Is UNESCO the Best Travel Agent for a Country?

This study studies the relationship between tourism demand across countries and the number of UNESCO properties. In defining the connection, a linear functional form of the regression model is utilized, taking the year 2012 as the base of the study. The sample includes 50 countries, the most important 10 countries regarding the number of foreign tourists from each geographical region: Europe, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. In order to isolate the effect of other factors over the number of foreign tourists we used some control variables: sea, mountain, business center, civil and political rights, and proximity towards the main countries that generate tourists. According to the estimations, the number of UNESCO sites is the most representative explanatory variable.