Cultural heritage experiences in the twin transition: promoting sustainable visitor behaviours

The role of cultural heritage in inspiring action for climate mitigation and sustainable futures is an emerging area of research (JPI Cultural Heritage & JPI Climate, 2022). Visitors represent an important target audience for raising awareness and encouraging behavioural change towards more sustainable practices to protect cultural heritage, reduce environmental impacts and reach climate neutrality goals (Potts, 2021; Markham et al., 2016). Promoting sustainable visitor behaviours for the conservation of cultural heritage and the environment is thus a strategic priority for cultural heritage institutions, but remains challenging, particularly with regard to how sustainable behaviours can be integrated in the design of visitor-centred experiences (Ardoin, Schuh, and Khalil, 2016). With the aim to contribute to the debate in this field, this presentation focuses on how to promote sustainable visitor behaviours through cultural heritage experiences from the twin transition perspective. It provides insights into the understanding of sustainable visitor behaviours, key antecedents identified by literature and the opportunities offered by digital technologies. Building on an experience design approach (Tussyadiah, 2014, 2017), guiding principles are presented for designing experiences involving digital technologies that are effective in encouraging and engaging visitors in sustainable behaviours.