The role of cultural heritage in country image research. Proposal and testing of a cultural heritage image (CHEI) scale.

This study focuses on the proposal and testing of a cultural heritage image scale (CHI), defined as the system of beliefs, opinions and images connected to the cultural heritage of a country. The scale development process has been conducted through three phases: a) an item generation stage based on a content analysis of the institutional web communication of cultural heritage carried out by 10 countries; b) an item purification stage, including on an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on a survey on the perception of the cultural heritage of 5 countries; c) an item validation stage, encompassing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the measurement scales identified in the exploratory step. Results identified a total of 5 factors and 17 items underlying the cultural heritage image of a nation.