Publication Details
Abstract
Innovation is widely presented as the principal instrument for renewing cultural heritage tourism, yet the evidence supporting this claim remains dispersed across technology-acceptance research, heritage-management studies and destination economics. This paper systematically reviews sixty peer-reviewed studies published between 2005 and 2026 in high ranking journals, coding each source across eight analytical fields: innovation form, technology, theoretical framework, research design, geographical setting, antecedents, stakeholder configuration and measured outcomes. Product and service innovation dominates the field, accounting for 40 of 60 studies (66.7 %), while process, organisational, institutional and business-model innovation together account for 27 codes. Technology-based innovation is examined in 33 studies (55.0 %), with augmented reality (20) and virtual reality (16) the most frequent applications. The review identifies three systematic weaknesses in the evidence base. First, innovation itself is operationalised as a measurable construct in only 11 studies (18.3 %); elsewhere it is treated as an undefined background condition. Second, only 40.0 % of the studies apply a named theory, and the applied frameworks are concentrated in individual-level acceptance models rather than organisational or systemic theories of innovation. Third, and most consequentially, an experience-economics gap is documented: technology-based studies measure visitor experience in 81.8 % and behavioural intention in 57.6 % of cases, but revenue in only 18.2 % and employment in 6.1 %, and just two studies (3.3 %) report a monetary or employment figure attributable to an innovation. An integrative framework linking antecedents, innovation forms and a two-layer outcome structure is proposed, and a research agenda addressing measurement, economic attribution and theoretical consolidation is set out.