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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the convergence of private and public sector accounting standards is affecting conceptual and practical issues relating to heritage. More specifically, the paper is intended to provide a better understanding of the state of the art in national and international accounting standards on heritage assets, and of the views influencing such standards.

A qualitative documentary analysis is carried out to explore the variety of existing positions and views on heritage, ranging from the scholarly literature, through potential stakeholders and users, to international and national standard setters.

The analysis shows that the path of convergence between public and private sector standards and practices is still problematic. After more than two decades of debate around the nature, definition, measurement, and reporting of heritage, these issues are far from settled.

In the light of calls for increased measurement and reporting of public sector “assets”, and specifically for the definition of standards to recognise heritage, the paper suggests the need to strongly reconsider whether the convergence between public and private sector standards is desirable, feasible and effective. As such, the risks of embracing simplified or hybrid forms of accounting and reporting for heritage should be more seriously assessed. While reporting on heritage is important, it is fundamental to keep it distinct from reporting on government’s regular operations, in order to appreciate its specific value, nature and features.

Looking at European national standards for heritage, the IPSASB’s proposals, and the reactions to the latter by relevant stakeholders, the paper provides a pluralistic view on the positions and experiences about heritage, contributing to the debate on the convergence between private and public sector accounting standards.

Within the stream of research on public sector accounting standards, heritage asset accounting represents a difficult and challenging issue. This paper intends to join the debate on heritage reporting by carrying out a critical review of the Consultation Paper (CP) “Financial Reporting for Heritage in the Public Sector” issued by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in order to highlight its strengths and weaknesses and to make recommendations.

To this end, the current study adopts document analysis as a qualitative research method by referring to Italy as a typical and critical case study. Moreover, the authors actively took part in the Italian working group on heritage assets reporting, so they are well-informed people about the Italian point of view as well as the broad discussion underpinning the Italian response.

Evidence demonstrates that, although the proposals included in the CP represent a new step towards an organic regulation of heritage asset reporting, if these preliminary views are confronted with the reality of an emblematic context, as in the Italian case, much room for improvement remains regarding the definition, recognition, measurement and disclosure of such assets.

The originality of the paper lies in its contribution to overcoming the current controversial aspects of heritage assets reporting and the issuing of an accounting standard. In doing so, the authors also attempt to answer the call made by Anessi-Pessina et al. (2019) to investigate in detail an individual country experience to better understand the state of the art in national and international accounting standards on heritage assets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the scope, issues and challenges in conceptualizing a comprehensive cultural heritage information system (CHIS) in the Indian context and examines the feasibility of designing such a system with the support of advanced conservation strategies and technological aids.

As the conservation efforts and its sustenance requires the support of a knowledge base cum digital archiving tool, comprehensions on the availability and usage of different software tools are indispensable. Assessing the availability of controlled vocabularies, ontology frameworks, metadata standards, classification schemes and architectural designs, language compatibility for implementing cultural heritage system is inevitable for developing CHIS. The present study examines the availability of such schemes and systems and emphasis the need for developing a reliable information system.

A comprehensive system at the country level to efficiently document, manage and update the knowledge on cultural heritage is required. CHIS created can be engaged in visualizing the cultural heritages of the country and can act as an interactive multimedia documentation system. The virtual recreation of cultural heritage in a holistic manner can also ensure its long-term sustainability.

The digital archive of different expressions will be a rich source of data for research, administration and development. The archive developed should cover the cultural heritage depicted in the form of published documents, images, audios and videos, documents and visuals on performing arts, buildings, sculptures, ecosystem, monuments, utensils, etc. and the history and knowledge pertaining to them and any other property belonging to the heritage.

This book chapter intends to analyse a particular measurement basis, namely the ‘value in use’, regarding its definition and application in the public sector context. To this end, the current study assesses the development of a measurement practice in a particular jurisdiction, that is, Italy, compared with requirements in current International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs), in order to explore its suitability and practicability for a specific category of public sector assets, namely heritage assets.

The purpose of this paper is to overview the current state of affairs of the Indian heritage treasures, which are being identified, restored, preserved and promoted by various organizations at national and international levels with an emphasis on its documentation aspect. Lack of information about the heritage sites, structures and its significance, especially unprotected and unidentified, leads to its permanent loss. One of the prominent measures to safeguard from such irrevocable cultural deprivation is its documentation. Further, the study aims to examine the significant challenges associated with identifying unrevealed heritage assets of the country in the context of its preservation, documentation and promotion. As a suggestive measure, the study aims to propose the need for developing a comprehensive cultural heritage register assisted with technological aids focusing on community participation in taking stock of the heritage items they possess and enable them to effectively document.

