are all aware of the uniqueness of the city but fail to exploit it. Some limitations were pointed out and recommendations for future research were made.