Paper Title
Sustainable Heritage Villages� Development in Saudi Arabia: Public Perception and Survey Analysis
Abstract
This paper describes a study designed to assess the public�s perception of sustainable heritage villages with many historical facilities in a developing economy. The case study city used is Albaha city in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. The research determines and identifies factors that influence the development of heritage villages in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the impact of heritage and historical facilities and tourism to the local economy, the current conditions of heritage villages, and the public�s perception of heritage and tourism in Saudi Arabia. Hence, a public survey analysis was the main research method applied for the study. Survey Monkey tool was employed to distribute and administer the study, to obtain a high number of responses and to analyze the results efficiently; data was then collated and analyze by Microsoft Excel. A large number of respondents completed the survey (over 500 respondents). The key factors identified concerning the development of heritage villages in Saudi Arabia were the lack of public awareness of the under exploitation of historical facilities, and the current poor conditions of heritage village in Saudi Arabia. These findings present an opportunity to guide the development of heritage sites to increase the economic income from tourism.
Keywords� Sustainable heritage; heritage developments; public perception; historical facilities