Tourism sustainability in archaeological sites

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine a model for developing sustainable tourism in archaeological sites. A qualitative and quantitative approach has been assumed in order to test a model of market orientation, where 11 experts were interviewed and 122 employees of archaeological sites answered the e-questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares path modelling regression was employed to examine the measurement and structural model. Findings The findings have revealed that market orientation and innovativeness positively and significantly influence tourism sustainability, measured in economic and social terms. Besides, tourist functionality has been determined as an antecedent of market orientation. Research limitations/implications This study is limited by the sample sizes of both researches. The model has second order constructs (market orientation, innovativeness and tourism sustainability) that include related concepts to increase parsimony and understand relations with other variables. As a result, separate effects of these dimensions have not been measured, which could report interesting findings in future-related studies. Practical implications The results suggest useful insights for managers to improve social and economic sustainability in archaeological sites. Innovativeness affects tourism sustainability, which reinforces the idea that offering technological and organisational innovations improve economic and social sustainability. Besides, it has been proved that market orientation is a necessary precondition to guarantee social and economic sustainability. Originality/value This paper assists scholars and practitioners by shedding light on the comprehension of tourism sustainability.