The present study extracts the cultural heritage data available with the UNESCO belongs to Indian heritage assets inscribed in its World Heritage portal. The collected data has been analyzed and interpreted to overview the country's recognition at the global level. The data collected from the official portal is further explored and customized to have a lucid account. The details about the organizations and institutions working on heritage conservation and preservation activities in India are also collected. A review of published literature on the related areas has also been performed to identify the issues and challenges associated with the documentation of heritage assets to support this study. The study also included the researcher’s experience in working with cultural heritage documentation.

India holds a substantial quantity of cultural as well as natural heritage items. However, an exhaustive effort to document them at the national level is not being accomplished to its full potential. Many of the assets, inheritances or sites of cultural importance have not been fully identified, preserved or documented; hence, it is unrecalled forever once lost. Some organizations and individuals working on cultural heritage lack clarity in its function and do not follow any common standards in its documentation. For any conservation activity, documentation is prime, and the local community's support is also essential. Means of international collaboration for managing and promoting the heritage are required to be encouraged. Findings of the study demand the need for utilizing digital technologies to assist the documentation process. It emphasizes the requirement of having a web-based single window online gateway where an individual or community can dispense the knowledge and resources they possess hence contributing to heritage conservation, preservation and sustainability.

The study limited to Indian scenario and the data on the heritage sites are collected from UNESCO's World Heritage portal. Only the documentation and promotional aspects of the cultural heritage are discussed. There are many lesser-known and unprotected cultural heritage in different parts of the country with artistic value. The unique characteristics that have not been recorded anywhere are to be documented systematically to reduce the frequency and severity of losses. The implication of the study highlights the present scenario of cultural heritage documentation in India and the need for a comprehensive heritage information gateway supported with a register facility to precisely document and retrieve.

Aspects of culture which are inherited from the past to the present are to be preserved for future generations. Digital archives of cultural heritage and the use of digital tools to document them are effective mechanisms to protect and store the data on endangered heritage items. For any such conservation effort, documentation is its first step. Developing and facilitating access to an exclusive database of cultural heritage at risk boast its sustainability and can be enriched by the involvement of local communities. Public access to such a database would greatly support administrators, tourist departments, culture departments, development administration and conservation activists to gather the details of unprotected heritage items of the country, its present condition, risk of damage, etc. which further helps in its preservation, conservation, sustainability and promotion in a constructive manner.

To the authors' best knowledge, no such single and comprehensive mechanism in the country allow the individuals to contribute to the inventory list holding information about the identified, unprotected and unidentified heritage assets which are having a risk of damage, threat, decay, vulnerable, neglect, lack of use or inappropriate maintenance and development. Developing such a system with technological and data infrastructure helps to pool all the cultural heritage resources under one umbrella. It imparts the value and significance of protecting and promoting heritage inheritances and a safe haven of them from the risk of its chronic loss. The system can also support all the activities related to heritage protection and bring the local community to timely support and initiate such heritage conservation activities.

In recent years, accounting for heritage assets has evolved but continuing the diversity in reporting practices remains problematic. Traditional cash-based budgets are still common in governmental accounting in some countries, but these ignore heritage assets as they are non-realisable and often do not generate revenue. Heritage assets do, however, incur cash outflows. The adoption of accrual accounting for recording heritage assets raises the technical issues of recognition and measurement of such assets, both in the balance sheet and income statements.

This chapter examines the financial reporting environment for heritage assets in New Zealand (NZ). The authors provide evidence on the reporting practices of heritage assets by five of NZ’s significant museums during the period 2011–2020, under IAS 16 and IPSAS 17 requirements. The authors analyse disclosures on heritage assets in the financial reports of these museums, including accounting policies, valuation and measurement, income statement impact, and related notes.

