Sustainable tourism research has attracted wide interest from scholars and practitioners. While several heritage sites are mandated to provide optimum visitor satisfaction with increasing competition in the market, managers of heritage sites face growing challenges in striking a balance between consumption and conservation. This calls for promoting more sustainable behaviours among consumers of heritage. This study proposes a conceptualization of sustainable behaviour for heritage consumers. Using the attitude–behaviour relationship underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action, it develops and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates visitors’ heritage experiences, their attachment to heritage sites, and their general and site-specific sustainable heritage behaviour and presents their interrelationships as proposed hypotheses. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for heritage site managers are discussed.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse online reviews to explore the experiences of tourists related to cultural attractions. Furthermore, the study identifies similarities and differences between cultural attractions and identifies tourists’ preferences.Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis and principal component analysis are applied to 12.592 online reviews, in Italian, posted on TripAdvisor by tourists who visited 58 cultural attractions of Naples (Italy) between 2011 and 2014.Findings: Findings reveal five critical components of tourists’ experience related to cultural attractions: wonder, authenticity, relaxation, discovery and knowledge. Findings show that tourists can interpret cultural attractions in different ways.Research limitations/implications: This study makes advancements on the relationships between tourists’ experience and cultural attractions. Research limitations are related to the geographical context and to the database, which presents a strong standardisation of evaluations, almost never negative. Furthermore, the analysis is limited to online reviews written in Italian language. Future studies will be dedicated to explore reviews in other languages and on other cultural destinations.Practical implications: The study draws managerial implications at local and general level. Locally, findings provide suggestions and practical implications to support the tourism policies and marketing of Naples. At general level, the paper provides implications for destination manager organisations and policy makers to strengthen the attractiveness of cultural attractions, develop destination marketing strategies and offer more satisfying cultural experiences.Originality/value: This is one of the first studies that uses online reviews to explore the experiences of tourists who visit cultural attractions.