Analysis of the sustainability of the patios festival: Intangible heritage of humanity

10th World Conference for Graduate Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, 2 – 7 October 2018, Avanos, Turkey Printed in Turkey. All rights reserved ISBN: 978-605-68389-3-4 Analysis of the sustainability of the patios festival – Intangible heritage of humanity Mª Genoveva Millán Vázquez de la Torre Loyola Andalusia University, Spain E-mail: [email protected] Javier Sánchez-Rivas Seville University, Spain E-mail: Spain; [email protected] Ricardo Hernandez Rojas Córdoba University, Spain E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION Cordoba is a heritage city located in the south of Spain, has four recognitions by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, of which three refer to the material heritage (The "Mosque" recognized in 1984, (Unesco, 1984) , the "Historic Center of the City" (Unesco, 1994), the "Archaeological Site of Medina Azahara" (2018)) and one that is intangible heritage ("the Festival of the Patios" (2012)). With this rich cultural heritage this city is a potential tourist destination, in the segment of cultural tourism. The “patio” as a material part of the house and social area of expansion in certain houses has been evolving from the Roman era to the present, becoming an element of tourist attraction since its inclusion of the “Festival Patios of Córdoba” (FPC) in the Representative List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity (LRPI), promoted by UNESCO, in December 2012 has been a milestone in the celebration of a popular holiday conditioned both by the habitat that welcomes it, the “patios houses” located in the historic center of Córdoba, as for the way of life of those who generate this celebration, the inhabitants of these patio houses. A way of lifehabitusclosely linked, in turn, to said habitat. The patio has generated a growing tourist interest awakened in both national and international markets. This fact implicitly carries with it a responsibility that affects both the organizer of the competition that has retained the Festival during the last eighty years, the town hall, and the generators of the cultural dynamics that make it possible, the inhabitants of patio houses. Currently, the Festival is subject to two tensions: the intense tourist activity that is generated during the days of its celebration in May, and the safeguarding and protection measures that aim to preserve and maintain the heritage resource so as not to exhaust, precisely, its interest tourist. The coordination of these two forces, apparently opposed, should be the objective of those who intend to assume the role of promoter of a 10th World Conference for Graduate Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure 112 management plan of the FPC, since it is, precisely, the capacity of the site to develop a good management tool the aspect in the one that UNESCO puts more emphasis to maintain the inclusion of the good in the LRPI. In this work we will focus on the Patios Festival and its sustainability from the point of view of the Offer, surveying the managers and owners thereof. LITERATURE REVIEW When approaching the bibliographic review of the research work related to the Patios Festival, we can make two subgroups, those that try to analyze the heritage as a tourist resource, where the bibliography is abundant and those that have had as main object of their study the "patio" in Córdoba, or the space, whether domestic or urban, which houses it, includes publications that include reviews of patios as a source of poetic inspiration (Salcedo, 1992); its appearance in the Spanish narrative (Ocaña, 1992); or its use as a scenic resource (Cruz, 1992). They also addressed the law and legal regulation of the use of the patio, itself and the community elements that it hosts, in the houses of neighbors (Palacios, 1992), as well as the patio analyzed from its botanical content as "plant decoration" from an architectural perspective (Escribano, 1956), or the "patio" from the "garden ontology" (Colmenarejo, 2010). However, there is not much scientific literature that analyzes the patio as a tourist resource (Rodriguez, 2017) or the comparison between the patios of different places (Moreira & Galindo, 2015) and they are the authors (Millan et al., 2018; Santa Cruz & Lopez-Guzman, 2018) that analyze the Patios Festival, from the point of view of the demand, analyzing the profile of the tourists and their motivations, but there is little research that analyzes the offer of the tourism of patios, from the perspective of the owner or manager of the yard (Colmenarejo, 2015), this research being his main objective to analyze the sustainability of said Festival from the point of view of the offer. METHODOLOGY The Patios Festival of Cordoba, in the last edition (May 2018) has received half a million visits by 150,000 different people, that is, each person has visited on average three patios and a half, increasing with respect to the previous year, this increase in visitors has had a positive impact on the local economy since the declaration of the Festival of the Patios by Unesco, according to the study of Martin (2013) the income derived from the Patios Festival in 2013 was 4,055 million of euros which has meant an increase of 50.91% compared to 2012, there are no more recent studies in this regard to the economic impact of the Patios Festival. Table 1: Route of the Patios comparative year 2016-2018 Research Papers 113 Patios in contest Route Nº de patios Patios with access for the disabled 2016 2018 Regina-Realejo 9 8 2 (22.2%) Santa Marina-San Agustín 10 10 2 (20.0%) San Lorenzo 8 9 1 (12.5%) SantiagoSan Pedro 8 7 4 (50.0%) JuderiaSan Francisco 7 8 0 (0.0%) Alcazar Viejo 8 8 7 (87.5%) Total Patios Concurso 50 50 16(32.0%) Patios outside of contest Without specific route 13 12 5 (38.46%) TOTAL PATIOS 63 62 21(33.3%) * The values in% represent the proportion of patios with access for the disabled over the total value of each route. Source: own elaboration based on