Heritage-led Growth in Europe: an die Freude of Economics and Marketing

National growth is affected by culture and cultural tourism. Macroeconomic data can give evidence of the heritage-led-growth. The Government spends for heritage (public expenditure for culture). Citizens and tourists generate the private expenditure for culture. International tourists lead growth thanks to flows of ‘Made in’. Heritage promotion can improve thanks to marketing. Marketing and branding put in touch places and organizations with visitors and tourists, helping them to know and understand each other. The purpose of the paper is to highlight differentiated patterns of growth thanks to cluster analysis of EU-27 data for GDP, public and private expenditures for culture, international tourism receipts and foreign trade. The most crowded cluster is An die Zauber-Freude with the highest GDP growth, the second highest public and private expenditure for culture, international tourism receipts and increasing exports. Here, the competitive advantage is supported by marketing and Unesco branding which enable the heritage-led-growth.