Perception of students and their households regarding the community role in urban heritage conservation in Saudi Arabia

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University's students and their household members about cultural heritage conservation in selected cities of Saudi Arabia. Cultural heritage conservation is increasingly important for sustainable tourism management, especially in Saudi Arabia that sets out to promote international tourism. However, a lack of awareness of heritage values among the local community could hinder the conservation efforts. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire (n = 168) was employed for data collection and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings The finding of the t-test analysis indicates significant statistical relationship between occupation and community involvement (P (T <= t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05), and between educational level and community involvement (P (T <= t) one-tail = 0.0047 and two-tail = 0.0093, p < 0.05). The findings reveal that although almost more than half (54.2%) of the participants were students, 56.0% and 54.9% did not believe in participating and considering heritage conservation a national duty, respectively, while 57.1% of the public employees, 57.6% of the private employees, and 66.7% of the housewives indicate that they can personally participate in cultural heritage conservation and believed it to be a national duty. Originality/value The study concludes that cultural heritage courses should be offered as a core courses for college students in order to instill the importance of cultural heritage conservation in their minds.