information from the City Council of Córdoba. Table 1 shows the different routes as well as the number of patios that participate in it, highlighting that only 32% of the courtyards that enter the competition have access to be able to be visited by the disabled, compared to 38.6% of those outside of competition, being the accessibility still a problem to be solved in this tourist festival. To know the implication as well as the opinion of the tourist offer, which in this case is formed by the patios that are part of the contest and those that are out of competition, the stakeholders methodology has been used which is widely accepted as valid for its application in tourism and cultural management. Following the theory of stakeholders, the sample analyzed for the field work was formed by the managers or owners of 45 courtyards of the 50 (90%) who participated in the contest in the edition of 2018 and 4 courtyards out of competition of the 12 (33.33%), these interviews were conducted during the months of JanuaryApril 2018 through a questionnaire consisting of 24 questions grouped in 4 blocks (block A: loading capacity of the patio and continuity of the Fiesta de los Patios (number of tourists, opinion on the continuity of the patio, generational change in 10th World Conference for Graduate Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure 114 the care of the patio, etc ...), block B: questions about a certification in sustainability and price (price for visiting the patio, convenience of being in the patio certificate as sustainable, interpretation center of the courtyards, etc.) block C: questions about the current situation of the courtyards and sustainability (opinion about charging a fee to associations of hotels, opinion keep the patio open outside the contest, valuation about the management of the courtyards) block D: questions about the tourists that visit the courtyards, block E: questions about the marketing of the patios. The questionnaires were formed by 4 types of questions: open questions where the interviewee could give his opinion, questions tabulated on a Likert scale, numerical questions, and yes / no binary questions. With the aim of knowing the opinions and concerns of the managers or owners of the courtyards, key people for the proper development of the Fiesta de los Patios de Córdoba, because without them, such a party would be impossible. RESULTS The main results obtained show that the owners of the patios are the agents most involved in the Patios Festival and without them it would be impossible. More than 70% think that the continuity of teaching the patio and its conservation should fall on them and not be assumed by professionals because the essence of the patio would be lost. 20% of the respondents are thinking of not participating in subsequent editions if the number of tourists continues to increase, since the exceeds the capacity of the patio, it deteriorates. More than 80% of the respondents consider it positive to have a certificate indicating that their patio is sustainable, although the remaining 20% consider it is not necessary because they think that the tourist wants to know the traditional way of life of the patio and its maintenance, as well as the resident explaining their way of life. 40% of the respondents think that it would be necessary to charge entrance for seeing the patio, so that the work that is behind each patio is appreciated. More than 92% of the managers or owners of the patios value the management of public administrations as very bad in terms of the sustainability of the patios, and only 20% of the owners participate actively in the decision-making and planning of patios, it should be noted that 98% of court managers consider that the subsidy system needs to be changed to participate in the patios competition, having this value to reflect on the local authorities (City Council), as these owners would end the Patios Festival and we would lose an intangible recognition of Humanity. CONCLUSION The Patios Festival (FPC) has become a tourist attraction for the city of Cordoba, increasing every year the number of tourists, which has not been reflected in income (subsidies routes received by the promoters or managers of the patios for its conservation and maintenance). In keeping with the studies of Millan et al, (2018) and González and LopezGuzman, (2016), the main actors of the patios decide to show the courtyard by Research Papers 115 tradition and why they consider it an intangible value, which indicates that this festival (FPC) must have a symbiotic relationship between its economic value (mainly due to the tourism it attracts) and its heritage value of collective feeling of belonging in the local community that recreates it. The managers of the Patios consider that this party can not be sustainable if it increases the number of visits, because some patios are small and the load capacity is scarce for the number of visits they receive during the days of the festival, not wishing in next editions participate. The Patios Festival in Cordoba is in danger due to the tensions between owners / managers of patios and the city council and commercial organizations that benefit via income from the Patios Festival, with the owners being the most affected, if the subsidy system does not change and these do not receive more help may in the future the Patios Festival is a faint memory of Mention of Intangible Heritage of Humanity that was lost due to lack of coordination and lack of protection of the real protagonist the owner or manager of the Patio. REFERENCES Colmenarejo, R. (2010). Approach to an ontology of the patio. Everyday landscapes to understand the 21st century. Alfa, Journal of the Andalusian Association of Philosophy, XIII (26-27), 359-369. Colmenarejo, R. (2015). Fundamentals for a sustainable tourism management of the Patios Festival in Cordoba. University of Cordoba. Cruz, A. (1992). The patio as a scenic space. Bulletin of The Royal Academy of Cordoba, (121), 319-327. Escribano, V. 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