Heritage Valuation Driving Sustainability of Cultural Capital in Bishnupur in Eastern India

Abstract

Cultural heritage of a country represents an array of monuments, historic buildings, arts and crafts, indigenous skills and traditions. The emerging threats to the cultural resources by way of decay, loss or destruction, has become a prime concern today. Heritage has become one of the vital components of tourism industry. It is being considered as cultural capital. The process of valuation of this capital is very complex since Heritage is basically a nonmarketed good. Different techniques used for valuating environmental resources which are similar in nature to Heritage, have led to the development of economic valuation models especially for valuation of Heritage as cultural assets. This economic approach has helped to derive the real value of heritage sites by way of consumer’s surplus and consumer’s willingness to pay for the use of cultural heritage assets and sustain sites for future generations.