Effective Use of Authenticity Value as a Catalyst for Coastal Intermediate Cities Development: A Case of Al-Quseir City, Egypt

Abstract

The concept of Authenticity refers to a property's ability to ensure, preserve,and sustain its cultural value over time. In recent years, the UNESCO WorldHeritage Center has worked to create a conceptual framework that would providecriteria for evaluating, conserving, and managing urban heritage. Coastal cities areattractive destinations for both inhabitants and visitors all over the world. Further,intermediate coastal cities are considered to have a critical and significant basis indeveloping substantial economic and social interactions. Therefore, this researchaims to examine the potentials and values of intermediate coastal cities in Egypt toidentify practical guidelines that may efficiently enhance cities' development takingAl-Quseir city as a case study, one of the most promising coastal cities. Based onprofound theoretical and analytical studies, the authenticity concept was studiedand analyzed composing a list of indicators that illustrate the value of coastal cities.Followed by an analysis of Al-Quseir city and examining it against the authenticityadopted indicators. In addition to evaluating the Al-Quseir strategic plan todetermine to what extent it contributes to enhancing the value of the city'sauthenticity. Moreover, this study will offer an assessment framework by which thedevelopment of Al-Quseir city could be assessed.