The Historic Center of Jeddah: Linking Tangible and Intangible Heritage in a Heritage Tourism Inventory Framework: A Proposal for Studying Historic Urban Areas

The historic center of Jeddah is an area rich in both tangible and intangible resources that highlight its significant cultural and traditional heritage. This study introduces a Heritage Tourism Inventory Framework (HTIF) that integrates both types of heritage assets into a comprehensive GIS-based inventory. The framework was developed by synthesizing information from heritage tourism and inventory literature, classifying heritage resources, employing GIS-based spatial documentation methods, and conceptually designing a database capable of recording and presenting both tangible and intangible heritage values within a tourism context. The results identified a comprehensive range of tangible heritage assets, including residential, religious, commercial, institutional, and public heritage resources, along with associated intangible heritage values such as pilgrimage traditions, religious practices, craftsmanship, hospitality, merchant culture, food heritage, and collective memory. These resources were integrated into a standardized inventory database using a place-based approach that spatially links intangible heritage to the locations where cultural practices are performed or maintained. The proposed HTIF expands conventional heritage inventories by integrating tangible and intangible heritage within a unified spatial framework, thereby providing a more comprehensive representation of historic urban landscapes. The framework contributes to heritage tourism research by offering a transferable methodology for heritage documentation while supporting heritage conservation, tourism planning, visitor interpretation, cultural route development, and digital heritage management.