The findings suggest that, despite the existence of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (IAS 16) and International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) (IPSAS 17) reporting standards during this period, a variety of reporting practices exist among NZ museums. For example, heritage assets are recognised either at fair value or historical cost on the balance sheet or not recognised in the financial statements at all. These findings suggest substantial non-uniformity in the actual measurement and reporting of heritage assets. They are of interest to policy-makers and regulators, particularly in countries that are currently considering adoption of IPSAS.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of indigenous heritage rights in Taiwan. It examines how this pursuit is intertwined with the global indigenous movement, national political interests and rising local cultural awareness.

This paper focuses on the rise of indigenous rights in Taiwan by looking at political shifts, indigenous museums and changing frameworks through which heritage is understood. The paper uses two case studies: one is the implementation of a heritage protection law in Taiwan; the other is the launch of indigenous museums.

In Taiwan, heritage is often associated with political ideology, power relations and resource distribution. The development of heritage discourse is inseparable from the international heritage trend as well as the local political situation.

The pursuit of indigenous heritage rights in Taiwan is supported on the one hand by the government so as to define a distinctive Taiwanese culture and on the other to meet the demands of Taiwan’s indigenous movement. Two case studies are provided to examine the pros and cons of current indigenous heritage projects in Taiwan.

This study aimed to explore how the attributes of heritage destinations become constraints on tourists' intention to revisit these destinations and to provide stakeholders with strategies to mitigate travel constraints, thereby increasing tourists' revisit intention.

A quantitative research approach was used, and data collection utilised a convenience sampling method. A total of 1,250 tourists completed self-administered, on-site surveys. To analyse the collected data effectively and to test hypotheses, multilevel analysis models were created.

Heritage-destination attributes are found to mediate the impact of perceived constraints on tourists' intention to revisit heritage destinations. Positive perceptions of heritage and cultural attractions among tourists can mitigate the adverse effects of constraints on their intentions.

This study only focused on examining the downward cross-level impact, i.e. from the macro level to the individual level. This could be beneficial for exploring an upward cross-level impact.

The findings provide strategic guidance for marketing programs to enhance the reputation of heritage destinations. By identifying and establishing attributes specific to heritage destinations that visitors perceive as the most appealing, program designers can effectively target their efforts. Additionally, the findings help stakeholders of heritage destinations develop and provide suitable heritage and cultural attractions and tourism infrastructure in line with tourists' preferences.

This study employed a multilevel approach to examine how heritage-destination attributes and related constraints on travelling on impact individuals' intentions to revisit destinations. The study considered a macro-based perspective to analyse these effects.

The national identity scale (NATID) was recently reported in the literature for identifying the core elements that define the uniqueness of a given culture or nation in so far as their association with marketing is concerned. This study examined the conceptual strengths and empirical limitations of NATID, and assessed the relevance of the national identity construct in Yemen. Confirmatory factor analysis of the data from a sample of 208 Yemeni respondents revealed that the NATID scale did not fit the Yemeni data. Modification of the scale was made through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which resulted in four dimensions in two alternative models similar to NATID. Results from the second‐order confirmatory factor analysis of the two alternative models supported NATID’s multi‐dimensionality of the national identity construct in the Yemeni context. Implications for future research are discussed and limitations noted.

Natural disasters exert a continual toll not only on property and public infrastructure, but also on places and items of cultural heritage value. Whereas infrastructure and modern buildings can be rebuilt, archaeological and heritage sites cannot be restored without loss of integrity and authenticity. Often, the impact of management decisions during and following a disaster is greater than the physical impact of the disaster itself. Aims to assess attitudinal barriers that may exist among disaster management professionals, a study of local controllers of the state emergency service of New South Wales (Australia).

All local controllers of the state emergency service of New South Wales were surveyed by a mail‐out questionnaire as to their knowledge of cultural heritage and their attitudes to the protection of cultural heritage assets during bushfires.

Key areas identified are a general lack of awareness of the special needs of heritage places, a lack of communication between emergency and heritage managers; an acknowledged need for but decided absence of disaster planning for cultural heritage assets; and a need for training and education.

The study considered the local controllers of the state emergency service of New South Wales. Given the observed attitudinal barriers, there is a need for future research looking at the attitudes held by the various levels in the vertical decision making and authority tree.

The awareness of SES controllers regarding cultural heritage in disaster situations needs to be improved as are the communication channels both in the disaster preparedness and the disaster response phase.

This is the first time research has been carried out into assessing the attitudes and awareness of local controllers of the state emergency service of New South Wales with respect to cultural heritage asset management.