Journal of Cultural Heritage 30 (2018) 180–189 Available online at ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com Original article The Altamira controversy: Assessing the economic impact of a world heritage site for planning and tourism management Eva Parga Dans a,b,∗ , Pablo Alonso González c a Group of Territorial Studies (GET), Sociology Faculty, University of A Coru˜ na, Campus de Elvi˜ na, 15071 A Coru˜ na, Spain b CICS.NOVA, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, avenue de Berna, 26-C, 1069-061 Lisbon, Portugal c Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (IPNA-CSIC), Avda. Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez, 3, 38206 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife–Islas Canarias, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 April 2017 Accepted 13 September 2017 Available online 12 October 2017 Keywords: Altamira world heritage site Cultural heritage Social value Input-output analysis a b s t r a c t This paper is the first report of a large research project for the preventive conservation and tourism management of the Altamira World Heritage site that was conducted from 2012 to 2014 and focused on a key feature of the project estimating the potential economic impacts of reopening the Altamira cave to the public. The study analyzed the direct and indirect economic impacts of visitors to Altamira on the regional economy of Cantabria, a Spanish Autonomous Community. Using an input-output method (IO), we estimated the values accrued to the region. This study provides the scientific foundation for the development of an effective tourism management program for the Altamira Complex, analyzing the impact of its access regime and offering policy recommendations on the broader regional economic impact of Altamira. © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper is the first delivery of a large research project entitled Programa de Investigación para la Conservación Preventiva y Régimen de Acceso a la Cueva de Altamira, 2012–2014 (Research Program for the Preventive Conservation of and Access Regime for the Altamira Cave, 2012–2014, or PROALT) 1 conducted by the Government of Spain’s State Secretariat for Culture and Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD). The project’s overall objective is to estimate the impact of human presence upon the conservation of Altamira Cave, a paleolithic-era cave that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. The cave has been closed and reopened in various occasions during the last four decades, and it was again closed temporary to the public in 2012 out of concern for the impact visitors were having on the prehistoric paintings in the cave. This project therefore seeks to determine whether the effective con- servation of Altamira is compatible with the implementation of a ∗ Corresponding author at: Corresponding author. Group of Territorial Studies (GET), Sociology Faculty, University of A Coru ˜ na, Campus de Elvi ˜ na, 15071, A Coru ˜ na, Spain. E-mail addresses: eva.parga.dans@udc.es ( E. Parga Dans), pabloag10@hotmail.com (P. Alonso González). 1 PROALT: Programa de Investigación para la Conservación Preventiva y Régi- men de Acceso a la Cueva de Altamira, 2012-2014. Project website: http://ipce. mcu.es/portada/destacado68.html. tourism management plan and visitor regime if these are articu- lated through a preventive conservation plan. This paper focuses on an essential part of that project, namely, estimating the potential economic benefits of reopening the cave by studying the direct and indirect economic impact of visitors on the regional economy of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, where the Altamira Cave is located (see Fig. 1). The so-called “Altamira Complex” (AC) is a set of heritage assets and institutions that comprise the National Museum and Altamira Research Center, the original Cave and the Neocueva (Neo-cave), a precise, scientifically accurate three-dimensional reproduction of the original cave [1] (see Fig. 2). As a result of our investigation (2012 to 2014), a phase of experimental visits to the Cave was ini- tiated under a controlled access regime in which a group of five random visitors were allowed entry per week under strict clothing and lighting protocols to facilitate the study (see Fig. 3). The infor- mation gathered in this investigation is intended to facilitate the development of policy guidelines and generate recommendations for mitigating and/or resolving the controversy that has surrounded Altamira and confronted its stakeholders for years. Here, as in most heritage projects, the range of stakeholders spans the local com- munity of Santillana del Mar, scientists, curators, politicians and tourism operators as well as all classes of visitors [2]. The Altamira Cave has become famous worldwide when it was fortuitously discovered in 1868 and the controversy about its authenticity ensued. That history was brought to the big screen in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2017.09.007 1296-2074/© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.