Diagnosis of downtown shopping centers in tourist-historical cities. The case of the world heritage cities in Spain = Diagnóstico de los centros comerciales abiertos en las ciudades históricas. El caso de las Ciudades Patrimonio de la humanidad en España

The performing of a thorough diagnosis of the maturity degree in the development of Open Commercial Centers (OCC) in UNESCO’s World Heritage Cities in Spain allow us to present new proposals and potential lines of action with regard to energizing and optimizing them. Taking as its starting point this basic goal, this work proposes the application of a solid Evaluation Model that following an analytic logic is able to assess and analyze in depth the current situation of OCCs as well as to identify its most relevant strengths and weaknesses. The specific application of the model to UNESCO’s World Heritage cities has given the chance to present their particular features and peculiarities. From model’s application results it is possible to provide some sound recommendations with regard to improve the identified weaknesses as well as to define the basic lines of action of a Strategic Plan to Energize Commercial Activity at the City Center of Historic Cities improving their competitiveness and capacity to create economic value. This work highlights two of the most relevant problems of OCC: Funding Difficulties and Lack of representativeness. According to the results Business Improvements Districts (BID) might be an interesting public-private formula that will allow solving and speeding up OCC’s paces and internal dynamics providing a solid framework to bargain and execute private agents’ proposals.