Positioning UAE archaeological sites in tourism supply chains

Purpose The purpose of this study is to address the relevance of archaeological heritage in the context of supply chains for the tourism industry. It does so by providing converging ideas on the usefulness of individual sites, not in their strict scientific or latent value but as an enhancer for optimizing cultural production in a wider scenario of aggregate demand.Design/methodology/approach While examples from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) illustrate this reasoning, the underlying principles have a widespread application and point to a need for defragmenting and realigning tangible heritage as a key production factor. Methods used consist of an inductive approach, based on secondary sources and semi-structured interviews.Findings Results indicate that, while archaeological resources remain central to the promotion of cultural tourism in the UAE, suppliers face challenges when incorporating particular sites into consumer-friendly packages.Practical implications The study contributes to the identification of common risks and opportunities for archaeological resource management in the development of UAE tourism products.Originality/value This represents an original angle, given the focus on the specific regional, cooperative added value of archaeological resources and the need for optimizing them in a functional supply chain.